We go through the year map by map to find the most versatile player of 2022.

Who has stood out in 2022 as the best individual player? Follow Pley.gg in the coming days, where we go in-depth with all the maps and celebrate the most versatile player of the year.

In this list, you will find the best 10 players of Mirage. A spot as number 1 gives you 10 points for the overall ranking, where we combine the seven most-played maps of the year to find the most versatile player. Here we celebrate the ability to perform well on different maps.

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We have used the following metrics in our ranking:

HLTV rating vs top 30 teams in all matches in 2022 with a minimum of 10 maps played.

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Most versatile player of the year: (Inferno, Overpass, Ancient, Mirage)

Tomorrow we take a look at Vertigo and Dust2!

rigoN

s1mple

Ax1Le

Bad News Eagles were the fairytale story of the last Major in Antwerp, where the org-less roster impressed many around the world.

Today they did it again! In the last elimination match of Group A, Bad News Eagles won against forZe. It took them all three maps to get the job done, but in the end, they finished off forZe in style on Mirage by winning 16-4!

A world-class performance from Rigon 'rigoN' Gashi elevated Bad News Eagles to the win on Mirage. 

Bad News Eagles - forZe 2-1 | IEM Road to Rio RMR (Group A)

With the win Group A is almost done. Tomorrow Spirit and Cloud9 will battle for the last legend spot in Group A.

Bad News Eagles

forZe

After seeing Spirit qualify for the playoffs, Na'Vi and NIP now had the chance to do the same. After going 2-0 on Day 1 the two teams were hoping for a clean run through the Swiss Stage.

Na'Vi had a fantastic start to their opponents' map pick of Inferno. The CIS squad went in front 9-1 despite heavy resistance from "es3tag". The other Ninjas finally stepped up and the Scandinavians managed to take an acceptable five rounds before the break.

Changing sides did not bring more fortune for the Ninjas as they only managed to stop the Na'Vi offense a single time. Throughout the map, the trio of "s1mple", "b1t", and "Perfecto" was simply too much to handle for NIP.

Na'Vi looked to make a statement against the Ninjas as they capitalized on their momentum from Inferno to take a 6-0 lead on the second map of Mirage. "hampus" and co. somehow recovered from that devastating start and ended the half behind by only one round.

The CIS squad led almost the entirety of the map, and it seemed like a certainty that they were going to win it, but the perseverance of the Ninjas and the calls of "hampus" led to a surprising 16-14 in favor of the Scandinavians.

After their great Mirage, NIP struggled on the T side of Ancient. They conceded the first eight rounds of the map before they themselves put one on the board. "Brollan" and "hampus" were able to find some good openings for the team, but at the end of the day that only translated to two rounds at halftime.

The map was over after five second-half rounds as NIP could not stand up to the CIS giants of Na'Vi.

Na'Vi unsurprisingly qualify for the playoffs while NIP will have to try their luck again tomorrow.

Na'Vi - NIP 2-1 | PGL Major Antwerp Legends Stage

16-6 (Inferno) | {cflag:UA} s1mple - 1.70 Rating / 23-15 K-D / 120.5 ADR

14-16 (Mirage) | {cflag:UA} b1t - 1.49 Rating / 29-20 K-D / 107.3 ADR

16-4 (Ancient) | flag Perfecto - 1.55 Rating / 21-10 K-D / 98.5 ADR

MVP: {cflag:UA} Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy - 1.48 Rating / 71-44 K-D / 102.9 ADR

, the Bad News Eagles and Imperial fought for survival.

The match started on Imperial's pick of Inferno where only a single round separated the teams at halftime. 

Imperial, who had started as the terrorists, looked more convincing on the defensive side as they were able to make good reads with some aggressive maneuvers. "fer" also stepped up his game which helped the Brazilians win on their map pick.

On their map pick of Mirage, the Eagles managed to take their first pistol round of the series but were immediately shut down by a seven-round streak from the Brazilians, that had "boltz" and "fer" written all over it. The Kosovars managed to pull a few rounds back and were only behind by five at halftime.

The Brazilians quickly pushed the lead to 14-7 and things were looking bleak for the Eagles. But like the click of a button, all of a sudden the Eagles were turned on. Things started working out for them, most of all on an individual level. Especially "rigoN" came alive and boosted his team's chances massively. In the end, the Eagles fell just short of the mark after pushing the map to its 30th round.

The historic performance of bNE, therefore, comes to a close as they go 0-3 in the Legends Stage. On the other side Imperial stave off elimination and hope to make the reverse sweep.

Bad News Eagles - Imperial 0-2 | PGL Major Antwerp Legends Stage

13-16 (Inferno) | {cflag:BR} fer - 1.55 Rating / 26-16 K-D / 102.3 ADR

14-16 (Mirage) | {cflag:BR} fer - 1.40 Rating / 24-17 K-D / 77.7 ADR

MVP: {cflag:BR} Fernando "fer" Alvarenga - 1.47 Rating / 50-33 K-D / 89.8 ADR

es3tag

boltz

Perfecto

Natus Vincere

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Imperial

It was all-or-nothing for both MIBR and Bad News Eagles on the fourth and final day of the Challengers Stage at PGL Antwerpen Major.

For Bad News Eagles the match started brilliantly with Rigon "rigoN" Gashi’s crisp USB, who took down four MIBR players in six shots in round one. A performance that pushed his teammates to a stellar first half that left MIBR with a mountain to climb going down 11-4 on their own map pick, Nuke. But then it was MIBR’s turn on the CT side. And suddenly the momentum shifted and the Brazilians ran over the Balkan roster and stole away the map with a 16-13 win.

On Ancient it was again Bad News Eagles who started best. Dionis 'sinnopsyy' Budeci gave a monster performance to deny MIBR the 2-0 victory. The in-game leader averaged 124 damage pr. round during the map that ended one-sided in favor of BNE.

The decider map was Vertigo. A rare sight as a decider, but it was here the two rosters had to settle the score. With nine of the ten players on the two rosters making their debuts at a Major, it was safe to say, that this encounter on Vertigo was the biggest and most important map for almost all of the players on the server. Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedes was the only player with previous experience in a Major.

But as seen in the clip below, it was not something that seemed to have a big impact on the players.

For the third time today, Bad News Eagles got off to a good start leading 9-6 at the break. Quickly MIBR made it 9-9, but then Bad News Eagles won five rounds in a row to give themselves a prime position to seal the deal. Despite chelo's best efforts, it was not enough for MIBR. The Brazilians could not keep up with the Balkan boys, who does the unthinkable and qualified for the Legends Stage without an organization. 

Bad News Eagles - MIBR 2-1 | PGL Major Antwerp Challengers Stage

13-16 (Nuke) | {cflag:CH} rigoN - 1.36 Rating / 28-22 K-D / 94.7 ADR

16-8 (Ancient) | {cflag:XK} sinnopsyy - 1.66 Rating / 26-16 K-D / 124.0 ADR

16-10 (Vertigo) | {cflag:BR} chelo - 1.52 Rating / 26-18 K-D / 108.3 ADR

MVP: {cflag:CH} Rigon "rigoN" Gashi - 1.41 Rating / 75-58 K-D / 96.1 ADR

sinnopsyy

MIBR

ENCE secured their spot at the Legends Stage after beating up the Kosovars of Bad News Eagles. ENCE were the massive favorites but it was not all fun and games for "Snappi" and co.

The brawl began on bNE's pick of Dust2, and early on, they were taught a lesson. ENCE, spearheaded by their leader "Snappi", outclassed the Kosovars in all aspects of the game. The only thing the Eagles had going for them was their impeccable aim, but that only got them three rounds in the first round.

After switching sides, the bNE squad had a massive resurgence. "gxx-" had come alive on the AWP and, in combination with "juanflatroo", and "rigoN", saw to it that the Eagles quickly equalized at 13-13. But the favorites of ENCE managed to come up clutch at the last moments of the map and steal the last three rounds away, and thereby the map.

bNE, on the CT side, found a good amount of success in the early stages of the second map of Nuke. "juanflatroo" was removing any attacker that came his way without exception. But with all of his teammates lagging behind individually, ENCE took the first half win at 9-6.

The Eagles won the second-half pistol round but did not find much more than that against the well-coordinated defense of ENCE.

Bad News Eagles will have another chance to qualify for the Legends Stage tomorrow, while ENCE can now relax.

ENCE - Bad News Eagles 2-0 | PGL Major Antwerp Challengers Stage

16-13 (Dust2) | {cflag:DK} Snappi - 1.24 Rating / 21-20 K-D / 85.1 ADR

16-9 (Nuke) | {cflag:IL} Spinx - 1.47 Rating / 26-13 K-D / 83.0 ADR

MVP: {cflag:IL} Lotan "Spinx" Giladi - 1.32 Rating / 49-29 K-D / 83.2 ADR

Snappi

gxx-

juanflatroo

Spinx

ENCE

Bad News Eagles and forZe went head-to-head in their second matchup of the day. After winning their first matches, the two teams were looking to take another step closer to the Legends Stage.

Inferno was the map of choice for the two teams, a pick that both teams could be happy with considering great win percentages in recent times.

"Norwi", who was unbelievable throughout the entire match, got his team off to a cozy 3-0 start, but "rigoN" quickly saw to it that the Eagles got back on an even keel. BNE were on their way to a great-looking T-side, but the "Norwi"-factor was too much for them to handle, meaning forZe led by 9-6 at the break.

After the break, the Russians did not slow down whatsoever. Instead, they extended their lead quickly and forcefully, and after only giving up a single second-half round they had secured the victory.

Bad News Eagles move to the 1-1 column while forZe could leave happy knowing that they were 2-0 after the first day of play.

forZe - Bad News Eagles 1-0 | PGL Major Antwerp Challengers Stage

16-7 (Inferno) | {cflag:RU} Evgeny "Norwi" Ermolin - 1.76 Rating / 30-13 K-D / 114.1 ADR

Norwi

Today's Pley of the Day is delivered from BLINK's rigoN, who did everything he could in the match against AGF at the Pinnacle Fall Series 3 Regionals to win the match. Unfortunately BLINK went on to lose the match against the Danes despite the beautiful four kills with the Desert Eagle from rigoN.

Blink

The 18-year-old Russian from Spirit has found his way to our #POTD, presenting his impressive pistol round Ace in a FPL match.

As many of you know, tilt is the scourge of competitors everywhere and it affects everyone. From the hopeless bottom-dwellers of the rankings, all the way up to the predators of the big scene. No one is immune to frustration. Even rigoN couldn’t hold back his frustrations after magixx killed him to clutch the round. 

Watch the 18-year-old Spirit player get the better of rigoN and rigoN’s humorous reaction.

magixx

Spirit

The profiled FPL and former c0ntact player Rigon "rigoN" Gashi is the man behind today's Pley of the Day. In an outstanding round on Mirage, the 21-year-old Swiss succeeds in taking down the entire enemy team, while showcasing his immense AWP abilities. 

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21-year-old rigoN has been released by c0ntact in just less than three months with the North American organization. The Swiss joined c0ntact back in October 2020 on a free transfer, but got out of his contract one month after the organization made its entire roster available for transfers as it began the process of reevaluating options for the new year ahead.

“From today I am free agent and not more under contract with c0ntact. I will keep grinding and wait to see what the future will bring. If anyone is interested you can message me,” rigoN wrote on Twitter.

	30 days	90 days
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rigoN

Player stats

Articles mentioning rigoN

2022 review: rigoN, s1mple, and Ax1Le top Mirage rankings

Bad News Eagles does it again!

Na'Vi qualify for playoffs, Bad News Eagles eliminated

Bad News Eagles continue Cinderella story and qualifies for Legends Stage!

ENCE Qualify For Legends Stage

"Norwi" takes forZe past bNE

Pley of the Day: rigoN with perfect 4k!

Pley of the Day: Impressive 1v5 pistol clutch by magixx

Pley of the Day: No one can stop rigoN and his AWP!

rigoN: From today I am free agent

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