HLTV Top 20 Players of 2021: NAF #14

HLTV.org ranked Keith “NAF” Markovic 14th among the best players of 2021. The 24-year-old Canadian represented Team Liquid throughout the year.

NAF’s best finish at an Elite event was third place at IEM Katowice 2021. At the same time, he was twice awarded an extremely valuable player (EVP) medal for BLAST Premier Global Final 2020 and ESL Pro League Season 14.

Why was NAF the 14th best player of 2021?

NAF returns to the Top 20 after barely missing out last year as one of the more consistent players and one of the most effective clutchers of the year.

Aside from his failed attempts to qualify for the BLAST Premier Spring Final (at both the Groups and Showdown), he received a rating of 1.05 or higher at every other event he attended. The rarity of bad maps further demonstrated NAF’s consistency, as he had a 0.85+ rating or higher 89 percent of the time (8th most often), as well as a high round-to-round consistency (72.9 percent KAST, 9th). NAF was ranked 17th in total 1vsX situations won (53), but he was 5th in per-round average. Even though he had the lowest opening duel attempt rate among the Top 20, when combined with his good damage dealing (80.2, #15), he still managed to have a decent impact. Most importantly, he did so by focusing on Big events and playing against top competition, finishing with a 1.13 Big event rating (#12) and a 1.12 against Top 20 teams (#12).

Also read: HLTV Top 20 Players of 2021: KSCERATO #15

He won EVPs at the BLAST Premier Global Final 2020 and ESL Pro League Season 14, and came close to winning another during Liquid’s biggest win of the year, a 3-4th place finish at IEM Katowice. At every other event, NAF was either Liquid’s best or second-best player, including their strong showings at BLAST Premier World Final 2021, IEM Winter, and ESL Pro League Season 13.

I recall coming into 2020 and not playing so great at the start of the year at BLAST and Katowice and that I need to step up more individually. Later on the pandemic started to heat up and that a lot of the year for us would mainly be playing NA matchups, in which we started off pretty well by beating EG for the NA Pro League trophy. I feel about halfway through the year we really started to drag and fatigue and that changes needed to be made. I think my motivation took a dip after a lot of the issues on the team started to pile up, but I feel I still put up decent CS that year.

Keith “NAF” Markovic

While NAF performed admirably throughout the year, he lacked the higher peaks or even higher floors that would have propelled him to a higher position on the list.