ISSAA wins DreamHack Tours MVP award

HellRaisers star Issa "ISSAA" Murad is the Most Valuable Player (MVP) DreamHack Open Tours by HLTV.org and betway.

The Jordanian player scoops the award after inspiring HellRaisers to a runner-up finish at the French event with a career-high 1.42 tournament rating.

Issa "⁠ISSAA⁠" Murad's journey in Tours started on the wrong foot as he posted a 0.47 rating in HellRaisers' 3-16 thrashing at the hands of Envy, but then he ended every map with above-average ratings, leading his team against Imperial (2.06 rating),GODSENT (1.54) and North (1.16).

Other notable mentions include North trio Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye, Daniel "⁠mertz⁠" Mertz, Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså, none of whom really stood out enough to earn the distinction despite being on the winning team, and ISSAA's teammate Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker.

ISSAA is the MVP of DreamHack Tours

Besides leading the tournament's rating charts, ISSAA was the top performer in six stats categories, including KDD (+66), damage difference per round (+23.6), kills per round (0.91) and headshots per round (0.60). He was also one of the hardest players to kill (0.58 deaths per round) and had one of the highest percentage of rounds with at least one kill (54.1%).

It is possible to draw parallels between ISSAA's dominant run in Tours and Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev's impressive form at DreamHack Masters Marseille. The Ukrainian star dominated the stats leaderboards and picked up the MVP medal despite Natus Vincere losing the final to Astralis. 

This is ISSAA's very first MVP award, and it comes just nine months after he joined HellRaisers, initially on trial, with this being his first real challenge on a professional level.

Valdemar 'valde' Bjørn Vangså Age: 22 Team: North Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 534 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.67 Daniel 'mertz' Mertz Age: 19 Team: North Rating 1.0: 1.12 Maps played: 420 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.65 Astralis #1 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif Imperial #29 Jesper 'TENZKI' PlougmannNemanja 'nexa' IsakovićRokas 'EspiranTo' MilasauskasŽygimantas 'nukkye' Chmieliauskas Markus 'Kjaerbye' Kjærbye Age: 20 Team: North Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 994 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.66 Natus Vincere #3 Oleksandr 's1mple' KostylievIoann 'Edward' SukharievDanylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoEgor 'flamie' VasilyevDenis 'electroNic' Sharipov Issa 'ISSAA' Murad Age: 21 Team: HellRaisers Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 289 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.67 North #13 Mathias 'MSL' LauridsenPhilip 'aizy' AistrupMarkus 'Kjaerbye' KjærbyeValdemar 'valde' Bjørn VangsåDaniel 'mertz' Mertz HellRaisers #15 Kirill 'ANGE1' KarasiowVladyslav 'bondik' NechyporchukÖzgür 'woxic' EkerBence 'DeadFox' BöröczIssa 'ISSAA' Murad GODSENT #17 Simon 'twist' EliassonJoakim 'disco doplan' GidetunFredrik 'freddieb' BuöHampus 'hampus' PoserLudvig 'Brollan' Brolin Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev Age: 20 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.21 Maps played: 794 KPR: 0.85 DPR: 0.68 Özgür 'woxic' Eker Age: 19 Team: HellRaisers Rating 1.0: 1.14 Maps played: 445 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.62 Envy #23 Fabien 'kioShiMa' FieyCédric 'RpK' GuipouyAdil 'ScreaM' BenrlitomVincent 'Happy' SchopenhauerAli 'hAdji' Haïnouss