NAF makes entry at #6 on HLTV Top 20; becomes highest-ranked North American
Liquid's Mr. Consistent Keith "NAF" Markovic has been granted the sixth place in this year's HLTV Top 20. His position in this year's rankings makes him the highest ranked North American player of any of the Top 20, making up three spots on the list ahead of Spencer "Hiko" Martin's 9th place in 2013.
NAF's position marks one of North America's strongest years in another way, with the Canadian's entry seeing the region hit four players in one year improving on the record set by teammate Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken's inclusion and absolutely smashing 2010's record of two players. This is a good mark of progress for NAF, having been the catalyst for Liquid to become a powerhouse after joining in February last year.
This year has seen NAF pick up two MVP awards, at their title winning events of cs_summit 2 and SuperNova Malta, as well as nine EVP awards which included the ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals, ELEAGUE Premier and ECS Season 5 Finals where he narrowly missed out on the MVP medal.
For NAF's bold prediction, he chose to go in a similar route to his teammate Twistzz and went in a relatively safe direction and selected Vincente "Brehze" Cayonte from NRG. Brehze is set to resume play with NRG next week for the Americas Minor, where they'll look to secure a space at the upcoming IEM Katowice Major.
Be sure to read the full write-up over on HLTV.org on why NAF was the sixth best player of 2018.
