Article written by: John "JAYEL"

The Counter Nature Advanced Awards are back for Season 37. The dust has settled from the recent season, with Team Verum stepping to the top of the trophy podium, and Season 38’s first two matches are released. The first season without a professional team competing out of the last three seasons deserves acknowledgement for the division’s best performers. Unfortunately, we will quickly be brought back to reality with the two professional organizations ATK and GODSENT competing in S38. 

This season’s winners were decided in the same manner that last season’s winners were--via our survey that we sent to specially selected community members. We combined the community’s votes with our own thoughts and feelings to decide the below winners. Thank you to those of you who shared your feedback with us and took the time to think and provide relevant insight. 

Without further ado, let's get into these awards.

You can view previous seasons' Counter Nature Advanced Awards below:

• Season 36: https://www.counternature.net/posts/s36-adv-awards 
• Season 34: https://www.counternature.net/posts/s34-adv-mid-awards 

🏆 Rookie of the Season: brashi from YeniCherry

Previous winner: Lemonz  from HeadShotKings (Season 36)

This award is given to the player who performs the best in their first-ever season of Advanced. Receiving 31% of the counted votes for this award, Brashi from YeniCherry claims Rookie of the Season with an impressive debut season. It would have been nice to give this entire roster the Rookie of the Season award, since it is the first season of Advanced for all five players, but we needed to choose someone. Brashi led YeniCherry with an 87.42 ADR for all regular and post-season matches combined, narrowly beating out teammate emstar, who had an 85.66.

Mikey (Brashi) is good example of [what] hard work looks like... He was level 6 on FaceIT with 1,000 hours on CSGO when we found him right before season 33. He worked hard, had a lot of pugs, got yelled [at]... for...mistakes. But he never gave up and never stopped trying. This hard work and determination took him here 4 seasons later. I believe this is just glimpse of what he can achieve." - NForc3R, YeniCherry

It’s great to give this award to the YeniCherry team because it proves what sticking together can do for both the team and its players. Brashi has only played with YeniCherry during his ESEA career, and has made the five season climb from Open in S33, all the way up to Advanced in S37. The team grows together and still manages to evolve and highlight different players as their stars. Just three seasons ago we were highlighting KaKi in their S35 Intermediate Semi-finals series. 

Expect big things from Brashi and this YeniCherry squad this season and those to come. The Turkish core is motivated to make Premier and I have every belief they will. Their rise from the Open division has been on a great trajectory thus far. 

🏆 Comeback Player of the Season: Millz from Team Verum

Previous winner: Cryptic from Flash Point (Season 36)

The Comeback Player award is reserved for someone who has stepped away from competing in Advanced or the game in-general, and returned with a vengeance and high-level of play. Millz came back from coaching with Team Veloz in S36 (similar core to this current Verum roster) and returned to playing in-game and winning Advanced. Also, not to forget that Millz won Coach of the Season in S36.

It is one of the impressive back-to-back season awards to win for sure (Coach of the Season in S36 and Comeback Player of the Season in S37). It proves Millz has a very tactical mindset and the mechanics to match.

Millz will get to show what him and Team Verum's capabilities really are in this upcoming S38 of Premier.

🏆 Most Improved Player of the Season: Just2EZ from Triton

Previous winner: Bootylord from Pryde (Season 36)

The Most Improved Player award is granted to the person who has seen the biggest amount of progression from previous season(s) in Advanced to the current season. Just2EZ saw a huge statistical improvement from S36. For ADR regular season progression, he held a 76.28 in S36, which improved to 87.27 in S37. Just2EZ also led Triton with the highest combined regular season and post-season ADR, with an 85.69 for S37.

Just2EZ evolved to a highlight player and 23% of voters agreed. Nothing was going to stop him this season; not even playing on top of a dishwasher.

Just2EZ will continue his talented climb in S38 of Premier this season with Triton.

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🏆 Coach of the Season: Anythingpos from Pryde

Previous winner: Millz from Team Veloz (Season 36)
Honorable Mention: Flixxy from Triton

The Coach of the Season award requires no explanation. This award goes to the best Coach in Advanced for the season. Receiving 40% of votes, Anythingpos took the title.

Receiving probably the most amount of praise by his teammates on Twitter, Anythingpos put in the work this season and got the credit. Next stop will be to get the results with a squad that goes the distance.

As of the writing of this article, Anythingpos is in search of a team to Coach this S38.

The honorable mention went to Flixxy, another player turned Coach for the later half of S37. Flixxy saw the squad earn Premier move-up through the Premier Relegation Tournament and earned 30% of the survey's votes.

🏆 Most Surprising Team of the Season: Triton

Previous winner: Recon 5 Black (Season 36)

The Most Surprising Team of the Season award is given to the team that performed significantly better than anyone predicted at the beginning of the season. Triton earned this honor after receiving 50% of the votes from our survey, and an impressive Premier move-up. After two seasons in Advanced without making playoffs (8-8 S35, 9-7 S36), the Triton team burst through S37 with a 13-3 record and 4-2 playoffs run, losing in the Grand Finals to Team Verum.

Any teams who are looking to really get serious and make the big next step, take notes from Triton and do what they did.

There was no clear 2nd place winner here for honorable mention. There were many deserving teams of honorable mention, so if you think you should have won it--you were likely considered as one.

🏆 Most Valuable Player: Cryptic from Villainous

Previous winner: saffee from paiN Gaming (Season 36)

MVP is the best player of the season. The player who has dominated for their team and proven to be feared by all opponents. 

From Comeback Player of the Season in S36, to MVP in this S37, Cryptic has been on a warpath. Cryptic rightfully received the majority of votes at 38% after a dominating 91.6 ADR for the regular season and a 90 ADR for combined regular and post-season.

Cryptic and Team Villainous (now Eros) will continue proving themselves in Premier this S38.

🏆 Best AWPer: jackyy from RECTIFY

Previous winner: heretic- from reporting for duty (Season 36)

jackyy received the Best AWPer award after getting the most AWP frags or the regular season. 205 frags were enough to claim the award this season.

Heretic won it last season with 228.

🏆 Headhunter: TR0JN from YeniCherry 

Previous winner: slugy from STMNesports

TR0JN had the best Headshot Percentage in Advanced this regular season, with at least 100 frags. A .275 HSP was the best of the lot.

Slugy won it last seasoan with a .300 HSP.

🏆 Best Clutcher: liam from NEM

Previous winner: k1nky from Infinity Esports w/ 12 clutches(Season 35)

liam from NEMESIS earned Best Clutcher with 13 clutches (10 1v2 and 3 1v3) this regular season.

k1nky from Infinity won it last season with 12.