The only New Zealander to grace the list, Pocket Soldier-turned-Combo Scout krollic (aka rky) appears in 15th place. Despite being known for his Pocket Soldier play in past years, krollic began this era predominantly playing Roaming Soldier with Premier wins on Roamer for Jasmine Tea in seasons 19 & 21, as well as a Pocket season in between with The Sauce. After playing in several lower playoffs teams on Solider, krollic made the switch to Combo Scout in season 26 with MMGP and has been on the class since then. He was one of the pivotal pieces of BUTTERFLY EFFECT’s finals runs in seasons 25 and 27, with his consistency in the regular season and Upper Page Playoffs of season 27 a huge part of the team’s success. krollic’s last Premier appearance was in season 28 with another BUTTERFLY EFFECT roster, this time placing fourth. Following a venture into the High division on Medic in season 29, krollic was behaviour banned from ozfortress for a year, ruling him out of play for the majority of 2021.
With krollic posting similar numbers to Sam., it’s his experience and appearances at the top that give him the higher placing. WIth six finals appearances and three season wins as well as a 9/9 playoffs record, krollic was a feature of many finals from seasons 19 - 27. Where krollic begins to suffer is his playoffs numbers. His very solid 59.6 gamescore drops down to 47.8 for playoffs and 47 for finals. His Scout seasons are consistently below his Soldier seasons, however this is expected when all of krollic’s Soldier finals were wins and he’s yet to win a final on Scout. Despite being a driving force for his team in season 27, krollic’s performance in the grand final left a lot to be desired, posting just a 35.6 gamescore in a fairly close 1 - 3 series loss. After his ban expired in November 2021 krollic has just made his return to Premier in season 34 after over 18 months away, and it looks like the former MGE-lord has not had any trouble shaking off the rust.
Another fairly recent Premier debutant, silvo made his debut in season 23’s Cut For ( essence! ). As you would expect, silvo’s first couple of Premer seasons were rough. Usually playing in teams that either disbanded or didn’t make playoffs, silvo made his first appearance in top Premier as a core member of the second place finishing MMGP in season 26. Averaging a respectable 55.9 across the arduous five map final, silvo was able to successfully hold his own against the best in the highest pressure game he’d played so far. He would go on to join up with cooki in season 27 with No Older Gamers, creating a Scout partnership that would shine in years to come despite season 27’s 3rd place finish not quite being what the team had hoped for. After a season to learn all he could from Paulsen’s withered and wrinkly brain in Jasmine Beef, silvo joined the first iteration of soirée, teaming up with cooki once again. Despite relatively lacklustre grand finals performances (not too relevant when his team is winning them convincingly anyway) silvo’s consistency on Flank Scout has been a big factor of their success. After dominating on Flank Scout in season 29 and 30, silvo switched to Roamer for seasons 31 and 32 and saw similar levels of success and has been an instrumental part of soirée’s dominance over the last 18 months.
silvo, Sam. and krollic were all very hard to separate for the #16 to #14th placings, but ultimately silvo came out on top. His playoffs and finals stats improve upon the two before him, and with more or equal season wins as well as wins on multiple classes, silvo edges out the contest for 14th place. As is standard with newcomers to Premier, silvo’s stats from his first several seasons in Premier weigh him down and prevent him from placing higher. His 41.8 from his Premier debut in season 23 is his lowest season average gamescore whilst his highest is a much more recent (and extremely impressive) 70.8 Flank Scout season with soirée in season 30. It would be fair to say that if you were to do another list in several years, silvo would potentially be a pretty safe bet for a top five placing provided he was still playing, but for now he lands in 14th place.
The second of three players on the list with LAN experience, many will recognise Geoh from his glory days with the Jasmine Tea roster that competed at i58 and Rewind LAN. Much like former teammate Madness`, Geoh still played during the early seasons from season 18 to 25 and his presence on the list is due to the very high level he displayed in that time. Despite being known for his Pocket Soldier play, some would argue that Geoh also laid claim to the title of strongest Combo Scout in the region when he picked up the class. He was part of every single Jasmine Tea roster reform until season 28 and always put up stellar numbers regardless of what he was playing. In between the Jasmine seasons, Geoh won season 18 with no safeword and season 20 with The Sauce.
Across the board, Geoh has excellent stats. A 62.7 overall gamescore, 57.4 playoffs gamescore and (most impressively) a 61.5 finals gamescore are some of the best on the list. The only player on the list with a 100% finals win rate (five wins from five grand finals played), Geoh’s huge performances in finals are very impressive and also probably expected from someone with the experience of playing the highest pressure matches at international LANs already. His season 21 finals performance with Jasmine (playing under the moniker Y U G I B O Y S) is the fourth best finals performance of the last five years with a massive 76.9 gamescore over three maps (Geoh also clocks in the second best gamescore on that list with his season 18 performance but it’s hard to gauge how well he really played with the previously mentioned issues regarding season 18 gamescores). It’s quite telling that Geoh’s worst grand final performance is his season 23 victory against xeno, where he had a 50.2 on Pocket Soldier in a 3 - 0 victory and struggled to find any frags in part due to the dominance of Combo Scout teammate cooki having a fantastic series and stealing the spotlight. The only real blemish on Geoh’s stellar resume is the unfortunate season 25 run with barrel of apes that was plagued with roster issues and only just made playoffs, finishing in 4th place. This was Geoh’s worst season by far, with a gamescore of just 51.2 (his next highest is 58.2). As was the case with Madness`, Geoh failed to reach higher on the list due to the small number of seasons played despite his impressive performances. But at the end of the day, reaching #13 in only six seasons is an impressive feat.
With a 100% rate of making playoffs, seven second place finishes to his name and one season win, HERTZ is one of the most experienced players in the country. Picking up his first ever second place finish, HERTZ’s Mad Men made their debut in season 18, losing in the final to no safeword. After two more second place and one third place finish, season 22 saw Jasmine Tea recruit him to play Soldier, but the roster had major stability issues with numerous changes throughout the season. They lost in the final to redcoatzygote’s Pencil Case and rebuilt the team for season 23. A dominant season for Jasmine Tea saw HERTZ pick up his first season win. This is HERTZ’s only season win, however, as he found himself facing off against the newly-formed Coffee Clock superteam in the final of season 24; ultimately ending with another second place finish. After a failed season with barrel of apes, HERTZ formed another team, MMGP, to challenge Coffee Clock, once again losing in the final in a close 2 - 3 series. HERTZ then captained superteam No Older Gamers in their season 27 run to topple happy feet, but the disappointing third place finish led to a restructure for season 28. Head Cavers were looking like they had a solid shot at the title going into playoffs, but unfortunately HERTZ received an ozfortress behaviour ban for one year just as playoffs were about to start. HERTZ returned after his unban for season 32 with X-files, picking up yet another second place finish.
On first glance, HERTZ’s stats may be cause for concern; a playoffs gamescore of 46.7 and a finals gamescore of 39.4 are low, however when you consider the fact that HERTZ has played eight grand finals and only won a single one, it’s not a surprise. HERTZ’s Pocket Soldier is on average a tad heal-heavier than other Pockets, however he definitely delivered results with solid impact ratings. On the other end of the spectrum, HERTZ is able to perform on Roamer with very few resources. His season 23 performance in particular was a masterclass in how to roam. An efficiency percentage of 67% is extremely good, and was the highest of any Soldier in season 23. This allowed more heals to be placed into the trio of cooki, Paulsen and Geoh contributing to their crushing season performance. His 74% objective rating is the highest on record of any player in the last eight years, and a 61.6 gamescore on Roamer is impressive in and of itself. While his overall playoffs and finals stats may be somewhat understandable given the context, they are still a significant factor as to why HERTZ didn’t place higher on the list. Along with season wins, these are the two primary barriers preventing HERTZ from breaking into the top ten. Unfortunately HERTZ will have to wait for his next shot at the championship as just this January he received another ozfortress ban for behaviour, ruling him out until January 2023. It’s hard to predict what effect this will have on the top end of Premier in the long term, however it’s certain that what HERTZ offers to teams will be hard to find elsewhere.
Doge.exe was one of the hardest players to place on this list. As the only player on this list to make playoffs on all four classes (including grand finals on three and wins on two), and 13 seasons played of the last 15, there’s not much Doge.exe hasn’t done. He started out on Medic for several of the HERTZ-led Mad Men rosters before joining xeno and making the shift to Demoman. Doge.exe played Demoman for_ xeno_ over three seasons, culminating in their season 23 grand finals run where Doge.exe tragically slept through the final against Jasmine Tea. After, Doge.exe jumped back on Medic and won a season with Coffee Clock before again taking on a new challenge and switching to Soldier. He played Soldier with servo mutts and The Older Gamers before developing a disdain for old man Paulsen and joining No Older Gamers, also on Soldier. None of Doge.exe’s Soldier teams were able to make a grand finals apperance, and he again returned to Medic for season 28’s Head Cavers and made the final but failed to get the win. Finally, happy feet were looking for a Medic and Doge.exe obliged, however soirée were destined to take the title and Doge.exe had to settle for another second place in season 29. After a stint with essencecsgocupleague.xyz/vote, Doge.exe again shifted class to Combo Scout for season 31 and picked up his second season win. Most recently he’s been back on Demoman, with a second place finish in X-files in season 32.
Doge.exe’s overall stats are hard to interpret as they’re just a big mix of everything. When you look at his individual class stats, Doge.exe’s best performances have been on Demoman. With a ~62 average gamescore in both season 22 and 23, Doge.exe was in red hot form going into playoffs of season 23 averaging a very impressive 70.8 gamescore in playoffs matches prior to the final that he tragically slept through (at 8pm on a Tuesday). While it’s hard to glean much from Medic gamescore stats, Doge.exe generally has higher numbers than other Premier Medics such as lock and dogroll and his placements and team history are a testament to the high regard his Medic play is held in. Doge.exe’s Soldier seasons are statistically his worst when compared to the rest, however that’s not a major surprise given the nature of the class. In his one Scout season Doge.exe put up good numbers but took a lot of heals doing so bringing his gamescore down, but he won the season so it’s hard to be that critical. On top of his core class talents, he’s also a very formidable sniper too. If you were trying to find the most versatile player in Oceania, it’s hard to go past Doge.exe (when awake).