Top 20 Players of MW3: #18 Insight

The #18 player of the Modern Warfare 3 season brought to you by House Bet is the British Iceman, Jamie “Insight” Craven.

The Main AR for the Toronto Ultra had yet another good season after breaking into the Call of Duty League in Cold War. After falling to the New York Subliners in the Grand Finals of Champs last season, the team regrouped to make another run. Insight played efficiently all season, having the 2nd highest NTK% (76.3%) while racking up the objective numbers. Add in a Major 1 championship and multiple other Top 4 finishes & that earns Insight the 18th position in back-to-back seasons.

Season Review

Toronto decided to make a shock move after the Modern Warfare 2 season, moving on from Charlie “Hicksy” Hicks. Even with the team accolades of winning Major 3 and making the Champs Grand Finals, that wasn’t enough to satisfy the squad. They would look to upgrade as the teams around them improved as well.

📸 Photo by @TorontoUltra

With New York, who won Champs, picking up Daunte "Sib" Gray, Atlanta signing Zach "Drazah" Jordan, and Texas creating a new super team with Amer "Pred" Zulbeari & Kenneth "Kenny" Williams, the competition was going to be fierce. With marquee SMG Dylan “Envoy” Hannon on the market, the franchise moved quickly to upgrade. Giving Tobias “CleanX” Juul Jønsson a better slaying SMG duo, while ARs Insight and Thomas “Scrap” Ernst have another year to develop.

The season would start great for the Ultra, going 6-1 in the opening qualifiers to earn the 2nd seed going into the Major. They won 75% of the maps played (18-6), with big wins over New York (3-0) and LAT (3-1). Insight was a monster during the Quals, ending with a 1.14 overall KD and a team-high 1.20 adjusted KD. This was behind a league-leading 1.26 Hardpoint KD with 93 seconds of hill time per 10 minutes. In SND, Jamie had a 1.58 KD with 4 clutches and 0.87 kills per round.

📸 Photo by @MediabyIsiah

Behind the success of Insight, Toronto would then make one of the cleanest Major runs, winning 13 of 15 maps to win the Major. They’d play Atlanta twice during the run, winning 3-1 in the Winners Finals and 4-1 in the Grand Finals. It was an excellent start to the season for the new-look Ultra. In total, they finished with a 31-8 map count on the stage.

With a Major win under their belt, the team began rolling yet again. Ultra would start the second qualifiers a perfect 3-0 over the first two weeks. They’d falter over the final two weeks, going 1-2 with losses to Atlanta (0-3) and Texas (2-3). Finishing with a 5-2 record, they’d secure the 4th seed at Major 2. The Major would continue the slide against the Top 4 teams. After falling 1-3 to Texas in Upper Round 2, Toronto would lose to New York 3-0 in the Lower Round 4 to finish 4th at Major 2. It was a disappointing end to the Major for the Ultra.

📸 Photo by @CODLeague

After resetting during the midseason break, the squad was ready to bounce back in the Major 3 Qualifiers. Toronto continued to slide against the FaZe online, losing 0-3, but would finish a perfect 6-0 in the remaining matches. Going into the Major with the 2nd seed, they’d have a clean run to the Upper Finals after beating both Seattle & Texas 3-1. In a 5-map thriller, the Ultra would take down FaZe 3-2 to advance to the Grand Finals. With the win over Atlanta it improved the Ultra to 3-0 vs FaZe on LAN. Unfortunately for Toronto, Texas would catch fire on Sunday and end up taking the Major with a 4-0 victory in the Finals. 

Now in a battle for the 1st season on the season, Insight & Co would have to score a good haul of points during Stage 4. Ultra would lose the opening series 2-3 to Seattle, but then go on to win the final six matches straight to finish 1-6. With that record Toronto would lock in the 1st seed thanks to a 20-8 map count (71%). The Major would mimic the slow start, with Ultra falling 1-3 to LAG in the opening series. Down but not out, Ultra would win three straight series to make it to the Lower Round 4 match against New York. Unfortunately, the Ultra would fall 0-3 to the Subliners to finish 4th at Major 4 and locked them into the 2nd seed for Champs.

📸 Photo by @TorontoUltra

Insight had another great stage during Stage 4, finishing with 1.08 overall KD. The Main AR ended with a 1.12 KD in Hardpoint with 90.8 seconds of hill time per 10-minutes. In SND, he had a 1.18 KD with 0.76 kills per round and had his ADR jump to 169.9. Coming into Champs, Insight was in form.

The slow starts would continue though, with the 1-3 loss in the opening round to the LA Thieves. The team again managed to win three straight series to pull back against the early failure. The wins over LAG (3-0), Atlanta (3-0), and LAT (3-2) to set up a match against the Subliners in the Lower Finals. New York would clutch up, taking down Toronto 3-2 to advance to the Finals to eliminate the Ultra in 3rd. Individually, Insight played well again. He led the tournament with a 77.1% NTK%, 1.06 KD in Hardpoint, 1.10 KD in SND, with great objective numbers. Even with the early Major victory, the ending hurt for the Ultra.

How good was Insight in 2024?

Hardpoint

Insight played very well in Hardpoint this season for the Ultra. He ended the year with a 1.08 KD in the game mode, 2nd best on the team. He added per 10-minute stats for 20.6 kills, 83.9 seconds of hill time, and 3983 damage. While he played at a slower pace, he was very efficient. Insight had the 3rd-highest TES Rating (61.4%) and 2nd-highest NTK% (75.1%) in the mode. His play locked downhill time while opening up the map for the rest of his teammates to attack.

The Toronto Ultra was the best Hardpoint team in the game until the final portion of the season. They finished 55-24 on the year with an average margin of victory of +25.9. The team ranked 1st in points per minute (22.5), 1st in Hold percentage (79.3%), 1st in Break percentage (28.6%), and 2nd in rotating (52.6%). They stomped teams online (36-7) but failed to replicate that performance on LAN (19-17). Over the final stretch, Ultra went 3-7 in their final 10 Hardpoints. They were a dominant HP team, until the end.

Search & Destroy

Known as one of the most clutch players in the League, Insight has always found success in Search & Destroy. During MW3, Jamie ended with a team-high 1.07 KD in the mode. He averaged 0.68 kills per round with 159.8 ADR. Insight didn’t have the best clutch numbers this year but still ended with the 2nd-most 1v1 wins (8) and 5 1v2 clutches. He even got better on LAN, improving his KD to 1.15 with 6 clutches and improving his opening duel win rate to 50%.

While Insight played well in the mode, the team did struggle at times.. They ranked 3rd in the mode, finishing 35-24 on the year, just below both Atlanta & New York. Their defense was stout, ranking 1st in the CDL with a 56% win rate and 2nd best retake win percentage (39.3%). Unfortunately, their attacking side wasn’t consistently there, and they ranked 11th in opening duel win rate (47%). While they struggled online (16-16), they improved greatly on LAN (19-8). The same could be said for Map 2s (29-21) compared to Map 5s (6-3), where they ranked 1st.

Control

The weakest mode for Insight was very clearly Control this season. He lacked pace, but unlike Hardpoint, was unable to hit the same level of efficiency. Jamie ended the year with a 0.92 KD in the mode. That includes 16.0 kills per 10 minutes, 2.1 ticks per attacking round, and 3474 damage per 10 minutes. It wasn’t the best performance out of Insight, as we have come to expect more out of him in the game mode.

While Insight struggled, the Ultra still played well in the mode over the season. They had the 2nd best record in the mode on the season at 34-16. They had the 4th best attacking and 3rd best defending records. In round 5s, the Ultra were a league-best 16-5 (76.2% win rate). Their defense could lockdown and not allow ticks regularly. They were 2nd in the League with 3.5 ticks allowed per defense, including a league-best 3.9 ticks per DEF round allowed on Karachi.

A look ahead to Black Ops 6

Toronto were one of four teams to win a championship in 2024, but didn’t have the remainer of the season that they had hoped for. They struggled in the middle of the season, lost in the Grand Finals at Major 3 to Texas, and failed to make the Grand Finals at Champs. After the strong start, it was expected that the team would win another down the line.

Although the ending may be a slight failure, it is hard to imagine the Ultra changing up the team too much. With many of the Top 4 players expected to stay in place, there are no clear upgrades to find currently. MVP nominee & AR player of the Year Thomas “Scrap” Ernst is still under team control, while its expected that Ultra has the options on the other three players.

📸 Photo by @MediabyIsiah

This could be a blessing in disguise for the Ultra. With another year of experience playing together, it could unlock that final bit of consistency that would make them a true favorite threat at every single tournament. Scrap has the start power, CleanX & Envoy should be a top SMG duo yet again, and Jamie has been very consistent each season. If they stick together, expect the team to continue fighting for championships next year in Black Ops 6.

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