Top 20 Players of MW3: #9 Ghosty

The #9 player of the Modern Warfare 3 season brought to you by House Bet is OH MY DAMN DANIEL...Daniel “Ghosty” Rothe.

Ghosty took the scene by storm in Modern Warfare 2, joining OpTic Texas and playing very well during his rookie year. While he would get dropped from the team in the offseason, his prospects were still very high. After joining the Thieves, Ghosty was the shining light for the team. The Star AR was the only Thieves player with a positive overall KD (1.05) and LAN KD (1.12). On LAN, he was a monster. Ghosty finished the year with a 1.12 KD, 86.4 Slayer Rating, 1.12 respawn KD, 74.9% NTK%, and 1.11 SND KD. Without Ghosty, the Thieves don’t come close to reaching the highs they had in MW3.

Season Review

The LA Thieves had one of the harshest offseasons for a top team in the CDL era at the end of Modern Warfare 2. With the legend Sam “Octane” Larew retiring from competing, the rest of the core broke apart. Dylan “Envoy” Hannon would head to Toronto, Zack “Drazah” Jordan to Atlanta, and Kenneth “Kenny” Williams to Texas. Each of their former players would land in a great situation, but this caused LA to need to rebuild fully.

Under the team’s strong leadership, LAT built the team around Cameron “Cammy” McKilligan, Marcus “Afro” Reid, Joseph “JoeDeceives” Romero, and Ghosty. It wasn’t the star-studded roster that the Thieves had in the past, but it had potential.

📸 Photo by @LAThieves

It’d be a rocky start to the season for the Thieves. They’d face three of the top 4 teams, falling to Atlanta (0-3), New York (1-3), and Toronto (1-3). While they came out victorious against Boston (3-0) and Carolina (3-2), they ultimately finished 2-5 and had to start in the Lower Bracket at Major 1. Losing 0-3 to LA rivals, the Guerrillas meant that the Thieves would lose the tiebreaker and finish with the 9th seed. They’d again lose to the Guerrillas in the first round of the Major 1-3, solidifying a Top 12 placement in the opening LAN. While they lost, Ghosty finished the series with a 1.42 KD with a 1.35 in Hardpoint, 1.57 in SND, and 1.53 in Control.

After an early failure, the Thieves made two roster moves into Stage 2. Cammy was released, while JoeDeceives was moved into the substitute position. In their place came Kyle “Kremp” Haworth and Byron “Nastie” Plumridge. While the move made sense on paper, the results didn’t come during Stage 2. They had some success in the qualifiers, finishing 4-3 to secure the 6th seed. While they took down LAG (3-1), Miami (3-2), and Minnesota (3-2), their 13-15 map count (46%) showed that there was still room for improvement. The Major would be a disaster, as Thieves would fall in back-to-back matches. After a very close 2-3 loss to Atlanta, the Thieves couldn’t rebound against LAG (1-3). It’d be two straight Top 12 finishes for the Thieves.

📸 Photo by @Spribs_

Another stage, another roster change for the Thieves. This time JoeDeceives would return to the starting roster, as Afro would be moved into the substitute position. This would end up being the final starting roster for the remainder of the season. With the new roster, the team started to improve. With a strong start, they’d go 5-2 in the qualifiers with wins over Las Vegas (3-2), Miami (3-2), and Seattle (3-1). With the strong qualifier, the team was expected to grab a good result at the LAN. Unfortunately, their run would start with a 1-3 loss to New York. While they’d bounce back against Boston (3-2), the Thieves would fall to Miami 1-3 to be eliminated Top 8. After getting the 4th seed in the qualifiers, this was a disappointing result.

Ghosty & Co. wouldn’t let that get them down going into Stage 4. More strong online play gave the Thieves wins over New York (3-2), LAG (3-2), and Las Vegas (3-1) to help propel them to a 4-3 finish. Thanks to a 16-14 map count (53%), they’d take the 4th seed going into the final Major. The LAN would start better this time around, with LA beating Miami 3-1 in the opening match. While they secured the Top 6, the Thieves would fall in back-to-back matches to be eliminated. While Ghosty led the team with a 1.18 overall KD and 91.6 Slayer Rating at the Major, it wasn’t enough to make it to Sunday.

📸 Photo by @samuelbennettYT

Thanks to strong qualifier play and multiple Top 8 finishes, the Thieves locked in the 7th seed in the season standings with 195 CDL points. They’d qualify for COD Champs and have a date with the Toronto Ultra in the opening match. The Thieves would shock the League, taking down Ultra behind Ghosty’s 97-79 (1.23 KD) performance while leading the team with 17,338 damage. His play in Control helped win the map and was critical to winning the series in just four maps. LA would end up falling in the next round against Texas (2-3) before beating Miami 3-0 to secure the Top 4 at Champs. In a rematch against Toronto, the Ultra would end up getting revenge 3-2 to eliminate the Thieves in 4th. It was a very successful Champs run for the Thieves, defying expectations on the way to 4th.

How good was Ghosty in 2024?

Hardpoint

Ghosty performed well across all three game modes, but his Hardpoint statistics stand out the most. The Main AR finished with a 1.05 KD in the mode but was the only Thieves player with above a 0.95 KD. He led the team in Kills per 10 minutes (22.9), Seconds of Hill Time per 10 minutes (65.9), damage per 10 minutes (4321), and more. The team was 25-14 (64%) when Ghosty ended the map with a positive KD, but they were just 6-29 (17%) when Ghosty went negative. Dan also finished 34% of the maps with over 5,000 damage (25 times) and 39% of maps with 80+ seconds of hill time (29 times).

While Ghosty performed well in the mode, Thieves had an up-and-down season in Hardpoint. They finished with a 31-43 record in the game mode, averaging a score margin of -9.1 points. During the first stage of the year, they went 1-12 with an average margin of -47.1 points. It improved from there but they still had bumps in the road. Part of their success at Champs came from Hardpoint. The team ended the season on a 3-map win streak and was 6-1 in their last 7 maps. Without the struggles online (19-31) or in Map 4s (11-22), the Thieves could’ve improved greatly in the mode.

Search & Destroy

One of the main consistent factors for the Thieves in SND was Ghosty. The Main AR ended the year with a 1.06 KD in the game mode, which improved to 1.11 on LAN. He also averaged 0.68 kills per round, 171.3 ADR, and an opening duel win rate of 52.7%. That also includes a team-high 9 clutches with three 1v1s, four 1v2s, and two 1v3s. Almost all of the key statistics improved on LAN, as Ghosty improved in kills per round (0.75) and ADR (187.5) substantially.

The Thieves were a very sneaky good team in Search & Destroy this year. They finished with a 31-24 record, ranking 4th in the CDL, but were 2nd with a 9-5 record in Games 5s. They were strong in the early rounds, ranking 2nd in the League with a 53.3% opening duel win rate. Ghosty & Co. were also very good with the objectives, being 3rd in Post-Plant win rate (70.2%) and 1st in Retake win rate (41%).

Control

Ghosty was nothing but consistent across every mode. He finished the year with a 1.06 KD in the mode that increased to 1.13 on LAN. That includes 19.0 kills per 10 minutes, 1.5 ticks per attacking round, and 3768 damage per 10 minutes. Those numbers improved to 20.2 kills per 10 minutes and 3900 damage per 10 minutes on LAN.

Control wasn’t the strongest mode for the Thieves this season. Much like in Hardpoint, they had a rollercoaster season, with highs and lows. Ghosty & Co. finished 17-24 in the game mode but had a 2-14 record in Round 5s. They ranked 11th on Attack, having a 24.4% win rate, -3.5 average life margin (11th), and capturing 3.7 ticks per attack (8th). This caused the team to be on attack for many of the Round 5s. Their defense, on the other hand, ranked 2nd with a win rate of 74.4% and only allowed 3.6 ticks per defense (4th).

A look ahead to Black Ops 6

One of the bigger questions that will arise after the conclusion of the Esports World Cup is where will Ghosty be next season. Ghosty performed extremely well this season, playing on the same level as the ARs on the Top 4 teams. While it is expected that LA Thieves holds Ghosty’s contract option going into next season and will very likely extend that option, teams will still be doing their homework to see if Ghosty is available for buyout.

The pressure then turns to the LA Thieves. With a foundational player on their roster, they will have to build a team around him that can challenge the Top 4 teams. With many high-potential players not on Top 4 rosters, it will be interesting to see who the Thieves target this offseason.

📸 Photo by @LAThieves

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