The Initiator: 3 highlights and 3 surprises from the Showdown
By Cameron Bray
Sweeping tournament host T1, No. 1 seed TSM wins T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Showdown, first Valorant tournament based in North America
Emerging as the No. 1 seed in the playoffs, TSM stayed undefeated throughout this weekend’s T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Valorant Showdown and swept tournament host T1 3-0 in the grand final Sunday, June 28, to win it all.
In the grand final — a rematch of the upper-bracket final earlier that day, between TSM and T1 — TSM overpowered the No. 3 seed with a strong, 12-4 win on Haven, followed by a narrower, 13-9 win on Ascent. By rule, TSM opened with a one-map advantage after emerging triumphant (or more correctly, undefeated) from the winners’ bracket.
Not only was the Showdown the first North American event in the recent Ignition Series, but it was also the biggest event for Valorant since the game released Tuesday, June 2, featuring more than a dozen teams, several qualifiers and a prize pool of $50,000.
Sixteen teams — 11 invitees and five qualifiers — competed in this weekend’s Showdown, with eight eliminated during round-robin group play Friday, June 26. The double-elimination playoffs began Saturday, June 27, with matches in the upper, winners’ bracket going best-of-three and those in the lower, losers’ bracket going only best-of-one.
TSM received $25,000 for winning the Showdown after its grand-final sweep, while T1 earned the silver-medal prize of $15,000. Immortals and FaZe Clan each took home $5,000, with the former finishing third and the latter finishing fourth in the tournament.
Victory at the Showdown established TSM as likely the best Valorant team in North America and one of the best in the world — in the game’s short, nearly one-month lifespan so far.
TSM earned its spot in the grand final after overpowering T1, its rival throughout the Showdown, 2-1 in the upper-bracket final. T1 opened strong with a 13-7 win on Ascent, but TSM came back with an impressive, 13-5 win of its own on Ascent, followed by a narrow, 13-9 win on Split.
Consequently, this comeback meant that TSM won four consecutive map victories against T1 — two in the upper-bracket final, followed by two in the grand final — excluding the one-map advantage that the winners’ bracket gave TSM.
Earlier that Sunday, the No. 7 seed Immortals reached the lower-bracket final after securing a strong, 13-6 win on Bind over No. 4 FaZe. T1 then fell to the lower-bracket final against Immortals after losing to TSM in the upper-bracket final, but won the right to a rematch after dispatching Immortals 13-10 on Split.
Before then, T1 and TSM each won two victories Saturday to stay undefeated and reach the upper-bracket final. T1 swept No. 6 Gen.G Esports and Immortals in the best-of-three format, while TSM overpowered the No. 8 seed and qualifier team Together We Are Terrific 2-1 and swept FaZe 2-0.
During its match against Gen.G, T1 pulled off a narrow, 13-11 win on Bind — its most hard-fought map of the day — and proceeded with a more dominant, 13-5 win on Ascent to finish its opponent. T1 then swept Immortals with a 13-4 win on Haven and a 13-9 win on Ascent.
Meanwhile, TSM bookended a 13-5, middle-round loss with a 13-4 win on Haven and a 13-5 win on Split to defeat Together We Are Terrific. That victory pitted TSM against FaZe — which defeated No. 5 100 Thieves 2-1 in an upper-bracket quarterfinal earlier — and TSM pulled ahead with a 13-9 win on Haven, followed by a 13-7 win on Ascent
3 highlights and 3 surprises from the Showdown
For this part of the newsletter, I’m going to alternate between three highlights and three surprises that I saw during the Showdown. I’ll begin with the first highlight then switch to the first surprise, and so on.
Highlight 1: Matthew “Wardell” Yu as the leader of TSM. TSM’s Wardell proved a dominant force throughout this weekend’s Showdown, finishing with 298 kills on only 176 deaths (a kill-death ratio of 1.69). Playing the Russian hunter Sova and armed with the heavy sniper rifle the Operator, Wardell racked up kills against T1 during the grand final. Watch for him in the weeks to come. Wardell has both the talent and the personality to lead TSM toward a bright, title-filled future in Valorant.
Surprise 1: T1’s 3-0 demise in the grand final. I never expected such a high-powered team as T1, with Braxton “Brax” Pierce, Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham and Keven “AZK” Larivière on its squad, to fall as it did in the grand final: 3-0 to TSM. The loss spoke incredibly well of TSM and its potential as a disruptor. Not only was T1 heavily favored to win their eponymous Showdown, but it had also looked hugely impressive at the Twitch Rivals Tournament, which it won after being favored Sunday, June 7 — little more than three weeks ago. TSM and T1 both looked great throughout the Showdown — both of them almost unbeatable, one truly so — but Brax and his teammates at T1 will need to do better next time if this is to be the first battle in the war for North America.
Highlight 2: Taylor “Drone” Johnson. Besides Wardell, Drone helped carry TSM to victory at this weekend’s Showdown. Playing Phoenix, the fiery offensive agent from Britain, Drone pushed the team forward, created openings and racked up 56 first-blood kills. He also scored 280 kills on 183 deaths (finishing with a KD ratio of 1.53). Sometimes the ace, many times the secondary Agent, Drone played a great game and shouldn’t be overlooked because of Wardell.
Surprise 2: 100 Thieves’ middling, 5th-6th place finish. My eyes were on Spencer “Hiko” Martin and 100 Thieves this weekend as the team debuted in its starting five in the Showdown. And like many fans, I was surprised and disappointed to see the No. 5 seed 100 Thieves fall first to No. 4 FaZe Clan in the upper-bracket quarterfinals, then to No. 7 Immortals in the lower-bracket semifinals. But I understood that 100 Thieves had only announced its roster Thursday, June 25 — a day before the Showdown began — and that the team would need time to develop into a threat that could challenge either TSM or T1. Still, Hiko performed impressively throughout this weekend’s Showdown, finishing third in Average Combat Score (at 255) and fourth in average kills per round. As Raze, the explosives specialist from Brazil, he racked up a nice triple kill against Code7 in group play Friday.
Highlight 3: Tyson “TenZ” Ngo. I predicted greatness from TenZ in last Friday’s newsletter, and he lived up to my expectations in many ways during the Showdown, even if his team woefully underachieved. Despite a disastrous weekend, TenZ stood out during the Showdown and finished remarkably well. He was the only player in the entire competition to average above 300 Average Combat Score and over a kill per round. Playing Jett, he dropped as many as 39 kills against Together We Are Terrific — an amateur, qualifier team — and yet his team still somehow lost, 13-12, on Haven. TenZ finished with 164 kills on 106 deaths (a KD ratio of 1.55), but sadly, he never made it past the group stage Friday. He’ll need more help from his teammates next time if he’s going to win more than just the beta Elite Esports Rivalry Bowl North America.
Surprise 3: Cloud9’s shocking collapse. Gen.G, the No. 6 seed and a fan favorite, may have stumbled in the playoffs, where it lost both the upper- and lower-bracket quarterfinals Saturday. But at least it made it to the double-elimination stage, unlike C9, which never even made it out of group play Friday. Despite the best efforts of TenZ and his many kills, C9 put on an embarrassingly bad performance in Group A, where it fell completely out of the Showdown with a 1-2 record. C9 lost 2-0 to Together We Are Terrific and again 2-0 to Prospects — both amateur, qualifier teams — and its only consolation was a 2-1 victory against FaZe Clan. If C9 wants to win, it will need to make serious improvements, because it can’t count on 20-plus kills from TenZ every game to achieve victory.
Riot Games announces new ORDER Oceanic Valorant Open, 1st Ignition Series event of 2 to be based in Australia, New Zealand
Riot Games announced Friday, June 26, that it would host the ORDER Oceanic Valorant Open next month in July, partnering with the Australian esports club ORDER.
The Oceanic Open, presented by Logitech, will be the first event of the recent Ignition Series to be held in Australia and New Zealand, and it will feature a prize pool of 10,000 Australian dollars, or about US$6,863. In addition, the Open will also be, reportedly, the first of two major stops in Oceania. The details of the second event have yet to be announced by Riot Games.
According to Riot Games, the upcoming Oceanian tournament will begin with a three-round, Swiss-format open qualifier, designed for up to 1,024 teams from Australia and New Zealand. The open qualifier will run from Friday, July 3, to Monday, July 13, and from it, 16 teams will emerge to battle it out once again at the double-elimination group stage.
This group stage will take place from Friday, July 17, to Sunday, July 19, and will be followed by a single-elimination, best-of-three playoffs from Wednesday, July 22, to Saturday, July 25.
The grand final will take place Sunday, July 26.
All stages of the Open will be broadcast on ORDER’s Twitch channel.
Information about signups is available on ORDER’s website. Also available is information about casting, as community casters may apply to take part in the event.
Cameron Bray is the lead writer for The Initiator, a recently created newsletter about Valorant produced by Numlock News. He also contributes to No Bid Nation, a new sports blog about William and Mary basketball. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @spike_cameron or send him an email at cameron@numlock.news.