The Initiator: 3 highlights and 3 surprises from this weekend’s FaZe Clan Invitational
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By Cameron Bray
3 highlights and 3 surprises from this weekend’s FaZe Clan Invitational
Like I did in Issue 4 with the T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Showdown (won by TSM) and Issue 12 with last month’s PAX Arena Invitational (won by Sentinels), I’m going to alternate between three highlights and three surprises I saw during this weekend’s FaZe Clan Invitational, which witnessed the two rivals — TSM and Sentinels — going head to head for their much-coveted second Ignition Series title. It was an amazing Invitational, with plenty of shocks and awes, so let’s get to it.
Highlight 1: skyrocketing viewership numbers for Valorant.
Above all else, I was greatly encouraged by the Twitch viewership numbers I saw last night from the Invitational: more than 160,000 peak viewers for the event, compared with only 50,000 for the Showdown and 80,000 for the previous Invitational. To me, those numbers speak to the remarkable growth and potential of Valorant and its ability to become the next major esports title.
Since I began covering Valorant nearly two months ago and since I wrote the very first newsletter — Issue 1, dating all the way back to Friday, June 19 — I’ve been concerned about the game’s viewership or audience. I wasn’t worried that the game would fail or be a bust like Amazon’s Crucible, which averaged only 361 players in June, nor was I “suspicious” of Valorant like some critics. I only thought that Valorant needed time to scale upward and grow organically, and I’m glad to see the game has lived up to my expectations. I’ve loved watching it develop. I’ve especially enjoyed these past three North American tournaments. And I’m happy to see that so many others — tens of thousands of new fans — are learning to love the game as well.
Surprise 1: TSM’s incredible comeback on Bind (Map 4 of the grand final) against Sentinels.
What can I say about Sentinels? They had it; I really thought they had it — 12-8, and they lost six-straight rounds on defense, going into overtime. Once Hunter “SicK” Mims (playing Sage) made that clutch play and defused the Spike with only 0.03 seconds remaining, I thought Sentinels would win it all. But TSM went on a rampage and cooked them like bacon, showing how truly relentless they can be on offense. I have to give TSM huge credit for that spotless game-winning performance; on the brink of losing the grand final, they had absolutely no margin for error. Sentinels really must have made them mad with that last-second defuse. Remind me never to make an enemy like TSM in real life..
Highlight 2: James “hazed” Cobb and TSM’s beef with Sentinels.
Not only was the strong smell of bacon in the air as TSM fried Sentinels those last six rounds, but you could also smell the beef sizzling between these two teams throughout the Invitational. And my Lord was it juicy. I watched and rewatched that postgame interview between Derek “wtfmoses” Moseley and hazed several times; I almost couldn’t believe that hazed called Sentinels “children” when TSM almost lost it all just five minutes ago. The rivalry between TSM and Sentinels feels real, and I’m glad it’s developing because I think it’ll drive up viewership for Valorant, Riot Games’ fledgling esports title. Just as Magic Johnson and Larry Bird saved the NBA in the 1970s, with the rivalry at its peak between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics, so too will the Sentinels–TSM rivalry “save” Valorant in 2020 and for the foreseeable future. Or to put it another way, I think hazed can be as brash to Sentinels as Michael Jordan was to Isiah Thomas and the Detroit Pistons in the late 1980s and early ’90s, and it’ll drive up ratings. Let’s hope this North American rivalry continues, pushes both teams to greater heights and grows the popularity of Valorant.
Surprise 2: Immortals putting on a show in the lower-bracket final against Sentinels.
Like most Valorant fans this weekend, I favored Sentinels over Immortals in this match — and I mean that in both ways. Not only did I think Sentinels should win this match, but I also wanted them to win because it meant that I would see Sentinels in the fated grand-final rematch against TSM. And fortunately, I got my wish, as Sentinels beat Immortals 13-9 on Bind and 13-5 on Split. But in the process of getting my wish, I got something even better as Immortals put up a fight against Sentinels. Thanks to Quan “diceyzx” Tran, who led the charge for Immortals and left the Invitational with the second-highest kill-death ratio (1.39: 266 kills on only 191 deaths), the lower-bracket final wasn’t just a wash. It was actually competitive between Sentinels and Immortals, and for a while I thought that Immortals had a shot at beating them on Bind. Even though Immortals lost that matchup, I’m excited to see what holds for them in the future.
Highlight 3: Matthew “Wardell” Yu using the Operator as Jett.
I gave Wardell my first highlight in Issue 4, but I’ll throw him another. Watching him aim the Operator down corridors and at his opponents is like watching a master painter target the canvas with his brush. It’s a work of art with such delicacy, quickness and precision that I scarcely have the words to describe it. I can only approximate it with this silly metaphor. If you haven’t already, you need to watch him operate (so to speak) on his opponents. To give you another metaphor, it’s like watching a surgeon with a scalpel carefully target his patients — and then lose his license as he gruesomely disembowels them. If the mantra of doctors and surgeons is “Do no harm,” Wardell’s tagline is, “He does not miss.”
Surprise 3: Braxton “Brax” Pierce and T1 falling out again.
For the longest time, dating all the way back to Issue 12, I referred to T1 and TSM as the “twin titans of North America.” But no more. TSM is still a titan — a two-time Ignition Series champion, to be exact — but Sentinels has toppled T1 and installed itself as the new second-in-command in North America. I’m not sure exactly what’s happened to T1 or what went wrong with the team, but it fell to TSM 2-1 in the upper-bracket quarterfinals and then it lost to Gen.G Esports, more embarrassingly, 2-0 in the lower-bracket quarterfinals. Against TSM, T1 opened with a narrow, 13-11 win on Split, but lost the next two maps (13-9 on Bind and 13-5 on Ascent). And against Gen.G, T1 lost both maps (Ascent and Split) 13-10. I still consider T1 a top-five team in North America, but Brax and his team will need to make some serious adjustments going forward if they’re going to reclaim their place from Sentinels — or, with much greater difficulty, unseat TSM.
“THE REAL KINGS OF NORTH AMERICA”: TSM wins FaZe Clan Invitational after defeating Sentinels 3-2 in hard-fought, best-of-5 grand final; team takes home 2nd Ignition Series title
Reasserting itself as the best Valorant team currently in North America, TSM won this weekend’s FaZe Clan Invitational after defeating Sentinels 3-2 in a hard-fought, best-of-five grand final Sunday, Aug. 9, that went into overtime on Map 4: Bind.
For its victory, TSM took home not only the grand prize of $25,000, but it also won its second Ignition Series title since Valorant released from beta Tuesday, June 2. Sentinels left with the silver-medal prize of $15,000, losing out on what would’ve been its second Ignition Series title, as well.
Featuring a $50,000 prize pool, this weekend’s Invitational was the third Ignition Series event in North America, after the inaugural T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Showdown (won by TSM) and last month’s PAX Arena Invitational (won by Sentinels). For Valorant, Riot Games’ new shooter, this weekend’s Invitational drew a record 160,000 peak viewers on Twitch, showing remarkable growth after the Showdown drew nearly 50,000 viewers and the previous Invitational drew around 80,000.
To win the title, TSM challenged and overcame Sentinels, winner of last month’s Invitational, in a heated grand final that featured strong (but good-natured) rivalries between the two former champions.
It was the first grand final in the game’s short, two-month history that saw two previous Valorant champions — two Ignition Series winners, specifically — go head to head. And it was also a strong turnaround for TSM, which lost last month’s Pulse Invitational (falling to Cloud9 2-1 in the quarterfinals Saturday, July 11) and fell to Sentinels 2-0 in the semifinals Saturday, July 25, at the PAX.
Having won the upper bracket, TSM entered the grand final with a one-map advantage de jure over Sentinels, the lower-bracket winner.
But Sentinels evened the score with a nice, 13-8 win on Haven, kicking off an exciting back-and-forth, four-map series. TSM pulled ahead with a narrow, 13-11 win on Split; then Sentinels tied it up 2-2 with a strong, 13-7 win on Ascent (its best map as “Ascentinels”).
In the fourth and final map, Bind, Sentinels looked to be the winner as Hunter “SicK” Mims, playing Sage, fragged his opponents, defused the Spike with a record 0.03 seconds left and put his team ahead 12-8. But TSM charged back, forced Sentinels into overtime and won six-straight rounds on offense to release the championship from Sentinels’ grasp.
“THE REAL KINGS OF [NORTH AMERICA],” TSM tweeted last night after its victory, playing off a tweet last month by Sentinels, who called themselves “THE TRUE KINGS OF NA” after winning the PAX.
That tweet was just a sampling of the bitter rivalry that emerged between these two championship-winning teams.
“I mean, someone had to put them in their place,” James “hazed” Cobb told esports caster Derek “wtfmoses” Moseley after the grand final. “They’re so disrespectful, and I’m just tired of it.”
“And someone had to do it,” the 31-year-old pro added. “So, you know, the old guy’s gotta come in and take care of children.”
Hazed, who seemed especially annoyed at Sentinels’ Jared “Zombs” Gitlin and who played Sage, Brimstone and Omen variously throughout the event, left the Invitational with 268 kills on 262 deaths (a decent kill-death ratio of 1.02) and a modest Average Combat Score of 185.
Playing Jett exclusively throughout the Invitational, Matthew “Wardell” Yu, his teammate, racked up 384 kills on 261 deaths to achieve an event-high KD ratio of 1.47 and a top-10 (seventh-best) ACS of 246.2. He also drew first blood 70 times, putting him second in that category behind his teammate Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik (with 73, as Phoenix and Brimstone).
For his strong, championship-caliber performance, Wardell took home MVP honors.
He averaged nearly a kill per round (0.93), making him the second-deadliest player round-for-round in the event after Tyson “TenZ” Ngo (0.94) as Raze and Jett.
Taylor “Drone” Johnson, who played well for TSM as Sova and Phoenix, finished with a strong 225.7 ACS and 316 kills on 262 deaths, giving him the seventh-highest KD ratio in the event at 1.21.
To reach the grand final, TSM overpowered T1 2-1 in the upper-bracket quarterfinals Friday, July 7. It then swept Immortals 2-0 in the upper-bracket semifinals Saturday, July 8, and rolled over Sentinels 2-0 in the upper-bracket final that same day.
TSM entered the double-elimination playoffs with a 2-1 record from groups, having fallen only to C9 2-1 in the upper-bracket group final Wednesday, Aug. 5. It opened with a strong, 13-5 win on Haven, but fell to C9 13-10 on Split and 13-6 on Bind.
During the upper-bracket quarterfinals against its former Showdown rival, TSM opened with a narrow, 13-11 loss on Split but recovered with a nice, 13-9 win on Bind and a strong, 13-5 win on Ascent to beat T1.
Against Immortals in the upper-bracket semifinals, TSM reigned supreme with a 13-5 win on Haven, followed by a 13-4 win on Ascent.
Immortals fell to the losers’ bracket, where it beat C9 2-1 and swept Gen.G Esports 2-0 to reach the lower-bracket final. Against C9 in Round 2, Immortals opened with an overtime, 15-13 loss on Ascent but recovered with a 13-5 win on Bind and a 13-10 win on Haven.
And then against Gen.G in Round 3, it emerged victorious with a strong, 13-5 win on Bind, followed by another strong, 13-4 win on Split.
In a prelude to the grand final, Sentinels met TSM in the upper-bracket final, where it lost 13-9 on Ascent and 18-16 on Haven in overtime.
It arrived after having swept FaZe Clan, the host, 2-0 in the upper-bracket quarterfinals and having beaten Team Envy 2-1 in the upper-bracket semifinals. Sentinels entered the playoffs that day with a perfect, 2-0 record from groups.
Against FaZe in the upper-bracket quarterfinals, Sentinels opened with a strong, 13-5 win on Bind and sealed the deal with a slightly narrower, 13-8 win on Ascent. And then against Envy in the upper-bracket semifinals, Sentinels dropped the opening map, Split, 13-10 but bounced back with a 13-7 win on Ascent, followed by a 13-10 win on Bind.
After Sentinels fell to TSM in the upper-bracket final, it dropped to the lower-bracket final, where it swept Immortals 2-0. Sentinels opened with a narrow, 13-9 win on Bind and secured its place in the grand final against TSM — the fated rematch — with a strong, 13-5 win on Split.
Immortals took home the bronze-medal prize of $7,500, while Gen.G, having fallen earlier in Lower-Bracket Round 3, left with $2,500.
In long-awaited, long-expected move, Team Liquid signs fish123 for pro Valorant squad
In a long-awaited, long-expected move — one that was first discovered Monday, July 3 — Team Liquid signed fish123 as its Valorant starting five Friday, Aug. 7.
With the signing, Liquid’s roster will now feature Adam “ec1s” Eccles, Dom “soulcas” Sulcas, James “Kryptix” Affleck, Travis “L1NK” Mendoza and Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom, who will all be sporting Liquid’s iconic blue and white jerseys with the strong horse head logo.
In its three-minute announcement video, which was heavily teased throughout last week and has since been viewed more than 1.3 million times on Twitter, Liquid introduced each of its new players, all five of whom have professional roots in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Led by ec1s, the primarily British amateur team fish123 competed in a variety of tournaments, unsigned, before being picked up by Liquid. The team finished in second at last month’s WePlay! Invitational, where it fell to G2 Esports 2-0 in the grand final Sunday, July 19.
More recently, fish123 took part in the Mandatory.gg Cup, where it lost to TBD 13-6 (on Bind) in the 16-team round Friday, July 31.
In Europe, top esports clubs and professional organizations have been slower to sign Valorant players than their North American counterparts.
Aside from G2, which now dominates the region with three consecutive Ignition Series titles, few professional organizations have made moves so far in Europe.
Victor Goossens, Liquid’s founder and co-owner, said he wanted to move into Riot Games’ new shooter before the closed beta began Tuesday, April 7. But he and his team opted instead for a more cautious approach: survey the game, study the talent and sign at the right moment.
“We’ve been talking to valid players and looking around for quite a while,” Goossens told ESPN’s Arda Ocal. “I mean, these things don’t really happen just overnight. We’d be paying keen attention to ScreaM, his skill level, just what he was showing to the world. He’s really one of the world's best players, if not the best player in the world. We’ve been talking to him for some time.”
When Ardis “Ardiis” Svarenieks left fish123 to join G2 last month — an earth-shattering move for the region Friday, July 3 — ScreaM began to play tournaments with the remaining four.
The five-stack played well together and became one of the top unsigned teams in Europe, with ScreaM making huge contributions to the team at last month’s Invitational and Cup.
Playing Breach and Sage, he finished the Invitational with 236 kills on 202 deaths (a good kill-death ratio of 1.17) and an Average Combat Score of 252.9.
ScreaM left the Cup, next, with the highest KD ratio (2.23: 87 kills on 39 deaths) and the second-most kills per round, averaging 1.26 frags per round as he played Reyna and Sage.
Once ScreaM joined fish123 and started playing well, Goossens saw the perfect opportunity to sign the whole team.
“That basically was the dream from our perspective,” Goossens added. “On the one hand, you have a legend and a veteran in ScreaM; he can really be a role model. On the other hand, a couple of the players are still really young and have a ton of room to grow. And we think it’s a really, really healthy mix for a long-term roster.”
Goossens said Liquid had been negotiating with fish123 and ScreaM for three to four months before a deal was presented.
“If you’re shooting for the best teams in the world, you’re competing for those guys,” Goossens added, alluding to competition from other interested parties.
Liquid’s new Valorant squad (formerly fish123) will compete in Europe, but the organization may eventually sign another team to compete in North America.
Goossens discussed that possibility as well during his interview.
“I think we’re actually open to maybe seeing if we can still have a North American lineup,” Goossens told ESPN’s Ocal. “I wouldn’t rule that out per se, maybe having players in both regions. But when you have a strategy for a region, you’ve got to find the right players. And so we really had that with fish123 and ScreaM, just super thrilled that we get to work with them.”
But that possibility could change depending on how Valorant grows over the next year and whether a worldwide competition ever becomes feasible.
Cameron Bray is the lead writer for The Initiator, a recently created newsletter about Valorant sponsored 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.