The Initiator: 3 players to watch at the PAX Arena Invitational
G2 Esports wins WePlay! Invitational, Cloud9 sweeps through EsportsDoug x eUnited Charity Clash, Complexity Gaming signs Valorant starting five, 3 streamers to watch this week during the PAX Arena Invitational and more
By Cameron Bray
“ANOTHER ONE TO THE TROPHY CABINET”: G2 Esports dominates WePlay! Invitational in awesome show of force, winning team’s 2nd Ignition Series title, Mixwell’s 4th Valorant championship since release
Completing another next-to-perfect tournament run in which it dropped only two maps all weekend, G2 Esports won the $50,000 WePlay! Valorant Invitational after sweeping underdog fish123 2-0 in the grand final Sunday, July 19.
It was the team’s 13th-straight victory in match play, an incredible streak dating all the way back to the Vitality European Open qualifiers Sunday, July 5 — little more than two weeks ago.
The win not only netted G2 the juicy grand prize of $25,000 — its largest tournament winnings yet, by far — but it also scored the team its second Ignition Series title since the series began Tuesday, June 16.
Plus, most incredibly of all, it gave superstar team captain Oscar “Mixwell” Cañellas Colocho his fourth major European title since Valorant was released from beta Tuesday, June 2.
Now, with four of Mixwell’s championships and two team titles under its belt, G2 is looking like one of the top Valorant teams worldwide — if not the very best Valorant team on earth.
The team is hungry, ready and well-prepared for when or if a Valorant world championship becomes a reality.
“BEST TEAM IN THE WORLD BROOOO I’M TELLING YOU!” teammate David “Davidp” Prins tweeted yesterday.
Though unsigned by G2 — the only one of five not under contract — Davidp has played for G2 both in the Open and in this weekend’s Invitational as a sort of de facto trial member.
Playing Sage solely throughout the Invitational, the 25-year-old Belgian finished with the second highest kill-death ratio in the tournament — surprising for a healer. With a strong KD ratio of 1.28 (199 kills on 156 deaths), Davidp passed both secondary star Ardis “Ardiis” Svarenieks (1.23: 216 kills on 176 deaths) and Mixwell (1.17: 200 kills on 171 deaths) in this metric.
Davidp also finished with a top-10 Average Combat Score, coming in ninth at 214.9 ACS.
Mixwell, meanwhile, left with the tournament with the eighth highest ACS at 216.2, playing Jett. And Ardiis finished with 252.9 ACS, as Raze and Sova, coming in fourth.
If G2 doesn’t sign Davidp, who’s been instrumental to the team’s success, numerous European and North American teams might be interested in making him the cornerstone of their new Valorant franchises.
During the grand final against fish123 — Ardiis’s former team, interestingly enough — Mixwell, Davidp and G2 opened with a decent, 13-9 win on Bind before closing out the tournament with a solid, 13-8 win on Ascent.
Fish123 took home the silver-medal prize of $15,000.
To reach the grand final against fish123, G2 swept Hungarian amateur team need more DM 2-0 in the semifinals Saturday, July 18. G2 opened with a powerful, 13-3 win on Bind and followed it up with a narrower, 13-7 win on Ascent.
Fish123 had already beaten Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-1 earlier that day to move ahead.
The British amateur team dropped the first map, Haven, to Ninjas, 13-9. But it recovered spectacularly over the next two maps, winning both: First, it settled the score with a powerful, 13-5 win on Bind and then it sealed the deal with a hard-fought, 17-15 win on Ascent.
DM and Ninjas both took home the third- and fourth-place prize of $5,000.
In Rounds 1–3 earlier last week, G2 went 3-0, dropping only two maps to its opponents even as it went undefeated in best-of-three group play. It lost only on Split to PartyParrots, 13-9, in Round 1 (Thursday, July 16) and on Bind to Ninjas, 13-8, in Round 2 (Friday, July 17).
Fish123 went 2-1 in groups, falling only to Ninjas, 2-1, in a hard-fought second round.
3 streamers to watch this week during the PAX Arena Invitational
As we await the next major North American tournament — the PAX Arena Invitational, which starts Wednesday, July 22, with preliminaries — I’m going to recommend three streamers for you to watch this week. Like I did in Issue 1 and Issue 3 of this newsletter, I’ll give a brief description of each player and then hyperlink their social media for you. But keeping in mind my previous newsletters, I’m going to promote three streamers I’ve not recommended previously.
First, I’ll recommend Matthew “Wardell” Yu. Playing Sova and Jett for TSM, Wardell was the team’s star at last month’s T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Showdown, where TSM swept tournament host T1 3-0 in the grand final Sunday, June 28. Against prodigy Braxton “Brax” Pierce and his talented squad of former Counter-Strike pros, Wardell and the No. 1 seed TSM held their own and looked dominant throughout the Showdown as they beat the No. 3 seed T1 twice: during the upper-bracket final and then in the grand final. By the end of the Showdown, Wardell finished with 298 kills on only 205 deaths (a kill-death ratio of 1.37), so he played incredibly well. He and TSM may have performed less well at last weekend’s Pulse Invitational, where they fell to Cloud9 2-1 in a shocking quarterfinals upset. But I expect they’ll bounce back in a major way at this week’s Invitational, where they’ll face C9 again and a host of great regional teams.
Besides being talented, Wardell is also an extremely fun player to watch because he brings a ton of energy and volume to his livestreams of Valorant. He lost his voice eight days ago because he got so excited during a stream, so he’s certainly got the personality — and the skill — to lead TSM forward. He’s an entertaining figure above all else, which is why I’ll recommend him first. Be sure to follow Wardell on his Twitch and Twitter throughout this week’s Invitational for updates.
Second, I’ll recommend Jay “sinatraa” Wong. Sentinels may not be the best Valorant team in North America — their only title so far is from the Gamers For Equality charity event Sunday, July 8 — but they are by far the most entertaining. They come out each round playing hot and heavy, and I mean hot andheavy. Whatever the map, whoever the opponent, they’ll fling themselves around like gun-toting, trigger-happy acrobots and find success against more traditional-minded rivals who are unable to adapt. And oftentimes Sentinel’s ace in the hole — its wild card against these opponents — is sinatraa, who chooses firearms unpredictably, charges in from random angles and wields the Odin like a bullet-spraying angel of death. Armed with his trusty heavy machine gun, which fires off a huge magazine of 100 bullets, sinatraa will shoot like a madman and make Swiss cheese of his opponents through solid walls.
Sinatraa and Sentinels struggled at last month’s T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Showdown, where they lost Round 2 of the lower bracket Saturday, June 27, to FaZe Clan. But they’ve recovered spectacularly since then, winning Gamers For Equality and taking home bronze at last weekend’s Pulse Invitational, where they swept Together We Are Terrific 2-0 in the third-place match Sunday, July 12. They’re on the up and up, and I expect — or rather, I hope — they’ll do well at this week’s Invitational. Follow sinatraa on Twitch so you can watch him play during the Invitational, and check his Twitter for updates.
Third and finally, I’ll recommend Anthony “mummAy” DiPaolo. One of five former Counter-Strike pros who played for Together We Are Terrific — now Team Envy, a professional Valorant squad — mummAy found a surprising and encouraging amount of success with his amateur squad of unsigned Valorant rookies. Together We Are Terrific finished in second at Gamers For Equality, where it reached the grand final Wednesday, July 8, before falling narrowly to Sentinels, 2-1. And more recently, the team finished in fourth at last weekend’s Pulse invitational, where it lost the third-place match Sunday, July 12, to Sentinels (again) in a 2-0 sweep. Playing Jett and Sova for Together We Are Terrific, mummAy left Gamers For Equality with 99 kills on 89 deaths (a decent KD ratio of 1.11). And during last weekend’s Invitational, in which he also played Sage, he finished with 93 kills on 94 deaths (a much lower KD ratio of 0.99). So mummAy definitely has plenty of room to grow as he and his teammates from Together We Are Terrific begin competing in tournaments as Envy.
MummAy may not be one of the biggest Valorant superstars worldwide, but he’s one of the better players on the Envy squad. So I’m curious to see how he and his former crew from Together We Are Terrific perform at this week’s Invitational. I’m interested in how they’ll perform now that they’ve gone pro and signed with esports giant Envy, which also owns the Dallas Fuel in the Overwatch League and the Dallas Empire in the Call of Duty League. So be sure to follow mummAy on Twitch and Twitter to see how he and Envy are doing throughout the Invitational.
Boding well for future, Cloud9 rolls through EsportsDoug x eUnited Charity Clash undefeated, sweeps Pulse Invitational champ Gen.G Esports 2-0 in grand final
In an amazing show of force, Cloud9 rolled over its competition this weekend at the eight-team EsportsDoug x eUnited Charity Clash, where it went undefeated and swept each of its three opponents 2-0 in the best-of-three, single-elimination playoffs.
Most importantly of all, C9 swept Gen.G Esports, winner of the recent Pulse Invitational, 2-0 in the grand final Saturday, July 18.
C9’s win marked a stunning reversal from the $10,000 Invitational, where Gen.G swept its opponent 2-0 in the grand final Sunday, July 12.
During this weekend’s Charity Clash, C9 opened the grand final with a strong, 13-6 win on Split before closing it out with another 13-6 win, this time on Bind.
Though not an official Valorant tournament or an Ignition Series event, this weekend’s exciting Charity Clash also marked a turning point for C9 and for superstar captain Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, who had been struggling in tournament play until recently.
It was the first major competitive win for C9 since the Elite Esports Rivalry Bowl North America — in the game’s beta — Sunday, May 17.
TenZ lost the game’s inaugural Twitch Rivals Tournament, where his team fell out of group play Saturday, June 6, with a 1-2 record. And he and his teammates at C9 were equally bad at last month’s T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Showdown, where they fell out groups Friday, June 26, with another 1-2 record, losing to amateur, qualifier teams Together We Are Terrific and Prospects.
TenZ and C9 finished second at last weekend’s Invitational, defeating Showdown winner TSM 2-1 in an incredible quarterfinals upset Saturday, July 11.
The Stat: Playing a variety of Agents throughout this weekend’s Charity Clash, but most frequently Jett (three maps out of six), TenZ racked up 124 kills on only 77 deaths (an impressive kill-death ratio of 1.61). He averaged more than a kill per round, with 1.07, becoming the only player to do so. And he finished the day with the highest Average Combat Score as well as the only one above 300: 316.2 ACS to the next man’s 286.3. He also drew first blood more times than any other player, with 30 first-blood kills to the next man’s 25.
This weekend’s Charity Clash was hosted by video-game shoutcaster “EsportsDoug” Cortez and North American esports club eUnited. Its $10,000 prize pool will benefit Gamers Outreach, which helps provide recreation to children in hospitals.
Complexity Gaming signs new starting five ahead of this week’s PAX Arena Invitational
Complexity Gaming made its entrance into competitive Valorant late last week, as the Texas esports giant announced Friday, July 17, its starting five for the game: Michael “AGM” Abood, Corbin “CoM” Lee, David “XP3” Garrido, Cody “Frisco” Day and Riley “ohaaiii” Nguyen.
Complexity’s signees come from a wide range of first-person shooters. AGM, CoM and XP3 are all veterans of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Frisco has experience in Counter-Strike, but has also competed in Overwatch tournaments. Ohaaiii played Apex Legends professionally for the Las Vegas MiniGunners, making him an outlier on Complexity’s new Valorant roster.
Complexity’s first test will be this week’s PAX Arena Invitational, the second Ignition Series event to be based in North America. Running from Wednesday, July 22, to Sunday, July 26, the $25,000 Invitational will feature 16 of the top Valorant teams in the region, such as TSM, T1, Cloud9, Gen.G Esports, 100Thieves and FaZe Clan.
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.