FaZe
Lost 2-1 to Rise in Upper Quarterfinals
- W 13-8 Breeze
- L 8-13 Ascent
- L 7-13 Bind
Lost 2-0 to Version1 in Lower Round 1 - L 10-13 Icebox
- L 10-13 Breeze
BabyJ
BabyJ managed to put up some impressive stats on the lurking Killjoy role when he was able to play it but ultimately none of those performances translated into match wins. He also played Viper on Bind and Icebox where he looked significantly less comfortable and performed significantly worse on those roles. He has since come out and said that he is fielding offers form other teams and it brings into question whether that is a decision made by him or by the organisation. Was the fragging that BabyJ was providing on Killjoy 'empty', or do FaZe want a player who is more comfortable on Viper so that they can exploit the 'double smoke' meta on maps like Bind?
As aforementioned, BabyJ had some high-kill games - 0.95 Kills per round on Ascent, and 1.26 Kills per round on Breeze vs V1. But both of these maps ended up being losses for FaZe and the only map they won throughout the tournament was statistically BabyJ's worst Killjoy performance.
That difference in comfort between Killjoy and Viper for BabyJ is pretty evident from all of the stats but ACS shows it best:
His average ACS on Viper is less than half of his numbers on Killjoy. Of course, it is a small sample size but it is clear that BabyJ struggled to put up the same numbers on Viper and you have to wonder if that played into the decision to potentially let him go
babybay
The king of the 'refined smeag' came out burning hot in the first game against Rise with an extraordinary 11 First Kills that essentially won FaZe the game. After that game Babybay had a bit more difficulty in those first duels going -4 in first kills/first deaths after that game but he continued to fill that entry role for FaZe and had another good game on Breeze against V1. Breeze, just by map design, really suits the super-aggressive jett op that babybay likes to play with so it's not surprising to see him play well on that map.
ACS as % of Team Total babybay
As aforementioned, babybay is a first kill demon on Breeze but needs to find a way to replicate that impact on other maps that perhaps don't facilitate him as well as Breeze.
Maybe next year we will see an even more refined smeag...
corey
corey is another one of those players who went from having an incredible versatile agent pool to now almost exclusively playing Skye and it did seem like there were some growing pains this tournament. He was comfortably middle of the pack when it came to damage and kills but he didn't have that pop-off performance that NA Valorant viewers have grown accustomed to. He 100% has the potential to be a really dangerous Skye player though.
If the meta stays as it is in terms of the Skye and Sova combo, I definitely think Corey will only continue to improve but I also can help but consider a player like corey on Kay-O setting up babybay with flashes and silences. Only time will tell where FaZe go from here.
Rawkus
The other half of FaZe's Sova and Skye duo, Rawkus played a pretty good tournament except for the Breeze game against V1. I think he played a lot better against Rise than he did against V1 and it's difficult to know exactly what to attribute that to but it's a shame we didn't get to see more of him. Probably the most consistent player on this team and that's exactly what I would want from my Sova main.
ZachaREEE
Looking at this man's agent pick rates throughout his career is pretty impressive and once again we seem him split his time between three different agents.
-40% Astra
-40% Viper
20% Sage
Oddly, he also seemed to struggle on the Viper when he was playing it which may also contribute towards the BabyJ situation if the team feels that they need a consistent and strong Viper palyer. Whenever he was playing Astra he seemed solid. He isn't as flashy with his sucks and stuns as some of the other Astras in NA but he does his job and that's all you can really ask of him. Really like his Sage on Icebox as well. Pretty much the only bright spot on that map for FaZe and it's rare to see a Sage on Icebox play well in terms of fragging.
ACS as % of Team Total ZachaREEE
Overall Team
I actually think FaZe are in a worse position after this tournament than LG are. They're clearly considering some roster moves but I don't see an obvious fix, they've been trying to work around the ultra-aggressive playstyle for so long and they've been stonewalled in most competitions. It's unfortunate but it seems that they're going to move on from BabyJ which indicates to me that they will probably look for a more comfortable Viper player so that they can switch ZachaREEE to Astra full time. They've got a while to make some changes though so it'll definitely be interesting to see where they are at at the start of next year
In the meantime, here are some more interesting graphs.
ACS Throughout Tournament for FaZe
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Once again, thank you for reading and checking out these graphs. I'll try to keep these coming for all of the teams that participated in the LCQ but they are going to take longer and longer as the teams have played more games. Really looking forward to the finals later. Any suggestions to improve the format or ideas for more graphs and stats to include are welcome.
Other threads completed are linked below:
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