Are Natus Vincere the biggest chokers at Valorant Champions 2023?
While I was procrastinating researching the matter by reviewing VODs on YouTube and Twitch, someone pointed out a metric to me that I found quite interesting. Natus Vincere crashed out of the group stage at Champions '23 despite winning an average of 12.9 rounds per map. So I got curious and decided to see if this was a good, or a bad average compared to other teams. The results show a shocking truth.
Natus Vincere achieved 1W-2L in the group stage while at LA, winning 103 rounds and losing 101. They are the ONLY team to have a positive rounds won/rounds lost ratio out of all teams that were eliminated at the group stage. NAVI played 2 maps against Team Liquid, 3 maps against DRX, and 3 maps against LOUD. This means they've played a total of 8 maps. 103 ÷ 8 = 12.87 rounds won, per map. Let's compare this to other teams at the tournament:
✅ 1. Paper Rex: 13.75 rounds/map
✅ 2. Evil Geniuses: 13.5 rounds/map
✅ 3. Fnatic: 13.0 rounds/map
❌ 4. Natus Vincere: 12.87 rounds/map
✅ 5. DRX: 12.83 rounds/map
✅ 6. FUT Esports: 12.5 rounds/map
✅ 7. EDward Gaming: 12.28 rounds/map
✅ 8. LOUD: 11.5 rounds/map
❌ 9. Giants: 10.57 rounds/map
✅ 10. Bilibili Gaming (tied): 10.5 rounds/map
❌ 10. NRG (tied): 10.5 rounds/map
❌ 11. T1: 9.83 rounds/map
❌ 12. KRU Esports: 9.25 rounds/map
❌ 13. Team Liquid: 9.0 rounds/map
❌ 14. FunPlus Phoenix: 8.25 rounds/map
❌ 15. ZETA Division: 6.25 rounds/map
As shown, NAVI have got the highest figure of average rounds won per map of all teams eliminated in the group stage at Champions 2023, even surpassing 5 out of 8 teams who have qualified for the knockout rounds. Some other notable teams were Fnatic, who have an exact 13.0 score, as they have never been taken to Overtime on any map, nor have they lost a map, as well as Bilibili Gaming and NRG, who have the same score for this metric.
These results do indeed suggest that NAVI are the biggest chokers at the tournament thus far, as well as BLG and NRG being on pretty much the same level, despite BLG destroying NRG on two separate occasions in the same tournament. However this may be due to NRG's destruction of ZETA Division in the second map, while Bilibili Gaming had to face the much tougher Fnatic, resulting in BLG having the lowest rounds won per map of all teams qualified for the knockout phase, perhaps suggesting that they are the dark horse, underdog team.
So did NAVI choke? Or did they almost come back?