On March 22nd, Riot successfully concluded the VALORANT Champions Tour Stage 1 Masters Final worldwide. Hundreds of thousands of spectators glued their eyes to the monitor to witness the rise of VALORANT eSports.
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Particularly in North America, VALORANT fans observed the beginning of a fascinating rivalry between Andrej “babybay” Francisty and Tyson “TenZ” Ngo. The battle between these two mechanically gifted talents caught the attention of eSports enthusiasts worldwide. Apparently, people outside of VALORANT community also showed huge interest in this contest.
Sentinels added TenZ to their roster just days before their first match against Luminosity. Sintraa’s sudden absence from the team due to an ongoing investigation left the team with a very low chance to secure anything in the tournament. However, TenZ’s exceptional performance assisted the Seintels roster to dominate throughout the tournament.
On the other hand, the former Overwatch professional babybay had a different run in the tournament. Andrej has been an active part of the Faze’s VALORANT roster since August of 2020. From the very beginning, Faze struggled to find its place in the highly competitive VALORANT scene of North America. Their token victories often got overshadowed amidst the fierce rivalry between TSM and T1. In a strange turn of events, Faze slowly worked their way upwards, only to become a force to be reckoned with.
Their rivalry started days before the match on March 20th. Some people predicted that TenZ’s superior Counter-Strike experience would putdown babybay’s rising form; on the contrary, babybay’s hyper-aggressive playstyle wasn’t getting overlooked either. However, statistical analysis might help us to benchmark their overall performance throughout the Stage 1 Masters event.Â
To assess their performance in a symmetrical way, babybay’s lower bracket match against Gen.G will not be considered.
Statistical Overview: TenZ Vs. babybay
According to vlr.gg, in 4 full matches, TenZ secured a total of 201 kills in the tournament. At the same time, babybay managed to drop 167 kills. In terms of the Average Combat Score, TenZ again obtains a lead with 282 points, whereas babybay comes at a close second with 270 points.
However, the statistics won’t establish any solid conclusion as TenZ & babybay did not play an equal number of maps. The only limiting factor in the calculation is babybay’s match against Gen.G, which, if taken into consideration, will put him at an unfair advantage in the demographic.
Performance Overview: Grand Final
After their defeat against Sentinels in the first encounter at Upper Bracket Finals, the Faze roster rapidly advanced to secure a rematch, eliminating Gen.G in the process. In their rematch, it was pretty clear that Sentinels was more than prepared to face the onslaught. Although Faze started strong in Ascent, Sentinels managed to take the situation under their control. Under ShahZam’s experienced leadership, Sentinels maintained their posture while securing a 3-0 victory over Faze.
As it appears, both TenZ & babybay kept low profiles to assist their teams. Simply, being alive seemed to be a bigger advantage than early aggressions. Additionally, both players also came face to face multiple times in Ascent, Bind & Haven. TenZ had a KD ratio of 1.47 in the Grand Final, while babybay’s kept a ratio of 1.30.
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Ultimately, it’s TenZ who secured the title of NA’s first-ever VALORANT Masters winner. For babybay and the rest of the Faze fans, the battle is far from over. It’s quite obvious that both of these players will dominate the North American VALORANT scene for a while.