CS:GO AWPer Aleksandr “zorte” Zagodyrenko is statistically the third-best player of the BLAST Paris Major Challengers Stage but his heroics weren’t enough to push FORZE over the line and qualify for the Legends Stage.
The Russian team were knocked out of the event following a 2-0 loss to GamerLegion on May 11 in the 2-2 pool of the Swiss system. Although FORZE fell flat and failed to advance after being 2-1 up in the Challengers Stage, zorte was consistently great during the event. He averaged a 1.33 rating after seven maps, according to HLTV, and most notably recorded a +63 K-D difference, which is higher than G2’s m0NESY (+40)—who’s undoubtedly the best player of this event thanks to a superb 1.49 rating in four maps.
While zorte had the best performance of his career in a tier-one LAN event, according to HLTV, the same can’t be said about his teammates. The rifler Aleksandr “shalfey” Marenov was FORZE’s second-best player in the BLAST Paris Major Challengers Stage after recording a positive K-D difference (+4) and averaging a 1.06 rating.
Other than zorte and shalfey, the other FORZE players—Andrey “Jerry” Mekhryakov, Vladislav “Krad” Kravchenko, and Evgeny “r3salt” Frolov—struggled individually and averaged a rating below the 1.00 mark, which shows that perhaps that game plan wasn’t on point. Even so, the AWPer said after the elimination that he could have done even more.
“I’m crying, sorry, we didn’t show up in important moments, I always think that I could [do] better in every moment,” zorte said on Twitter. “Thanks for [your] support, I will be better for the next Major.”
The Challengers Stage of the BLAST Paris Major will finish on May 11 and the tournament will resume on Saturday, May 13 with the Legends Stage, in which some of the best teams in the world such as Natus Vincere, Heroic, and Vitality await.
