The first two weeks of group stage action in the 2022 NA VCT Stage Two Challengers main event have produced some surprising results and some stellar individual performances. Early on, two names stand apart from the rest in OpTic’s Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker and Luminosity’s Brandon Michael “bdog” Sanders.
After two weeks of VALORANT play, yay and bdog sit at the No. 1 and No. 2 spot, respectively, in both average combat score (ACS), kill/death ratio (KD), and average damage per round (ADR), according to VLR. Yay leads with a 283 ACS and a 1.69 KD, but bdog sits right behind him with a 274 ACS and 1.54 KD. Both figures are significantly higher than the next highest (NiSMO’s 251.2 ACS and corey’s 1.30 KD). Yay also leads in ADR with 176.3, with bdog right behind him at 164.9.
Both players are masterfully using Chamber (with bdog also taking on Jett) to provide entry kills and overall value to their respective teams. They’re both in the top four of all players in first kills per round, but Evil Geniuses’ boostio has narrowly edged out yay for the top spot in that category.
Bdog also holds the third-highest spot when it comes to KAST% at 78 percent, meaning that in 78 percent of his total 121 rounds played, he’s gotten a kill, an assist, he’s survived, or he’s traded. KAST% is widely used as a metric for measuring a player’s overall value to a team. Both NRG’s Ethan and Ghost’s aproto share the top spot in that category at 81 percent.
It’s no coincidence that both players’ high level of play has translated to overall success for their teams. Both OpTic and LG, who share the same group, are 2-0 with OpTic holding wins over FaZe and Cloud9, while LG own victories over Sentinels and FaZe. Fittingly, the two teams are scheduled to face off in the fifth and final week of the group stage on Sunday, June 12.
