Sentinels & FaZe Clan pick up their second loss; OpTic closes out Cloud9 on Decider - NA Stage 2 Week 2 Group B Recap

Group B managed to keep up with Group A in terms of the entertainment value, as we saw some extremely close matchups almost turning into upsets. Here’s a detailed recap of Group B matchups this week.

FaZe Clan vs Luminosity Gaming:

VCT 2022 - North America - Stage 2 - Main Event

FaZe Clan

0

X

2

Luminosity Gaming

Group B, Best of 3 - May 20, 2022 - 8:00PM

11

Fracture

13

12

Icebox

14

FaZe Clan

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

supamen

1.03

206

33/32/21

+1

1.03

76.3%

144.3

25%

40%

4

6

babybay

0.98

243

38/41/9

-3

0.93

72.1%

165.7

13%

53%

8

7

dicey

0.94

201

37/33/5

+4

1.12

69.9%

137.1

32%

64%

9

5

flyuh

0.90

192

34/32/7

+2

1.06

68.1%

127.7

32%

0%

0

4

POISED

0.78

152

26/30/16

-4

0.87

64.1%

100.0

23%

38%

3

5

Luminosity Gaming

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

Bdog

1.06

208

40/30/5

+10

1.33

72.3%

128.1

24%

55%

6

5

mada

1.05

232

39/37/12

+2

1.05

72.1%

163.9

16%

57%

8

6

TiGG

1.02

208

34/35/20

-1

0.97

76.1%

141.0

25%

50%

6

6

moose⁠

0.87

155

28/31/18

-3

0.90

76.1%

96.7

25%

50%

2

2

dazzLe

0.79

163

27/35/15

-8

0.77

69.9%

109.5

22%

50%

5

5

Luminosity Gaming had a strong start to the VCT 2022 - North America - Stage 2 - Main Event after a win against Sentinels with the addition of Eric "Kanpeki" Xu from Akrew. In contrast, FaZe Clan with a relatively new roster, had to face off against the winners of the recently concluded NSG 2022 Winter Championship - Fullerton LAN and arguably the best team in the NA region OpTic Gaming.

Proceedings commenced on Fracture and Luminosity did not hesitate to ramp up their aggressiveness in their first few rounds allowing them to take an early 5-1 lead to start the matchup. FaZe’s roster knew better than to allow Luminosity to maintain the momentum, and their efforts came to fruition as they were able to put up five rounds by halftime and reduce the score to a two-point deficit. Winning the first couple coming into the second half proved beneficial in diffusing the lead, but only momentarily as Luminosity regained their defensive poise to elevate their lead to 11-8. FaZe had only a couple of rounds more before the map would slip from their hand; therefore, they fueled all their aggression into the subsequent rounds to Luminosity to an 11-11 tie. Unfortunately, Luminosity took the final rounds and finished the map.

Being down 1-0 wasn’t the most optimal situation FaZe would’ve wanted. However, the silver lining to their loss was that they now had the map pick, which is why they directed their attention towards Icebox and the difference in their performance was eminent. They not only put up a five-round streak, but they were able to maintain an equal footing with Luminosity by the end of the first hal instead of being in the back-seat. This position provided them with enough leeway in the 2nd half because LG tried replicating their first-map aggressiveness and almost sneak an easy win on the map. Quan "dicey" Tran and Kevin "POISED" Ngo did their best to get the team back in the matchup by forcing overtime, but they were unable to capitalize and accepted their second loss of the event.

Evil Geniuses vs Sentinels:

VCT 2022 - North America - Stage 2 - Main Event

Evil Geniuses

2

X

0

Sentinels

Group B, Best of 3 - May 21, 2022 - 11:00PM

13

Ascent

11

13

Icebox

10

Evil Geniuses

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

jawgemo

1.26

255

43/30/12

+13

1.43

74.5%

160.3

21%

64%

7

4

C0M

1.25

236

39/26/20

+13

1.50

72.4%

161.0

28%

67%

4

2

Boostio

1.13

236

39/30/11

+9

1.30

72.4%

150.1

26%

58%

11

8

Apotheon

1.06

196

34/32/16

+2

1.06

76.7%

124.4

22%

100%

2

0

Reformed

0.83

162

24/35/20

-11

0.69

72.4%

103.1

19%

56%

5

4

Sentinels

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

SicK

1.11

222

39/32/9

+7

1.22

72.6%

141.2

30%

30%

3

7

ShahZaM

0.95

203

31/32/13

-1

0.97

70.2%

150.9

28%

40%

2

3

dapr

0.87

184

29/35/11

-6

0.83

63.8%

126.7

16%

0%

0

3

TenZ

0.82

193

30/41/6

-11

0.73

72.5%

126.5

23%

47%

9

10

Kanpeki

0.82

168

24/39/21

-15

0.62

55.0%

109.6

15%

40%

4

6

Despite a poor showing in VCT 2022 - North America - Stage 1 - Main Event, Evil Geniuses managed to return to this stage’s main event. However, their initial game didn’t proceed as they would’ve wished for it to as Cloud9 were able to close out a close game with 15-13 and 13-9 scores on consecutive maps. On the other hand, Sentinels had to face an unfortunate loss against Luminosity Gaming as they still struggle to find an optimal strategy with their new lineup.

Evil Geniuses tried to get the early upper hand on Ascent, their map pick, by taking the first couple of rounds but Sentinel with their vast tournament experience, and lessons from their recent loss were able to sway the momentum by taking five consecutive rounds before Cloud9 could break free and rival it with enough rounds to tie the game 6-6 at the half. Evil Geniuses is no stranger to the lethality of Sentinels on defense, which is why they wasted no time in penetrating their defense within the first three rounds of the second half. However, Sentinels still managed to maintain their composure and force the lead in their favour putting EG in a difficult position. Kelden "Boostio" Pupello’s 4K came in a huge clutch for EG to turn the map around and close out before Sentinels forced overtime.

EG had just won in optimal conditions, and were now playing Icebox Fracture, the latter’s map pick, which meant that they would’ve to further elevate their gameplay. But neither team were able to completely dominate in the first half and a familiar pattern emerged with both teams taking six rounds apiece by halfime. EG capitalized on the pistol round once again allowing them to extend the lead early to 8-6 before Sentinels retaliated with three rounds of their own. This was the last showing by Sentinels because what followed was pure EG dominance as Alexander "jawgemo" Mor led the team to a close out the map with 1.55 Rating, 312 ACS and 1.80 KD. He had been a dominant force in the qualifiers and is proving to live up to the hype in the ongoing event as well. It is also worth noting that EG finally managed to break their curse and win their first Main Event game after going on a 0-5 record in VCT 2022 - North America - Stage 1 - Main Event.

OpTic Gaming vs Cloud9:

VCT 2022 - North America - Stage 2 - Main Event

OpTic Gaming

2

X

1

Cloud9

Group B, Best of 3 - May 22, 2022 - 8:00PM

4

Icebox

13

13

Ascent

5

13

Haven

10

OpTic Gaming

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

yay

1.30

260

57/39/6

+18

1.46

73.1%

165.8

23%

61%

14

9

Marved

1.13

211

45/37/20

+8

1.22

83.8%

145.4

32%

86%

6

1

Victor

1.09

225

42/41/21

+1

1.02

71.6%

155.1

26%

58%

11

8

FNS

0.95

189

37/42/16

-5

0.88

75.9%

116.9

19%

40%

2

3

crashies

0.78

154

32/38/14

-6

0.84

77.4%

94.0

20%

75%

3

1

Cloud9

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

Xeppaa

1.25

238

53/42/16

+11

1.26

77.9%

141.2

25%

33%

1

2

mitch

0.96

201

44/38/10

+6

1.16

75.4%

133.7

22%

44%

4

5

curry

0.94

180

36/42/21

-6

0.86

78.0%

108.0

33%

50%

4

4

leaf

0.89

212

38/44/13

-6

0.86

68.1%

133.2

16%

34%

10

19

vanity

0.71

153

26/47/22

-21

0.55

73.7%

100.9

10%

33%

3

6

As expected, OpTic Gaming had no difficulty in winning their first matchup of the event against FaZe Clan and Cloud9 were able to mirror that success in their own battle against Evil Geniuses. Both teams had an outstanding performance in the initial Main Event, and both teams had received invitation to the event instead of making it from the qualifiers. It is worth noting that there was a slight change introduced to their roster from last week with Rahul "curry" Nemani coming in as a replacement for Son "xeta" Seon-ho in a trade to T1.

Even though this matchup went to the decider map, the intensity of battle on each map was relatively anticlimactic as you will discover shortly. Icebox being the Cloud9’s map pick suggested that they would potentially have the edge in battle, and it proved to be the case from the get-go. Cloud9 had no difficulty penetrating OpTic’s defense and plant the spike while holding them off enough to let it detonate. With a 8-4 lead going into the second half, every strategy Cloud9 employed was being successful and they were virtually unstoppable. But it wasn’t until the start of the second half that OpTic finally surrendered, and Cloud9 took 5 back-to-back rounds to gain the upper hand in the matchup.

After evaluating the caliber of the Cloud9’s performance in the first map, it was important to come up with a counterstrategy and OpTic Gaming was able to do so with considerable efficacy as demonstrated by their performance on Ascent. OpTic had control over the map’s momentum from the start; although, the score line was still in their favor even till round 8, they were able to propel their lead to a 9-3 after embarking on a five round streak. During halftime, Cloud9 decided that limiting OpTic to taking as few rounds would be preferable if they wanted to force the decider map. Nonetheless, OpTic managed to close out the map by taking four more rounds while limiting the opposition to only a couple more rounds.

Haven, the decider, was patiently awaiting the presence of both teams since there was high anticipation for action especially after the high-differential map wins on Ascent and Haven. Cloud9 started off the map with an unmatched defensive demeanor as if to demonstrate their resolve going against the so-called Green Wall. It seemed that they were done playing around and looked to finish the match as soon as possible. They started stacking points up from the pistol round itself but OpTic gaming wasn’t extremely lenient in letting Cloud9 dictate the momentum as they tied the map up after a slow start. As teams switched sides, Cloud9 found themselves in an optimal position to close out by pushing into the OpTic’s defense. Their tactic worked out momentarily as were up 10-6 after round 16. Nonetheless, OpTic, with the Championship DNA still coursing through their veins, launched a comeback to finish the game and secure their second win in the event. If they keep up this performance, OpTic might end up representing NA for the second Masters as well!