On a G2 Esports roster absolutely stacked with some of the biggest stars in North American VALORANT, it was their youngest and most relatively unknown player that stood out in the first match of the region’s exciting Challengers league.
FaZe came out firing on Fracture, hours after announcing the signing of young rising star Daniel “Rossy” Abedrabbo, formerly of TSM. He had a quiet opening map, but the rest of the FaZe core from last year dominated both sides of Fracture, with the proven duo of POISED and babybay leading the way and taking G2’s pick decisively, 13-5.
But, even after losing their own map pick so lopsidedly, G2 found rescue in the form of their own young rising star in Francis “OXY” Hoang, who had a standout showing on Raze on Icebox.
He produce 27 kills against only 13 deaths, won all five of his opening duels, and piled damage onto FaZe, who struggled to hold off executes and retakes with their Harbor pick. OXY’s big game on Raze propelled G2 to a big 13-4 win on FaZe’s pick.
After an exceptionally quiet first two maps, former Sentinels star ShahZaM finally had a great showing on Haven, and while OXY didn’t put up the same great numbers as he did on Icebox, he had some pivotal multi-kill rounds near the end of the map, including a victory clinching triple in the final round with his Jett knives.
OXY finished the series with a dominant hold over all the major stats. He had 55 total kills (the next highest on the server was POISED with 41), he had the highest ACS with 313, the highest K/D differential, and highest opening duel differential.
G2 kicks off the NA VALORANT Challengers League season with a win.
