A number of top VALORANT players have shown up and delivered on the first big stage of the year at VCT LOCK//IN, but by the numbers, one stands head and shoulders above the rest.
With the Omega bracket portion of the tournament now wrapped up, a sizable gap between NAVI’s Andrey “Shao” Kiprsky and the rest of the player field has formed, particularly in the K/D statistic. After three matches, Shao is maintaining an unbelievable 2.29 K/D, with the next highest belonging to KOI’s Nikita “trexx” Cherednichenko at a 1.70, according to VLR.gg.
Interestingly, though, that incredible number from Shao isn’t because he’s been a killing machine but because no one’s been able to kill him so far at the event. Across 117 rounds, Shao has only died a grand total of 42 times, resulting in a deaths per round average far below any player who’s made it this far in the tournament.
On top of staying alive, he’s also been reliable in the clutch. He has the third-highest clutch winning percentage of any player with at least 10 attempts at VCT LOCK//IN, behind only kiNgg and Newzera. This reliability and survivability for Shao results in an elite metric; 91 percent in kill-assist-survive-trade (KAST) rating.
While 91 percent is the highest at the tournament, it’s also the highest ever at an international event. At international VCT events last year (Masters and Champions), the top player in the KAST metric had around an 80 percent rating. Shockingly, there are roughly a dozen players at VCT LOCK//IN with a KAST percent of 80 or higher, and yet Shao still has found a way to stand the tallest.
Shao’s high numbers do have a lot to do with NAVI’s run at VCT LOCK//IN, where the team has not dropped a single map and one map in each of their three series wins has been won in a decisive manner. If Shao can maintain this production past Fnatic and through the grand finals, he’s well on his way to earning MVP honors for this tournament.
