APAC North Stage 2 in review: Stats, accolades, and storylines

^{Image: Ubisoft/Kirill B.}

Stage 2 of the 2022 APAC North League ended after seven weeks of play with DAMWON Gaming and SANDBOX Gaming finishing in the Six Berlin Major qualification spots.

Here’s a quick look back at the stage, including some of the standout players, teams, and changes from Stage 1.

Top Performers

While SiegeGG doesn’t crown official MVPs for regional seasons, there was one clear standout player; Hwang "Arukaze" Hyeon-jin.

SANDBOX’s newest addition only joined the team in Stage 2 after making his competitive debut on T1 in Stage 3 last year. SBXG clearly knew what they were doing with this pickup, as Arukaze got the most kills, best kill differential, and joint-best 1vX count in the tournament. This was all while he was also the team’s joint highest planter on soft breach roles. He effectively excelled in every role.

Just behind Arukaze was DWG player Woogiman, who primarily plays on Nomad and Maestro. This is remarkable, as the league’s top players are not out-and-out fraggers, with the Finka, Iana, and Zofia players trailing behind. 

Another surprise performance came from Fnatic, as Yura had the tournament’s best entry record with 20 kills to eight deaths, while siru, the team’s newest player, got down the most plants in APAC North. 

Overall, Arukaze is the man to watch as he makes his global debut in Berlin and Fnatic are one to watch in Stage 3.

Biggest Improvement

By SiegeGG Rating, the most improved player was Naoki "Yura" Takamoto, as he led Fnatic back towards the top half of the table. In APAC North, his rating rose from 0.95 to 1.20. Chibisu also had a notable improvement, as he went from 0.89 to 1.01 as siru took the hard support role off him, allowing this duo to play together on entry.

After a very weak Stage 1, tadaNiki also excelled, as he became the team’s top player despite playing on Thermite. 

As for teams, the average ratings match each team’s final standing almost exactly, showing that no team was particularly carried by one player. The biggest improvement came from REJECT after they finished Stage 1 in last place, while Talon had the largest fall in average performance as they dropped from second to sixth in the standings.

Biggest Drop

ShiN had a tough time in Stage 2 as he had the lowest rating of all starting players on 0.74, which is a remarkable fall off from a team-best 1.07 in Stage 1. This may also be partly due to role changes, as Taipon somewhat stepped into his position on entry and hard breach.

Just ahead of ShiN are three Talon players, due to the Korean team’s struggles during this stage. The other two members of Talon Esports have only just joined, so we have no previous performance to compare them to. 

Best New Player

Nine new players joined teams ahead of Stage 2. Unsurprisingly, the best of these changes was Arukaze replacing Harp3rXD, while the worst one (statistically) was RoyBoy, who joined Spear Gaming on loan to replace Arukaze. Considering how impressive Arukaze was, it’s hard to fault RoyBoy for not living up to that standard in his debut stage as a starting player. 

Window, meanwhile, played for a single game in Stage 1 on REJECT, in which he scored a 0.45 rating. In Stage 2, he permanently replaced NoTimeGG and hit a 1.04 rating -- a 0.19 rating improvement on NoTimeGG in Stage 1.

Finally, NL was also statistically one of the worst changes for Spear Gaming. However, this is also hardly his fault as he, as the team’s head coach, was standing in for strong fragger iLeven.

APAC North Play of the Stage

The best play of the stage in APAC North came from CYCLOPS’ Reon "Anitun" Sakai against Fnatic. This 1v4 clutch saw Anitun deny the plant multiple times and get two vertical kills. The clutch was required to take the game into overtime, netting CAG a single point total from this performance. 

Maps

During the 28 maps played in Stage 2 in APAC North, Kafe was not picked once. While the map was unpopular in Stage 1, this is a remarkable statistic given its historical popularity. 

Elsewhere, the map pool was remarkably even, as Bank, Oregon, Chalet, and Clubhouse all had between 52 and 58 rounds played. Three of these are offensively favoured, with Club House being the most so at 64%, while Oregon is almost the exact opposite at 62% defence-favoured.

Villa is notably the most even, with 10 wins on either side, but the map was played just twice.

Overall, APAC North had a 46.87% defensive win rate. For comparison, the NAL ended at 51.80%.