Leviatán have progressed to the Champions 2022 Playoff stage thanks to the efforts of young star Shyy and their pistol round dominance.
Leviatán defied all expectations of them at Champions 2022 by becoming the first team to secure their spot in the Playoffs stage. They earned their spot by beating Paper Rex in an emphatic 2-0 performance to finish on top of Group A.
Leviatán brush past Paper Rex to claim Playoff spot at Champions.
Despite seeing off Team Liquid in their first match of Group A, there were plenty who thought that they may struggle against a team as notoriously aggressive as Paper Rex usually are. This looked like a pretty even contest on paper, but it turned into a relatively straightforward affair for the Chilean team. With young gun Fabian "Shyy" Usnayo putting on quite the show against a very lackluster display against Paper Rex.
The 17-year-old has been lights out for his team thus far at Champions with his use of Fade. He finished the match with a +19 K/D and 32% headshot rate. With only Benjamin "Benkai" Tan and Khalish "d4v41" Rusyaidee having a higher headshot percentage than him in that match. Shyy really made his mark against Paper Rex on Bind where he finished the map with 28 kills. All of which culminated in him being named the match MVP for his side.
While there were still many who doubted Leviatán coming into this matchup, their performances against Team Liquid, and now Paper Rex have certainly made their mark at Champions. And while it will be quite some time before we see them again on the main stage, with all the other group games still to be played, Leviatán have certainly proven that they are a team to be feared at this tournament.
Leviatán spent a lot of time studying Paper Rex's Bind
While it was an impressive all around performance against Paper Rex, it was on Bind where they turned a lot heads in that game. Paper Rex are notoriously good on Bind, per their previous results on LAN. So for Leviatán to come onto their home turf and walk away with the win was quite the statement. A performance which came as a result of Leviatán's extensive look at how Paper Rex play Bind, as their IGL Francisco "kiNgg" Aravena stated in an interview.
"Against Paper Rex we studied their Bind a lot," he said. "We knew that they are really aggressive on defense, they are the most aggressive team in the tournament. They basically attack on defense, so it was a lot of anti-strating. That's why we were playing so slow on Attack."
A good chunk of their success in their games has come from their well-organized plays in the pistol rounds. Thus far Leviatán have yet to lose a pistol round at Champions, which has certainly helped them to establish control of proceedings early in the game. And while it is impressive, Leviatán don't see it that way. In fact according to kiNgg, he believes that there is a lot of RNG involved with their pistol rounds.
"If you see our win-rate in Pistol rounds during scrims is 1/10. We lose almost every pistol round. That is because of the RNG. We try and we try it, and it can happen with anything. On Bind for example we did a push on short, they [Paper Rex] pushed long in response. We won the duels, but we almost lost it. They responded well and so did we. Which is why I still think Pistols are RNG."
A bold statement for sure by kiNgg, especially given how much success they have had on their pistol rounds thus far in the tournament. And given the way that they are playing now, you have to wonder if that RNG factor he talked about will continue to aid them as they progress further at Champions.