With the road to Masters Reykjavik complete, the main VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) circuit is on a halt for this week. While the main VCT circuit may be on hiatus, this is not true for many regional tournaments that are still ongoing. After the VRLs wrapped up last month, the winners of each of the regional competitions are currently competing against each other. The tournament in focus this week is precisely that.

• VCT Stage 1: EMEA Promotion

Player of the Week – JUGi

Jakob “JUGi” Hansen

“FOKUS, in general, have looked fantastic throughout the VRL, and now heading into VCT they could be one of the favorites. JUGi in particular, has been playing very well. Fragging very heavily on Jett and at times Neon, he looks to be playing with real confidence and that is key for some of FOKUS’ success. He has the pop-off factor that allows him to pick up big impact and entry frags to open up space for his team.”

– John “JohnPee” Pritchard

FOKUS have had a brilliant start to their VRL season so far. The team has lost just one series out of sixteen so far. They now find themselves in playoffs of the VCT Stage 1: EMEA Promotion. Not only is the roster doing well as a team but so are the players individually. JUGi in particular has had an outstanding start to his VALORANT career since making the switch from CS:GO. His outstanding performances over the course of the weekend make him an easy choice for our Player of the Week.

Der MVP des Grand Finals ist @JUGiOfficial 👑 Was für eine starke Leistung! pic.twitter.com/uBbWk6h46w

— FOKUS Valorant (@FOKUSValorant) March 20, 2022

The outstanding JUGi

JUGi has hit the ground running ever since making the switch to VALORANT. He finished VRL DACH as the player with the highest ACS. Over the course of the weekend he has continued to showcase his good form. He has also shown his ability to be flexible and playing newer agents such as Neon. He is gradually becoming an integral part of FOKUS’ attack.

JUGi‘s best ability comes in the form of taking opening duels. When it comes to opening kills per round, JUGi is only bettered by Alessio “musashi” Xhaferi (0.25). As you can see in the above graph of all the players, JUGi accounts for nearly 25% of his team’s First Kills on defense. On attack that number falls to 17%, currently still the fifth-highest at the tournament. JUGi falls in the first quadrant of elite duelists and anchor players who love to play aggressively.

Another statistic that proves JUGi‘s flexibility are his First Kill statistics with different agents. JUGi primarily only plays duelists for his team, namely Jett and Neon. If you were to compare his First Kill to Round Win percentage, he is clearly above average by a good margin. To be precise, he takes the cake in both. His First Kill to Round Win percentage on the agent Jett stands at 88%. On agent Neon it stands at 86%. In fact, there has been only one round out of eight in which JUGi has played Neon, registered a first kill and lost the round. Incredible!

“JUGi has impressed me for a long time and I think he’s found a great home at FOKUS, slotting really well into their aggressive system as a very aggressive main duelist. He excels at creating space wonderfully for his team and has insane mechanics to back it up. JUGi is certainly a player to watch in this promotion tournament.”

– Morgan “BigTime” Jay

Team of the Week – Rebels Gaming

Much like FOKUS, Rebels Gaming are also on a phenomenal run, dropping just three maps during the regular season. The roster then continued their momentum into the playoffs and won against some very stiff competition in the VRL Spain: Rising event. Over the course of the weekend the roster continued displaying their strong fortitude as they cruised past competition. Their performance not only earned them a spot in the Knockouts but also our Team of the Week.

To begin with, we can see that all of the players on the roster place themselves in the top 10 best KAST individuals at the tournament. However, a player worth mentioning would be Ilya “vo0kashu” Ushakov, who not only has the highest KAST (83%) at the tournament, but also the highest K:D (1.79). This alone should give you an idea of their coordinated play-style and the reason why they are so successful.

Another thing to factor in and highlight would be their combined Team ACS and ADR. Rebels Gaming top both of them with a combined ACS of 1124 and a combined ADR of 714. This statistics paint the picture of diligent utility usage and raw fragging power. The player worth mentioning most in this regard would be musashi, whom we mentioned earlier. musashi leads the current event in terms of ACS at 266.

“Rebels really always was one of a kind. That team started as 5 duelists basically and formed to be a powerhouse, the only ones stealing a map off of Guild for a long time. With their recent adaptions, away from some Double Duelist comps, they got a little bit of extra utility which might make them even more dangerous. Their firepower, without the slightest doubt, is scary for any team in this promotion tournament.”

– Vincent “Zescht” Talmon-Gros

Tune in to Run It Back for all the latest transfer news, VCT updates, and interviews in the world of VALORANT. And remember to join our Discord to enter competitions and win prizes!