Here are the results from Valorant Challengers Playoffs North America: Day 1
8 teams from the two qualifiers finally faced off against each other and the results were as expected with a few surprises.
The VCT Challengers Playoffs is going to be played in a double elimination format. The teams which lose in the upper bracket will be pushed to the lower bracket where they will get a second chance. The matches are played in a Best of 3 formats with the exception of the lower bracket final and the Grand Final. These matches will be played as Best of 5.
The reigning champions of Valorant played against Rise in the quarterfinals. Sentinels had a massive lead of 10-0 on the first map, Breeze. The final score was 13-2.
It was heavy competition for Sentinels on the Ascent with 6-6 in the first half. Rise won on Ascent with a 13-7 score. Sentinels fired up in the decider map, Bind. They had a lead of 10-1 finally closing out the game with 13-4 and securing a 2-1 victory.
Analysts had predicted that it will be especially hard for Envy due to the roster change and the addition of Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker. But he proved them wrong with an average combat score of 257. Yay displayed his Operator skills which rivalled against that of TSM’s Wardell. Envy won their map pick, Haven, with a 13-7 score.
They gave tough competition on TSM’s map pick, Breeze, but lost in a close game by 13-11. Finally Envy won the decider map, Ascent, and won the match by 2-1 score.
Asuna and the boomer squad of 100 Thieves defeated Faze Clan and progressed to the upper bracket semi-finals. In the first map pick of 100 Thieves, Haven, we saw an interesting change where the team’s in-game leader switched his sentinel role and picked the new agent Kay/O.
It was a close first half with a 7-5 score in favour of 100 Thieves. 100 Thieves won the map by dropping just one round. The score on Haven was 13-6. They defeated Faze Clan in their map pick of Breeze by 13-9. 100 Thieves secured a clean 2-0 victory.
XSET won against Luminosity Gaming in a clean 2-0 finish. They had a 9-3 lead in their map pick, Haven. They finally won the match with a 13-6 score. Luminosity was defeated in their own map pick of Split with a score of 13-5. The in-game leader for XSET was the MVP of the match with an average combat score of 256.
The organizers of the tournament, Nerd Streed Gamers and Riot, changed the schedule of the matches. Earlier, the losers played their elimination match immediately after their first match. This put a lot of stress on the players to perform.
This time the upper semi-finals were held first. The winners of the first match used their momentum to compete in the semi-finals. This was a welcome change and was greatly appreciated by the players.
The first map, Icebox, was an intense game with the teams trading rounds. It resulted in a close finish of 13-11 in favour of Sentinels. As compared to Icebox, in the second map, Haven, each team won a few streaks of rounds.
This was also an intense game with heavy competition from Envy. Sentinels won 13-11 and won with a score of 2-0. Giving an intense competition to the current world champions is a great achievement for Envy. It will be interesting to see how they perform in the future.
The second semi-final of the series was also a tough one. XSET had a massive lead of 9-3 on the first map, Haven. 100 Thieves managed to catch up under the leadership of Joshua ‘steel’ Nissan. They won the map with a score of 13-11.
The second map, Ascent, was a mirror of the first map where 100 Thieves had a lead of 8-4. 100 Thieves reached map point at 12-6. XSET’s Rory “dephh” Jackson won a 1v2 which gave them a fighting chance. They won 5 straight rounds. In the final round, 100 Thieves’ nitr0 secured the win for the team when he got a 3K. They finally won the match in a close game of 13-11. The final score was 2-0.
This concludes Day 1 of the VCT Challengers Playoffs. Sentinels and 100 Thieves secured a spot in the Masters Event at Berlin. On Day 2, the losers will play in the lower bracket for the chance to qualify for the Masters event.
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