The champions of Masters Reykjavík came back through the lower bracket to secure the tournament victory.
VCT NA Stage 3 Challengers 1 Results
Challengers 1 was an action-packed weekend featuring some of North America’s greatest Valorant players battling it out for a chance to qualify for the Challengers Playoffs and the lion’s share of the prize pool. The first four lineups to earn a spot in the Challengers Finals had to face tough opposition in their way, dodging a minefield of major upsets.
Rise: a disappointing fall
Though they had an impressive run through the open qualifiers, beating Built By Gamers in the round of 32 and Cloud9 Blue in the round of 16 to qualify, Rise’s first match in the tournament ended in a 2:1 defeat (4:13 Icebox, 13:5 Split, 4:13 Ancient). Rise started well in their lower bracket match against Gen.G but couldn’t close out the deal (13:8 Split, 9:13 Icebox, 4:13 Bind). Given that they made the first Challengers, they directly qualified for Challengers 2 despite being eliminated in Round 1 of the lower bracket.
100 Thieves: consistent performance but room to improve
100 Thieves start to the tournament couldn’t have been any better: they managed to defeat Version1, one of the teams that represented NA at Masters Reykjavík, in a clean sweep to boot (19:17 Icebox, 13:5 Haven). Winning this matchup propelled them to the upper bracket semifinals against Team Envy, which had defeated Kansas City Pioneers (KCP) to reach this spot. This match ended in another 2:0 sweep (13:9 Haven, 13:7 Icebox).
The upper bracket finals against XSET proved to be a tougher nut to crack: a close defeat (12:14 Haven, 13:4 Icebox, 10:13 Ascent) saw them drop to the lower bracket to face off against Sentinels. Both Haven and Breeze were intensely close matches with a double overtime in the first map, but the 13:15 and 8:13 scorelines put an end to 100 Thieves’ run.
XSET and Sentinels: a success story and a comeback
XSET has been a dark horse and while everyone expected to perform well in the Stage 3 Challengers 1 Main Event, but not a single person expected them to beat Sentinels. Yet, they did just that in the upper bracket semis (13:9 Have, 11:13 Icebox, 13:8 Split) before going on to defeat 100 Thieves for a spot in the grand finals. With this win, they firmly placed their flag at the top of NA VALORANT.
Sentinels kept rolling after falling to the lower bracket, taking out KCP before going up against a formidable Team Envy squad, who were ultimately no match for the champions of Masters Reykjavík as they failed to even post a double-digit score (13:8 Breeze, 13.7 Bind) on either of the maps played. Following their win over 100 Thieves, they were ready for a rematch.
The grand final matchup between Sentinels and XSET was poised to be spectacular – and it did not fail to deliver. The series started with a 13:9 XSET win on Haven. They lost the pistol round in the first half but made up for it by winning eight straight rounds. Though Sentinels had a better second half, the four-point advantage was enough for XSET to get over the line on Haven. The first half on Breeze was a different story: Sentinels finished the first half with nine round wins, including a six-round winning streak to start the game. A similar second half tied up the matchup with one map to each team after Breezed finished 13:7.
Sentinels kept their winning streak heading into map three on Icebox, winning the first two rounds. XSET, on the other hand, did not let them run wild and ended the first half 6:6. Both sides traded rounds in the second half until XSET’s last-second clutch forced overtime. While this gave them a renewed sense of hope, Sentinels’ zombs came up with a spectacular game-winning play from a rope.
On map four, Ascent, both teams refused to give the other an edge and this trend continued until the game esd tied at 10:10. Sentinels looked to finish the proceeding once and for all by going on a deadly run, winning the game’s final three rounds and claiming the Challengers 1 title as well as $20,000.
