Vision Strikers and Fnatic Secure Early Victories
After a long wait, we’re finally at Valorant Champions, the final event of the Valorant Champions Tour. Yesterday we saw the first opening matches in groups C and D, where the Team Vikings quickly dispatched the Japanese Crazy Racoon, and Vision Strikers and Fnatic secured early placements in the winners’ match.
Today’s Valorant action continues, where we’ll see group B play their first matches. Gambit Esports will also face Team Secret in group C, so we’ll see whether the young Secret team can survive the Russian giants.
Vision Strikers are in Top Shape
The first match of the day was played in group D, where the Korean powerhouse, Vision Strikers, faced off against the Thai FULL SENSE squad.
Like we expected, Vision Strikers showed a dominant performance and took a clean 2-0 victory, securing an early placement in the winners’ match. Both maps ended with an identical 13-5 score, and in both cases, Vision Strikers applied overwhelming pressure that resulted in them taking early leads and closing both maps with ease.
FULL SENSE had zero answers to Vision Strikers’ onslaught, and all they could do is just watch as the Strikers continued to dominate round by round.
Vision Strikers will play against Fnatic next, which will be a much tougher matchup. FULL SENSE will have another shot at salvation against Cloud9 Blue in the elimination match. If they lose there, it’ll be the end of the road for them.
Fnatic is Back
Yesterday’s battle between the EU and NA was a true spectacle. Fnatic, who are one of the best Valorant teams from Europe, faced Cloud9 Blue.
The match ended up being closer than we expected, as both teams battled tooth and nail to secure this first victory and avoid the elimination match. Fnatic ended up winning with a 2-1 score, but Cloud9 was very close to winning on Fracture.
After taking the first map on Icebox, Fnatic continued with the same tempo on Split and maintained control during the first half. However, Cloud9 started countering Fnatic, and round by round, slowly managed to even the score on Split.
The new map, Fracture, would decide the winner. Just like on Split, Fnatic secured an early lead, but then Cloud9 began to climb back up until the match went into overtime. Fnatic might have choked a bit, which C9 took full advantage of. But sadly, it wasn’t enough, and Fnatic ended up wrapping things up in the end.
Fnatic moved into the winners’ match where they’ll face Vision Strikers next. This will be a scary opponent for the EU squad, so they better come prepared. Cloud9 Blue might be frustrated they didn’t win against Fnatic, but they’ll have a second chance in the elimination match against FULL SENSE.
Vikings Await Their Next Challenger
The Brazilian Valorant esports team won their first match in the Valorant Champions tournament. They fought against Crazy Racoon and won both maps without breaking a sweat.
Crazy Racoon won’t be going into the winner’s match, which could be the silver lining in this whole situation, since they’d probably be facing Gambit Esports. The Valorant bets place Gambit as one of the top teams in this event, so they’re expected to win both matches. If that ends up being the case, then Crazy Racoon could potentially still secure the second place if they win the elimination match and then survive the decider match.
Vikings took an easy 2-0 win, with a 13-9 score on Icebox and 13-8 score on Haven. While this is definitely a great start for the team, their biggest challenge is still ahead of them. If Gambit wins today against Team Secret, it’ll be a tough match. But for now they’re sitting comfortably at the first spot in group C.
