Europe's first four Masters participants determined

With Challengers events all around the globe, including some regions having their first, it was an action-packed weekend of VALORANT esports. One of those regions was Europe, who had much more airtime than previously after some format changes. In the end, the region's first four Masters participants were qualified.

The first four teams slated for Masters are:

Alliance Ninjas in Pyjamas FunPlus Phoenix Team Heretics

The teams going for one more chance at qualification in Challengers 3 are:

Wave Esports G2 Esports Fnatic OG Esports

The weekend began with some “play-in” matches of the top 8 teams from the open qualifier, and proved to be quite exciting. Alliance and Team BDS played an action-packed Bo3 filled with great moments, Logan "LogaN" Corti showing up especially big for his team. Alliance ultimately took it 2-0, with a 17-15 map on Haven. G2 Esports didn’t face too much opposition from Animel, but the story was not the same between Team Heretics and Illuminar Gaming. The Poles played incredibly fast and aggressive, taking and winning most aim duels and seriously making Heretics work for their win. The upset nearly came about, but Heretics clutched up to win 2-1. Fnatic faced off against Guild Esports, a match which brought about one of the weekend’s best moments thanks to a big-brain Sage wall from Leo "Leo" Jannesson.

Ultimately, Guild looked much improved from their past outings, and pushed Fnatic quite hard. However, they couldn’t take them down, and were headed back to the open qualifiers for one last shot.

This all set up the Challengers 2 matchups - Alliance against Wave Esports, G2 in a Challengers 1 rematch with Ninjas in Pyjamas, Fnatic facing FunPlus Phoenix, and Team Heretics going up against the newly-signed OG Esports.

Coming out of Challengers 1, it would be fair to not know what to expect from Wave. They had pulled off the massive upset against Fnatic, but besides that match, their track record was not exactly stellar. Well, up against Alliance, they proved they were no fluke by taking their opponents to the limit. The first map was Icebox, and compositions were interesting to say the least - Wave went with 3 duelists, while Vilius "krea6on" Malinauskas, usually a supportive player, picked up Reyna for Alliance. In addition to all this, each team brought a Viper into the mix. Ultimately, the map would go Alliance’s way, with massive performances coming out of Thomas "kAdavra" Johner and Tautvydas "hype" Paldavicius. Haven, though, is where things got close. Alliance began the map with this amusing clip on the second round:

They’d continue to show their strength on the defense, leading 8-4 at the half. But Wave’s defense was equally impressive. It would take four rounds of overtime to settle the affair, but eventually, Alliance snagged two in a row and put their first Challengers spot to good use. They were the first team qualified for Masters.

Next up was G2 and NiP. The two teams had been dueling it out over the last few weeks, with the match score at 1-1. NiP, however, had taken the more recent Challengers victory, and continued to show up here. Yaroslav "Jady" Nikolaev, as ever, was absolutely massive for NiP - his signing has proven to be probably the best move they’ve ever made in the VALORANT scene. Emir "rhyme" Muminovic put aside some of his more recent struggles with a great series as well. NiP were strong and co-ordinated, and as odd as it is to see G2 struggle against them, it’s the reality right now. NiP secured their Masters spot with scores of 13-9 on Ascent and 13-10 on Haven.

FPX and Fnatic played the first matchup of Day 4. After Fnatic won the first map, Bind, 13-7, it was all FPX for the rest of the series. Dmitriy "dimasick" Matvienko has proven himself as a great addition for the CIS side, and only continued that as he top fragged both maps they won, with a monstrous 372 ACS and 1.89 Rating on Haven. Fnatic's struggles continue since signing with the big organization, and they'll have one last shot to make Masters in Challengers 3.

Lastly was OG and Heretics. OG had been on the rise as of late, and making their debut under their new organization, big things were expected. But it didn't quite turn out that way. Heretics, playing with Christian "lowel" Garcia Antoran in and Dustyn "niesoW" Durnas out, put up quite the dominant display. They took Ascent 13-6 without really letting OG get in the game, before opening OG's pick of Bind with an absolutely dominant 10-2 defending half. Žygimantas "nukkye" Chmieliauskas was absolutely on fire, and would post 438 ACS and 2.03 Rating over the map, and 397 ACS series-wide. OG began to claw back on their own defense, bringing things to 11-7, but that's as close as it got. A few more rounds to Heretics closed things out.

With all that, Europe's first four Masters participants have been decided. The Challengers losers will still get a bye to Challengers 3, where they'll be joined by an open qualifier field that now has 8 less teams to determine the final four Masters teams for the region.