GGTech VALORANT Invitational 2 Recap

The second Ignition Series tournament arrived to Latin America from GGTech. As usual in the Latin America region, and due to ping reasons, the tournament was divided in two, one for Latin America North and another for Latin America South. With a growing scene, the Ignition Series tournaments are very important for the teams to show their skills. Who showed up in this one?

LATAM South

Group A featured Estral Esports, DylemaGG, Azules Esports and LBS. Estral showed why they are one of the region's favorites, with a +59 rounds differential. Dylema had a good performance in their first two games, but were not up to challenge Estral.

Group B was very interesting, with a three-way tie between FroztFire, Millions Gaming and Aion Esports. Round differential gave FroztFire first place, due to their good results against AION and Infamous, while Millions had to settle for second place.

Group C had several teams with consistent results. 9z Team had the advantage over Cátolica, a match that would define who would be the leader. Both teams were able to beat Wygers Argentina and Trident x Rebirth. Edgard "Exterminia" Bernales Fuentes of 9z finished the group stage with the highest ACS of the tournament, 288.5.

Finally, in Group D, we have another favorite, Furious Gaming, who got their three victories without much trouble. The rest of the group was very tight, with a three-way tie again, and the rounds were what gave Bencheados Gaming the edge over XTEN Esports and Odin Gaming.

Playoffs

Estral continued with their good form from the group stage, and won against Bencheados 2-0, losing only 6 rounds between the maps.

Catolica, despite finishing second in their group, beat FroztFire 2-0. They played a tight first map, 13-10 on Bind, but the second map, Ascent, was all Catolica, finishing 13-2.

The match between Dylema and Furious was the tightest of this stage. Furious, despite being one of the tournament favorites, fell on Bind 13-10. They managed to regain their spirit on Ascent by winning 13-4 and Split was defined in overtime 14-12 in favor of Furious.

Finally, 9z Team beat Millions Gaming 2-0. Millions Gaming didn't find a way to overcome Danilo "Unnsto" Pilarche’s Sova and the squad in purple didn't waste their opportunities.

In the semi-finals Estral was able to beat Cátolica 2-0. Cátolica started both series well and it seemed that they were going to be a tight match, but when Estral understood the style of Cátolica, they took over the series. On the other hand, Furious showed strength against 9z Team. They won 2-0 with a 13-7 in Haven and 13-4 in Ascent. In the second game, Felipe "feLiZnOJkE" Clas Almendra had an exceptional performance, playing with Sage, something we don't see much of in this region.

Finals

The statistics put Estral as the favorite, reaching the grand final without losing a single map, although Furious was not going to leave without a fight. In the first map, Split, Estral did not have big issues. Despite being used to solid defenses on this map, Estral defence was really solid, finishing the first half 10-2 leaving the fate of the map to the second pistol round, they could achieve it and finish the map 13-2. The story in Bind was totally different, the individual plays had a lot of impact deciding the winner, Nahuel "Puleule" Pulella and Alejandro "Raizen" Mezcua are good examples of that, but finally the map ended 16-14 in favor of Estral. Furious entered Haven with all the pressure, Bind vanished from their hands, and if they wanted to stay alive they needed to win, but Estral was not going to lower the guard. Haven was similar to Split, this time with Estral on the attacking side first, they ended the first half 9-3 and even though Furious was able to get a round on the attacking side, Estral was able to close the map 13-4 and was crowned champion without losing a map in the whole tournament.

Final Standings for the GGTech VALORANT Invitational 2 - South:

1. Estral Esports - $1,500 2. Furious Gaming - $750 3. 9z Team - $250 4. Cátolica Esports. 5-8. Millions Gaming. 5-8. DylemaGG. 5-8. FroztFire. 5-8. Bencheados Gaming.

LATAM North

In Group A, Kaizen and TopHard Esports were able to prevail over Atheris Esports and Janus Esports. The game that determined the group between Kaizen and TopHard was very tight, with a very close match on Split which was decided in overtime 16-14 in favor of Kaizen.

For Group B, Rainbow7 was able to take first place with its new roster, while Met knocked out Timbers Esports, one of finalists of the first Ignition Series.

Group C had the tournament favorite, INFINITY, who had a lot of consistency in the Northern region. With an impressive 66 round lead, and Jesus Taboada "jfoeN" Foen getting 309 ACS, they declared themselves the undisputed leaders of the group. Egyx, for what it’s worth, had decisive victories in their games against Arctic Gaming Mexico and Tek Gaming.

Group D featured well-known names in the region: E-Xolos LAZER, LDM Esports, Estorm Gaming and Dragones Carolina. Lazerklan lead the group, followed by Liga del Mal, two teams that have known each other since the game's release. The roster changes did not work out for Dragones Carolina and Estorm Gaming.

Playoffs

Kaizen, despite starting off on the wrong foot, was able to beat La Liga del Mal, one of the strongest teams in the region. The first map resulted in favor of La Liga del Mal 13-8, Kaizen was able to tie the series on Ascent also with a 13-8. Finally, on a tight Split, Kaizen took the 13-11 victory.

Rainow7 needed to demonstrate why it is one of the strongest teams and the way to do it was with solid results. Rainbow7 took the Bind 13-5 and even though Egyx tried to turn the situation around on Ascent, it was not up to Rainbow7 performance.

One of the surprises was to see Lazerklan, one of the most solid teams in the region, falling against TopHard Esports, the second in Group A. The two maps were very close, 13-11 and 14-12 in favor of TopHard Esports.

Gillette Infinity was able to get the victory over Met 2-0. On Bind Gillette won with a 13-2 victory. While on Ascent Met was able to pressure Gillette; the change of ends favored Gillette 10-2, but Met was able to get 8 rounds before Gillette closed the series.

It wasn't easy for Infinity against TopHard, and despite being 2-0 in favor of Infinity, TopHard put up resistance on Haven and was 3 rounds away from taking that map. The other semi-final was tighter, Kaizen won Haven but Rainbow7 reacted in time, taking Ascent 13-4 to tie the series 1-1. Bind was a very close map, but Rainbow7 won 13-11 and earned their pass to the final.

Finals

In the final, Infinity didn't give Rainbow7 time to react. The first map, Split, ended 13-5 in favor of Infinity; NoVa E-Sports one of the key players of Rainbow7 could not unfold his full potential, while Nolan "nolan" Martinez Romero from Infinity showed his full potential.

In the second map, Bind, Rainbow7 presented more resistance reaching the half of the map with 4-8 in favor of Infinity. Rainbow7 was able to take the second round of pistols and made it two rounds down, 9-11, Infinity reacted in time and was able to take the Bind and put the series 2-0 in their favor. Finally Haven was where Infinity dominated Rainbow7, the first half ending 11-1 in favor of Infinity, predicting the end of the series. Rainbow7 was able to hold on to the second gun round, gaining some room, but as soon as Infinity got the guns, Rainbow7 could do nothing more. The 13-3 in favor of Infinity allowed them to close the match 3-0 and be the champions of the Northern region.

Final Standings for the GGTech VALORANT Invitational 2 - North:

1. Gillette Infinity Esports - $1,500 2. Rainbow7 - $750 3.TopHard Esports - $250 4. Kaizen. 5-8. MET. 5-8.Lazerklan. 5-8. Egyx. 5-8.Liga del Mal.