KRÜ Esports crowned the champions across LATAM North and South

The teams qualified for the upcoming VCT 2021 - Stage 2 - Masters Reykjavík are a mixture of the best VALORANT rosters from around the world. However, unfortunately not everyone has the time to follow the tactical shooter’s esports scene outside of the major regions, and this is where we step in to preview every single team going into the competition.

The LATAM scene has changed a lot since the First Strike LATAM South Regional Final, with new teams joining in and others parting ways. Today we are covering [team=2830 / 226] KRU / Infinity, the champions of the VCT 2021 - Stage 2 - LATAM - Challengers Finals, coming out victorious as the best team across the continent’s Southern and Northern regions. The competition was split into two brackets, North and South, so let’s get into what happened in each.

LATAM South Bracket

The Upper Bracket Semi Final had two games scheduled, with KRÜ Esports taking on Meta Gaming in the first game, followed by 9z Team versus VELOX. The first matchup saw KRÜ Esports dismantle their opponents with a quick 2-0, taking home Haven and Ascent with a 13-5 and 13-3 score lines respectively.

As for the second encounter, 9z Team had to fight vigorously for their victory against the Chilean organization, ATROPELADOS. The Argentine team started the series with an easy 13-4, followed by two overtime maps in Haven and Split. The former went in favor of ATROPELADOS after a nail biting 20-18 game, with the latter map ending in 14-12 for the series winners.

KRÜ Esports took on 9z Team in the Upper Bracket Final, and it was a tale of two maps. The series kicked off with an exciting map 1 on Haven, ending with a 13-8 scoreline. However, the Argentine team couldn’t keep up with the momentum Chilean team had to offer on Ascent, closing it out with a quick 13-3.

Considering how close ATROPELADOS was to taking down 9z Team, they went into their match against Meta Gaming more motivated than ever to continue their tournament run. They didn’t let the Paraguayan team breath, closing out the series with a clean 2-0 and moving on to the Lower Bracket Final for a shot at redemption against the team that sent them down to begin with.

Unfortunately, the winner didn’t change as 9z Team managed to win even more dominantly than their first encounter to move on to the LATAM South Bracket Final against KRÜ Esports once again. The Final delivered enough content for everyone to enjoy, going to 4 maps to decide the winner, with every map taking an average of 40 minutes to decide the winner. At the end, KRÜ Esports booked their spot in the Playoffs Final after a 3-1 series.

LATAM North Bracket

Four teams battled it out to crown the LATAM North champions; INFINITY, Six Karma, E-Xolos LAZER, and Border Monsters. The first matchup saw an all-Colombian affair, with Infinity Esports taking on Six Karma. The latter won the first map, Icebox, before stumbling to Infinity Esports on Bind 16-14, and finally closing out the match on Ascent to end it at 2-1.

On the other side, Lazer took on Border Monsters to decide the second contender of the Upper Bracket Final. The match didn’t last long as Lazer speed ran through Ascent with a 13-4 scoreline, followed by a more closely fought Bind, ending on 13-9.

This put Infinity Esports up against Border Monsters in the Lower Bracket, with the latter pushing their opponents to the edge on both Haven and Ascent but failing to close them out on both occasions. Infinity Esports won the game 2-0, coming out with a 13-11 score line twice. The same situation was repeated when Six Karma took on Lazer, winning the game 2-0 comfortably on Bind after a close matchup on Icebox.

A repeat of the first match of the LATAM North Bracket was bound between Six Karma and Infinity Esports, and it definitely lived up to expectations. This time around it was a different tale, with Infinity Esports coming out on top. After Icebox and Ascent, the series was tied at 1-1 then was eventually decided at 3-1.

LATAM Playoffs Bracket

All these matches lead to Infinity Esports and KRÜ Esports clashing heads to determine the winner, and the LATAM representative going to VCT Stage 2 Masters - Reykjavík to make the continent proud.

It started off on Haven going in favor of KRÜ. Infinity would make things close, particularly in the first half where they won the pistol round and a scattered few after that. However, KRÜ knew how they wanted to play it, and outplayed Infinity to take it 13-9.

Ascent would go similarly. After taking the pistol round and follow-up, Infinity wouldn’t take another for their entire attacking half, and KRÜ’s 10-2 lead was insurmountable.

Bind looked much better for the LATAM North fans. It was a relatively dominant showing from Infinity, clearly a map they’d practiced plenty. They didn’t drop an attacking round en route to a 13-5 win.

Next up was Split. This was the most one-sided of all the maps. KRÜ stomped an Infinity team that clearly couldn’t match them. The score was 13-1, and KRÜ secured the last spot in Masters in Iceland.