NA Challengers Stage 1 Main Event - Week 1 Group A Recap

After three days of intense battles, the inaugural weekend of VCT 2022 - North America - Stage 1 - Main Event has come to an end. The event produced some interesting developments, which will be crucial in determining which team is worthy of a spot at VCT 2022 - Stage 1 - Masters Reykjavík. A total of six matches took place, three per each group. The following article will feature a detailed recap of each matchup from Group A.

Cloud9 vs 100 Thieves

A match between the invited teams to start the tournament’s proceedings meant that the audience were in for a special ride. Given that Cloud9 managed a 1st place in Knights Arena VALORAMPAGE - Main Event and the highest ranking for NA in VCT 2021 - VALORANT Champions 2021, they were the favorites in the matchup. Nonetheless, the addition of Hunter "BabyJ" Schline and Adam "ec1s" Eccles to the 100 Thieves roster meant that no concrete predictions could be made regarding the matchup’s trajectory. Before the action began, each team took turns selecting and banning maps resulting in Split being chosen by 100 Thieves, and Breeze by Cloud9.

Since 100 Thieves has chosen Split as their map pick, Cloud9 needed to be more alert than usual. Being veterans of the game, they understood the situation and devised a formidable defense strategy accordingly and were able to take almost 9 consecutive rounds straight out of the gate on Split. 100 Thieves was overwhelmed. Each attack run they would plan failed to execute. All of their moves were being read by the opposing team especially Anthony "vanity" Malaspina.

100 Thieves realized that Cloud9’s momentum had been gradually increasing and could pose serious threat to their position in the matchup; therefore, they decided to turn things around one round at a time. By the end of the 1st half the score read 9-3. 100 Thieves carried the same mentality on their defense run and were able to hold off Cloud9 from overpowering till round 22 when the score was at 11-10. All that was needed by 100 Thieves was to endure the efforts from Cloud9 a little longer. They were, however, unable to do so allowing Cloud9 to win the map and take the upper hand in the matchup.

100 Thieves desperately needed to win the 2nd map if they wanted a shot at winning the matchup, but Breeze, being Cloud9’s pick, meant that their chances were extremely low. The map started with Cloud9 taking five back-to-back rounds even after Peter "Asuna" Mazuryk hit a mind-blowing no-scope in round two of the map. At the start of round 9, the score read 7-1 with Cloud9 in the lead. It was a similar situation to Split, except that 100 Thieves managed to dial the momentum earlier and took the remaining four rounds of the half finishing it with a manageable 7-5 score. Now that the breaks had been applied, 100 Thieves needed to capitalize on the momentum they were building up. Unfortunately, though, Cloud9’s defense once again poured water over their plans forcing them to surrender the map with only one round in the second half and a final score of 13-6. Cloud9 proved that they were worthy of being the tournament favorites. Erick "Xeppaa" Bach deserves an honorable mention for a 1.37 Rating, 280 ACS, and 1.40 KD.

The Guard vs Luminosity Gaming

This matchup featured one of the most polarizing performances over the course of two maps. Although, The Guard managed to take victory by a perfect sweep, it wasn’t entirely uncontested. Before we dive into the details, it is worth noting that The Guard chose Haven as their map pick and Luminosity Gaming chose Fracture, an unpopular choice in the esports scene.

Denoting the events on Haven as ‘one-sided’ is a brief, and accurate description because The Guard did not let their guard down for almost the entire map. Except the 11th round, every round was dominated by The Guard with special courtesy to Jacob "valyn" Batio with over 2 Rating, 315 ACS and 4.5 KD.

The loss served as an epiphany to LG, who seemed to understand the gravity of their situation and tried to turn it around now that it was time for their map pick. Despite dropping the pistol round and round 6, they managed to take consecutive rounds till round 9 with a score of 7-2 in their favor. Just as they were starting to enjoy the thrill of leading at the end of the first half, The Guard decided to launch a comeback and tied the map within four rounds. An 8-8 tie meant that the map could’ve gone either way, and when both teams stood at 12 rounds a piece at the end of round 24, the map went into overtime. From not being able to put up any resistance on the first map, LG seemed to have improved a lot. However, they couldn’t keep up the same confidence in OT and The Guard decided to end the matchup on 15-13.

XSET vs Evil Geniuses

For the final matchup of Group A, XSET took the victory over Evil Geniuses in a perfect sweep fashion with minimal resistance from the team that made it out from the Upper Brackets in VCT 2022 - North America - Stage 1 - Open Qualifier 2. Breeze, XSET’s map pick, became the first to host both teams in this matchup.

Unlike the previous Group A matchup, the results weren’t obvious in the first half of the map since each team took turns to gain control of the momentum. At the end of the half, the score was 7-5 in XSET’s favor, but EG were still very much “alive” in the matchup. After XSET took the first couple of rounds in the second, it seemed that the momentum would now remain in their favor, but EG wasn’t ready to give up without putting up a fight and they demonstrated the extent of their abilities by taking four back-to-back rounds and tying up the lead. This, in turn, sparked a severe response from XSET who went on a four-round streak of their own and finished the map with a score of 13-9.

Bind was EG’s map pick and presented them with a better opportunity to comeback. They understood the assignment and started the map with a couple of rounds to their name, but once again failed to maintain consistency, which ultimately became the reason behind their downfall as XSET was quick to capitalize on it and develop momentum of their own finishing the first half with 13-7 score. EG’s position in this matchup was deteriorating exponentially. They needed a miracle to strike back. However, like the first half, they were only able to take the first two rounds and handing the stride to XSET to finish the map 13-7.