VCT 2022 - Japan - Stage 1 - Challengers Group B Recap

After two days of intense competition between the best teams in the Japanese region, VCT 2022 - Japan - Stage 1 - Challengers Week 1 has finally concluded and two out of the eight participating teams have secured a spot at VCT 2022 - Japan - Stage 1 - Challengers Playoffs. Here’s a detailed recap of the matches that took place in Group B.

Crazy Raccoon vs Sengoku Gaming

VCT 2022 - Japan - Stage 1 - Challengers Week 1

Crazy Raccoon

2

X

0

Sengoku Gaming

Semi Final, Best of 3 - February 27, 2022 - 5:00AM

13

Haven

5

13

Icebox

10

Crazy Raccoon

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

Meiy

1.39

283

42/32/7

+10

1.31

75.2%

176.9

38%

54%

7

6

Munchkin

1.13

258

34/30/9

+4

1.13

69.3%

175.1

20%

58%

11

8

neth

1.05

199

29/24/10

+5

1.21

74.3%

130.4

28%

100%

3

0

popogachi

1.04

194

28/25/17

+3

1.12

79.2%

149.7

27%

0%

0

5

Astell

0.89

148

21/22/18

-1

0.95

71.5%

95.6

23%

100%

1

0

Sengoku Gaming

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

thiefy

1.31

279

41/27/6

+14

1.52

79.0%

179.5

26%

63%

5

3

GangPin

1.01

220

30/33/10

-3

0.91

74.6%

139.8

33%

67%

6

3

kobra

0.87

198

30/35/6

-5

0.86

62.6%

136.4

30%

35%

6

11

Misaya

0.59

115

18/33/10

-15

0.55

64.1%

80.1

19%

0%

0

3

Art

0.50

128

14/26/11

-12

0.54

68.1%

87.8

14%

50%

2

2

Crazy Raccoon has been on top of the Japanese Valorant scene for as long as the community can remember, and their praiseworthy regional performances has awarded them with several opportunities to compete on the international stage with the best teams around the world. However, they couldn’t replicate ethe same performances and had to settle for low placements each time. Despite their glorious tournament record, the organizations decided to revamp their roster by adding Souta "popogachi" Morita, Byeon "Munchkin" Sang-beom, Ibuki "Meiy" Seki, and Moon "Astell" Ji-won. During the qualifiers, the newly assembled team was able to defeat their opponents without much difficulty. On the other hand, Sengoku Gaming had gone on a brief hiatus since April 2020 and the qualifiers was their first tournament back. With both rosters being relatively new, this match was bound to be exciting.

Proceedings commenced on Haven, which was selected by Sengoku Gaming as their map pick and from the first round itself they were persistent on proving why that was the case. Although they managed to take five rounds early on, Crazy Raccoon was able to interrupt their streak with a couple of rounds of their own. After Sengoku Gaming’s display of their capabilities, CR decided to avoid prolonging the match any further. From round 8th on Haven, they started a streak that would only end with their victory over the opposing team.

A 13-5 loss on the first matchup served as a wake-up call for Sengoku Gaming, During the break, they refined their strategies in order to defeat CR on their map pick. Once again, the first couple of rounds were an easy take for SG and they managed to maintain consistency in their performance and take the lead momentarily until round 11 when both teams were tied 5-5. Despite all their efforts, CR was able to take the following rounds leading 7-5 at halftime. Even though the halftime score was similar to Haven, SG seemed more determined to win the map and successfully avoided CR’s wrath. After going back and forth between rounds, SG stood at 10 rounds to CR’s 12, a predicament which they hadn’t envisioned but needed to deal with if they were to stay in the matchup. They tried their best to force overtime, but CR wasn’t keen on doing so and ended the map with a 13-10 score.

NORTHEPTION vs ZETA Division

VCT 2022 - Japan - Stage 1 - Challengers Week 1

NORTHEPTION

1

X

2

ZETA DIVISION

Semi Final, Best of 3 - February 27, 2022 - 7:50AM

7

Haven

13

13

Bind

8

9

Fracture

13

NORTHEPTION

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

BlackWiz

1.06

218

48/48/15

0

1.00

58.9%

140.7

32%

50%

7

7

JoXJo

0.94

188

45/46/9

-1

0.98

67.8%

120.2

28%

75%

6

2

xnfri

0.86

178

41/45/10

-4

0.91

65.0%

122.0

39%

44%

4

5

Meteor

0.86

196

41/51/13

-10

0.80

71.5%

130.0

29%

52%

11

10

Xandrite

0.63

150

27/46/18

-19

0.59

66.2%

107.7

15%

27%

3

8

ZETA DIVISION

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

Dep

1.24

250

58/44/10

+14

1.32

69.7%

156.1

29%

65%

11

6

crow

1.04

194

48/34/12

+14

1.41

77.7%

133.7

36%

33%

2

4

SugarZ3ro

1.03

199

45/39/20

+6

1.15

76.3%

123.3

28%

45%

5

6

ten

0.95

211

45/45/14

0

1.00

81.0%

144.6

22%

44%

7

9

Laz

0.92

203

40/40/18

0

1.00

66.8%

137.1

21%

54%

7

6

If you are an avid fan of the Japanese Valorant scene, then you might be familiar with both of these teams since they frequented the leaderboards of several regional VCT tournaments. It is worth mentioning, however, that ZETA DIVISION is now competing with a revamped roster, which features some new faces including Yuma "Dep" Hisamoto, Shota "SugarZ3ro" Watanabe and Tenta "ten" Asai. The opposing team, NORTHEPTION, also made use of the off-season to introduce changes to their roster. With such unpredictability, there were no obvious favourites for this matchup and the reason became eminent quite quickly.

Similar to the preceding matchup, the battle began on Haven. As soon as both teams left the gate, NORTHEPTION did not hesitate to launch an aggressive attack. ZETA being caught off guard found themselves losing 4 subsequent rounds with momentum gradually starting to side with NORTHEPTION. They regrouped, assessed the situation and adjusted their defense to turn the tables on this matchup and unsurprisingly they were able to do so without much resilience. From a score of 5-2, they embarked on almost an 11 round streak and were able to finish the map with a 13-7 score as NORTHEPTION couldn’t secure more than a couple of rounds after surrendering their control over the matchup’s momentum.

Bind, being ZETA’s map pick, presented an even bigger threat for NORTHEPTION. They needed to remain calm and progress effectively to win this map and force the decider. They started the map with a three-round streak, lost three rounds to ZETA, but eventually recovered and won five of the remaining six rounds to finish the half with a 8-4 lead. They had the upper hand and a four round difference wasn’t very concerning. With their eyes set of the Playoffs spot, they were able to carry over the performance on the second half as well and win the map 13-8 forcing the battle to continue onto Fracture, the decider.

Being tied 1-1, neither team had the upper hand in the matchup, which furthered the excitement the fans had. However, the initial half of Fracture was relatively one sided with ZETA taking the charge from the pistol round itself. Round after round, ZETA dominated NORTHEPTION limiting them to only three rounds, while taking nine themselves. Historically teams have returned from 9-3 deficit, but it seemed highly unlikely given the form ZETA was playing in. Nonetheless, NORTHEPTION decided to put up a strong fight in the second half and by round 21 was able to reduce ZETA’s lead to 3 points at 12-9. It was, unfortunately, too late and ZETA finished the map to get one step closer to the playoff spot.

Crazy Raccoon vs ZETA Division

VCT 2022 - Japan - Stage 1 - Challengers Week 1

Crazy Raccoon

0

X

2

ZETA DIVISION

Grand Final, Best of 3 - February 27, 2022 - 11:20AM

2

Icebox

13

11

Haven

13

Crazy Raccoon

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

Meiy

1.12

243

31/31/4

0

1.00

62.9%

134.0

27%

67%

6

3

Munchkin

0.79

204

27/32/2

-5

0.84

60.0%

145.1

30%

48%

10

11

Astell

0.74

178

20/30/13

-10

0.67

64.6%

114.9

27%

0%

0

2

popogachi

0.71

173

20/30/12

-10

0.67

54.6%

129.3

18%

50%

1

1

neth

0.61

140

20/31/5

-11

0.65

55.8%

98.9

33%

40%

2

3

ZETA DIVISION

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

SugarZ3ro

1.40

247

35/22/19

+13

1.59

88.3%

146.6

28%

67%

2

1

Laz

1.31

272

35/26/11

+9

1.35

82.1%

159.4

21%

64%

7

4

ten

1.23

218

30/24/13

+6

1.25

66.7%

125.9

33%

33%

2

4

Dep

1.14

234

32/25/6

+7

1.28

71.3%

142.4

19%

54%

7

6

crow

0.75

164

22/21/8

+1

1.05

72.9%

119.1

25%

33%

2

4

Both teams were looking quite strong in their own respect; however, objectively ZETA had a relatively difficult opponent to defeat as opposed to CR. The matchup between CR and ZETA is the pinnacle of esports competition in the Japanese scene. During VCT 2021, both teams participated in 5 head-to-head matches, with CR winning 3 and ZETA settling for 2. Both teams now had relatively different roster, which spiced this matchup even more. However, to the dismay of many fans it was less eventful than they might have anticipated.

ZETA decided to switch their map picks from Bind in the previous matchup to Icebox, a strategy that proved to be extremely viable against CR. Instead of alternating rounds like you might expect in matchup between the best teams of the regions, it was ZETA supremacy all along. From the pistol round to the 9th round, ZETA did not drop a single map and subsequently finished the half with a 10-2 score. Despite being one of the best teams in the region, a comeback of this scale seemed far-fetched but before they could even think of launching one ZETA decided to take the three rounds following halftime and win the map 13-2 giving them the upper hand in this matchup and instilling fear in the CR team.

Even though the CR roster was recently assembled, the new onboarded players have previously competed for other teams. Being veterans in the esports allowed them to remain calm and collected and keep their morale up even after a staggering loss on the first map. Haven was their time to shine. It seemed strange that CR would opt Haven as their map pick even after ZETA’s performance on it against NORTHEPTION. ZETA was quick to take the first couple of rounds hoping to replicate their success in the first half, but CR were now well prepared and not only did they stop ZETA in their tracks, they managed to take five back-to-back rounds finishing the half with a 7-5 lead. Nevertheless, this soon became the only lead CR had in this matchup as ZETA started their relentless aggression in the second half taking four consecutive rounds straight out of the gate. Crazy Raccoon desperately tried to resist and were momentarily successful. At round 21, both teams were tied up with 10 rounds apiece. CR was three rounds away from forcing the decider, but ZETA managed to prevent them from doing so finishing the map with a 13-11 score and a sigh of relief having earned a spot at VCT 2022 - Japan - Stage 1 - Challengers Playoffs.