VCT 2022 - Japan - Stage 1 - Challengers Playoffs Recap

With the conclusion of VCT 2022 - Japan - Stage 1 - Challengers Playoffs the team that will have the honor of representing Japan at VCT 2022 - Stage 1 - Masters Reykjavík has been decided and its none other than the tournament favourites: ZETA DIVISION.

Zeta Division had been a dominant force in the Japanese region with their only losses in last year being against Crazy Raccoon, and the relatively poor performance at VCT 2021 - Stage 3 - Masters Berlin - Group Stage. Even though they were qualified to compete in VCT 2021 - APAC Last Chance Qualifier, the organization announced that they would be giving up their spot to another team to focus on restructuring their Valorant roster after the loss at Masters Berlin. In December, the organization announced the addition of Yuma "Dep" Hisamoto, Shota "SugarZ3ro" Watanabe and Tenta "ten" Asai replacing Oshiro "Reita" Ryu, who was transferred to REJECT on a 1-year loan deal while Ryo "barce" Takebayashi and Miyamoto "makiba7" Akastuki transitioned to streaming. Then, in January, Shogo "takej" Takemori departed the team for REJECT. This article will shine a light on their run in the tournament, especially the Grand Finals against Crazy Raccoon.

Instead of having both open qualifiers consecutively and transitioning to the main event, the Challenger events in Japan were designed to feature a week of open qualifiers, followed by a week of Main Event matches. Therefore, all teams including Zeta Division were a part of the Open Qualifiers. The revamped roster at Zeta Division had no difficulties acclimating themselves under the new banner and managed to execute clean sweep in all of their 3 matchups in the tournament. Better yet, they didn’t let any opposing team take more than seven rounds on a map.

The fascinating performance in the tournament earned them a spot in Group B of VCT 2022 - Japan - Stage 1 - Challengers Week 1, they were placed in Group B along with NORTHEPTION and Crazy Raccoon. Even though, they only needed a single win to guarantee their place in the Playoff stages, they did not hesitate in defeating both teams with a 2-1 and 2-0 score respectively earning themselves the #1 seed and proving their dominance in the Valorant scene.

Playoff run:

When the Playoff stages began, their first opponent was Reignite. Although the scoreboard at the end of the series read 2-0, Reignite did their best to keep Zeta on their toes taking a total of 22 rounds over the two maps. After relegating Reignite to the Lower Bracket, they progressed into the 2nd round for a rematch against Crazy Raccoon, who had just won an entertaining match against NORTHEPTION. In the CR matchup, the first map fell under their belt with a 13-8. Even though, their improved performance was worrisome to Zeta’s chances, they didn’t let it affect their performance and came back stronger on subsequent maps to finish the series with a 2-1 score.

Meanwhile, the relatively new team, IGZIST, had recently defeated FAV gaming and Crest Gaming Zst and were looking to get a step closer to Masters qualification. Unfortunately, Zeta Division had different plans and obliterated them on 13-4 and 13-2 on Bind and Fracture respectively to secure the Grand Finals spot.

Grand Finals:

It was once again, Crazy Raccoon, facing going head-to-head with Zeta. This match marked the 11 matchup between these teams, and recent history was in favour of Zeta, but counting Crazy Raccoon out after they had executed back-to-back sweeps against IGZIST and FAV Gaming would be premature. Zeta Division too employed a similar mentality and it proved viable in their 3-1 win. From the score it might seem like a relatively one-sided affair, but a deeper dive at the map scores reveals that stamen couldn’t be any further from the truth. Bind, the initial map, fell to Zeta division with a 14-12 score in Overtime due to an organized team effort.

Nonetheless, the following map was an easy take for Zeta with a 13-6 score due to a dominant first half performance courtesy of Tenta "ten" Asai. The subsequent map finished with 13-10 scores with CR taking their first map in the series to avoid being a victim of a perfect sweep in the Grand Finals of such a major tournament. However, their hopes were quickly diffused by Zeta Division on icebox the final map to secure their ticket to VCT 2022 - Stage 1 - Masters Reykjavík as the sole Japanese representatives.