VCT 2022: NA Challengers Stage 1 Main Event - Week 4 Group B Recap
Group B managed to keep up with Group A in terms of the entertainment value, as we saw some extremely close matchups almost turning into upsets. Here’s a detailed recap of Group B matchup this week.
Rise vs. Sentinels
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POISED
With their only win against OpTic gaming in the tournament, Rise were seeking to improve their chances of making the Playoff stages by defeating Sentinels, which had faced an unfortunate loss against OpTic Gaming formerly Envy. Going into the matchup, neither team could be denoted as the ‘obvious favourites’ since Sentinels’ performance in recent games wasn’t as lethal compared to their 2021 form, and Rise sat low in the groups table with 2 losses and a single win in the tournament so far.
As teams left the gate on Haven, Rise Knights were able to take the first couple of rounds, but their lack of consistency forced the lead in the hands of Sentinels with three consecutive rounds. After round 7, the score read 4-3 with Sentinels leading. Rise decided to retake the momentum and forced four rounds while limiting Sentinel to one more round by the half to finish at score of 7-5. Following the halftime break, Sentinels decided to put an end to the matchup by taking rest of the rounds but their plan encountered partial success as Rise broke their momentum and took the remaining 6 rounds one after the other to win the map 13-9 gaining the upper hand in the matchup.
Given that Sentinels chose Fracture as their map pick, Rise would have to work exceedingly hard to avoid the decider being forced. Sentinels, on the other hand, appeared to have re-evaluated their strategy over the break and looked more determined than ever. From the pistol round itself, they had managed to establish a firm grip over the momentum with only few minor slip ups here and there and halftime, they had gained an 9-3 lead. To make matters worse, Sentinels increased their lead to 11 by taking a couple of more rounds.
By now, Rise had seemingly lost the map but Valorant esports has previously taught the community to never count someone out until the opposing team reaches 13 points because Rise decided to embark on one of the biggest comebacks by far and tally their score up to 11 while giving Sentinels only a single extra round to put them on 12. Rise needed two rounds to limit the decider but Sentinels mustered one last push to take the next round and force the decider.
Bind was chosen as the decider and since teams were on equal footing with the series tied at 1-1, this map was equally important for both the teams to dominate in. The first half started with Rise taking four back-to-back rounds only to be obliterated by Sentinels in the 7 of the remaining 8 rounds. With the half ending at 7-5, Rise still had the chance to earn their second victory and they demonstrate their firm intent by taking three immediate rounds after halftime taking the lead 8-7. That was the last straw for Sentinels, who started a match-ending 6 round streak thanks to Hunter "SicK" Mims’s 3K in the 16th round.
NRG Esports vs. Pittsburgh Knights
GenghstaDespite being four weeks into the Main Event, NRG were still searching for their 1st win going into this matchup but they were unfortunate to have Pittsburgh Knights as their opponents especially after their clean sweep against Rise over the last weekend.
Proceedings began on Breeze, and while the Knights had control of the momentum in the early rounds of the map, NRG managed to put up 6 rounds of their own by halftime to level scores to 6-6. Nonetheless, this tie was blown off by a mind-blowing performance by the Knights on second half to take seven consecutive rounds to finish the map largely due to the contributions of Damion "XXiF" Cook who stood at a fascinating 1.90 Rating and 344 ACS.
In contrast, events on Bind, did not unfold the way the Knight’s would’ve liked considering that it was their map pick. From the get-go NRG had control over the momentum and despite losing it momentarily in the first half, they were able to regain it quickly before significant damage was inflicted on their chances of winning this map. On the second half, in particular, they were able to restrict the Knight’s to taking three rounds while they finished the map with a four round streak courtesy of Sam "s0m" Oh.
With both teams tied at 1-1, NRG was thirteen rounds away from winning their first matchup and the Knights from regaining their position on the leaderboard. However, as the events continued to unfold on this map, a familiar picture started to unveil, one resembling the first map of this matchup. Although, NRG esports was only able to take 5 rounds this time as opposed to six of Breeze, the second round was total Knights domination as they blitzed their way to victory and left NRG in despair for a win at this event.
OpTic Gaming vs. Version1
wippieWhile OpTic Gaming were looking for another win to solidify their position on the Group B leaderboards and a guaranteed spot in the Playoffs, Version1 just needed another win under their belt to prove their dominance in the NA scene and send a message to their future opponents in the Playoff stages.
Even though this matchup went to the decider map, the intensity of battle on each map was relatively anticlimactic as you will discover shortly. Ascent being the Version1’s map pick suggested that they would potentially have the edge in battle, but it proved to be the other way around. From the get-go, Version1’s attack faced difficulty penetrating OpTic’s defense and plant the spike, and even in the cases where they managed to do so, OpTic had no difficulty diffusing them in due time to win the round. Every strategy OpTic employed was being successful and they were virtually unstoppable with their 10 back-to-back round wins. It took 10 rounds to figure out the vulnerabilities in OpTic’s defense and were able to exploit them for only two rounds of the half finishing the half at a 10-2 score. OpTic was able to maintain the performance on the second half as well and take the map 13-2.
After evaluating the caliber of the OpTic Gaming’s performance in the first map, it was important to come up with a counterstrategy and Version1 was able to do so with considerable efficacy as demonstrated by their performance on Haven. Even though OpTic had control over the map’s momentum in the start, it didn’t take long for Version1 to turn the tables around and take 6 consecutive rounds to finish the half at 7-5 score. During halftime, Version1 decided that limiting OpTic to taking as few rounds would be preferable if they wanted to force the decider map. Channeling their annoyance and disappointment from the first map, Version1 was able to take the remaining 6 rounds following the start of second half to win the map 13-5.
Icebox, the decider, was awaiting the presence of both teams patiently because there was bound to be action especially after high-differential map wins on Ascent and Haven. However, Version1 were done playing around and looked to finish the match as soon as possible. They started stacking points up from the pistol round itself but OpTic gaming wasn’t extremely lenient in letting rounds slip away and were able to secure 4 rounds themselves by halftime as opposed to Version1’s 8. OpTic tried to gain control of the momentum in the immediate rounds after halftime reducing the lead to 8-5, a few more steps closer to winning the matchup.
Unfortunately, though, that became the last round OpTic was able to register under their name because Version1 was able to close out the map 13-5 winning their 4th match in the Main Event and establishing themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the NA scene.
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