VCT Masters Berlin: Day 1 recap

Finally the day arrived and VALORANT LAN is back at the Verti Music Hall in Berlin. Day 1 consisted of three matches; one from Group A, one from Group C and one from Group D.

Group A - Acend vs Supermassive Blaze

With Acend picking up Bind as their map, Supermassive Blaze preferred to start on the defense side but that didn't stop Acend from sweeping their opponent. With a scoreline of 10-2 on the attacking side Acend have taken a very big lead in the first half of the map. Kicking off the pistol round, Acend have shown great tactics on bombsite A using the Viper wall and Sage's wall to plant the spike in front of Bathrooms ending up with Patryk "starxo" Kopczynski getting a 3 multikill while Supermassive Blaze tried to defuse the spike.

Going into the third round where Acend had only Spectre's against a full buy of Supermassive Blaze, Acend managed to push the B bombsite even though the Turkish roster got the first two kills which were traded immediately. In a 3v3 situation, Acend managed to close off the round with Izzy ending up forced to save. In the 6th round, Supermassive Blaze managed to get their first round even though it was a Thrifty round thanks to a great play by Melih "pAura" Karaduran where he got a 3 multikill using a Sheriff and even used his Viper ultimate to force the opponent to slow down their push towards bombsite A. Losing a thrifty round though didn't affect much Acend since they continued their great performance and kept sweeping round after another to close the score at 10-2.

Switching sides Supermassive Blaze took the first 2 rounds to make the score 10-4 but they didn't manage to do what Acend did when attacking and lost the third round to make the score 11-4. With just two rounds in sight to close out the map, Acend managed to take them back to back after having the score 11-5 with starxo and bonecold closing out the last round thanks to a great 3 multikill and 2 multikill respectively.

On Ascent, Supermassive Blaze map pick, Acend seemed like they were going to continue their dominance after taking a 5-0 lead on Defense side but after a tactial pause by Turkish squad, they managed to reverse the result to make it 7-5 in the first half in their favor. With Acend winning another pistol rounds, they tied the score to 7-7 but Supermassive Blaze responded back in the 3rd round to take the lead again. Having said that, when it came to full buy rounds after the 3rd round, Acend dominated most of them with the exception of the 19th round. Acend managed to close out Ascent with the score of 13-9 to win the series 2-0.

The winner between Vision Strikers vs Paper Rex will be facing the European squad while the loser will face the Turkish team.

Group D - G2 Esports vs F4Q

The only match that went all the way to three maps was the opener of Group D between the European team of G2 Esports of South Korean team of F4Q. First map was Ascent, picked by G2 Esports and it was complete domination by the European roster, especially on the attacking side. F4Q couldn't keep up with the strategies of Jose Luis "koldamenta" Aranguren and Cista "keloqz" Wassim's Jett with the score closing up the first half at 11-1.

On the second half of Ascent, F4Q looked like they were getting back to it after winning four consecutive rounds but G2 Esports said enough as they closed out the map winning the two needed rounds with a scoreline of 13-5.

Heading over to Bind, we had a different story by F4Q as they took the lead over G2 Esports even though they were on the attacking side with a scoreline of 8-4. The teams kept going back and forth once sides were switched but ultimately F4Q managed to close out the map with the score of 13-9 to make it 1-1 and play the third map Haven.

Home of Chae "Bunny" Joon-hyuk, F4Q had a decent defensive side on Haven considering that the map is an attacking sided map with the Raze main player doing some flashy plays closing the first side at 7-5 for G2 Esports. With that said, F4Q didn't respond back on the attacking side as G2 Esports managed to hold their forces to take the map with the score of 13-8 to win the first match from Group D.

Group C - 100 Thieves vs Havan Liberty

With the North American side going in this match as the favourites, they definitely did not disappoint their fans. With 100 Thieves picking up Ascent as their map, Havan Liberty actually started pretty well on the pistol round of the attacking side and followed up the second round but after that it was 100 Thieves show time. Winning round after round, with only failing in the 10th round, 100 Thieves managed to close the first half with a score of 9-3. Going into attack, 100 Thieves just continued to roll over Havan Liberty as they have been doing in Defense as they manage to win all the four rounds they needed to make the score 13-3.

Havan Liberty picked Icebox and 100 Thieves started on defense side where they continued dominating for the first four rounds. After that Havan Liberty managed to catch up 4 rounds ending up the first half 8-4 in favourite of the North Americans. Switching sides, the Brazilian squad managed to get the pistol round and the consecutive round but from their onwards, it was all 100 Thieves. With Spencer "Hiko" Martin managing to clutch a 1v2 situation on 15 HP, it looked like it was the nail in the coffin for Havan Liberty. After that, 100 Thieves continues to win round after another to close the map with a score of 13-6.

100 Thieves will be facing the winner between Gambit Esports and Crazy Raccoon while the loser of the same match will face Havan Liberty for the elimination match of Group C.