The first valorant match of day 4 of Skyesports Champions Series was the upper finals between Orangutan and Enigma Gaming, the winner of the match would represent South Asia in the Stage 2 VCT APAC Challengers.
Enigma Gaming has been on a hot streak and hasn’t lost a match yet. On theà other hand, Orangutan, with their young roster, have been looking strong and won their debut LAN match and have had good vibes all along.
The match started with a map veto with Orangutan banning Split, their perma-ban, and enigma Gaming banned Breeze, which was a surprise. Orangutan picked Icebox, their usual map pick, and Enigma Gaming picked Ascent, their comfort pick. The teams then banned each other’s strong maps, with Haven as the decider.
Enigma played the standard no duelist double sentinel-initiator setup with Viper, Sova, Kay/O, Chamber, and Sage, and Orangutan chose to play with Jett, Viper, Sova, Killjoy, and Sage.
The game started with Orangutan on the attack, winning the Pistol round and the follow-up, and on the back of clutches from Excali, Rexy and Rawfiul, Enigma managed to string together rounds, But Tesseract and Vibhor ensured they didn’t run away with the half and fought back eventually tieing the half 6-6
The second half started with Enigma winning the Pistol and follow-up on the attack, and Orangutan fought back. The game went on with clutches after clutches, with Enigma reaching 11 first while Orangutan was still on 9.
Vibhor then won a round using just a Bulldog switching the momentum, which helped them reach 12 first, but Rawfiul managed to hold on to the last round closing the regulation 12-12. In the Overtime, Orangutan managed to maintain their momentum and won the map 14-12.
Ascent saw a mirror line-up from both sides with Sova, Killjoy, Omen, Jett, and Kay/O. The map started with Orangutan winning the Pistol easily but had to rely on Persia’s clutch to win the second round. Enigma began to run away with the half with a better economy, but Tesseract won a Thrifty with his hunter’s fury, which stopped the bleeding, helping Orangutan Win the half 7-5.
On defense, Enigma Gaming set up a strong fortress, and it was hard for Orangutan to break through, allowing Enigma to reach match point while Orangutan was on 8. But Orangutan started finding gaps in Enigma’s defense and won 3 rounds in a row to push the map to the final round. But Enigma Gaming managed to hold off the attack from Orangutan to win the game 13-11, forcing the third map.
Both teams chose to run a double initiator setup on the decider haven, with Jett, Skye, Fade, Killjoy, and Omen for Enigma Gaming and Jett, Breach, Sova, Killjoy, and Omen.
With Enigma on the attack, despite a 0-2 deficit, they managed to dominate Orangutan’s defense and win 8 out of the remaining ten rounds to win the half 8-4.
Now on defense Enigma managed to suppress Orangutan’s attack and didn’t let them string together rounds, eventually winning the map 13-7 and the series 2-1.
With this victory, Enigma Gaming becomes the first South Asia representative in the Stage 2 APAC Challengers and heads to the Skyesports Champions Series Chennai LAN finals. Orangutan would face the victors of Global Esports vs. Velocity Gaming in the lower bracket finals.