Day 3 of Skyesports Champions Series Group Stage had to be a crucial one for a lot of teams. With Team Valor, Khumbu esports, Union Gaming, and Exceeli esports played with elimination on the line, While Velocity, Enigma, Revenant, and Orangutan just needed a win to solidify their place for the Chennai Valorant LAN.
Group A
- Team Valor 2-0 Khumbu Esports
- Global Esports 2-0 Prime 5
- Revenant Esports Enigma Gaming
Group B
- Orangutan 0-2 Velocity Gaming
- Full Power Gaming 2-0 Exceeli Esports
- Reckoning Esports Union Gaming
Match 1: Team Valor 2-0 Khumbu Esports.
The First match of the day was an elimination game with either team having their last chance to stay in the competition. Haven, Khumbu’s map pick had an interesting back and forth first half with both teams winning 6 rounds, But Team Valor showed defensive resilience and managed to suppress Khumbu’s attack and won the map 13-8.
On Ascent, Team Valor displayed their extent of map prep only dropping 2 rounds on the attack, and putting up a formidable defense winning the map 13-2 and the series 2-0. JN and Hoax were the most impactful players from Team Valor’s side and had a combined ACS of 293 and 263 respectively.
With this win, Valor is still hopeful to qualify whilst Khumbu is out of running for Chennai LAN.
Match 2: Orangutan 0-2 Velocity Gaming.
Both orangutan and velocity came to day 3 with huge momentum winning both their group stage matches, whilst Orangutan had dominant 2-0’s for both games, Velocity had a solid comeback victory yesterday to put them 2-0 in the group. The match was a clash of titans.
Velocity as their map pick chose to play Breeze, On attack, they only managed to scrape 5 rounds despite a solid 4-0 lead and lost the half 5-7 to the orangutan. But they managed to put up an unbreakable defensive wall in the second half, only losing the bonus round to win the game 13-8.
Most believed Orangutan would go with Icebox as their pick but they chose to go with Haven instead, given VLT had a shaky Haven in the tournament. Orangutan chose to attack and had trouble penetrating VLT’s defense only managing to win 5 rounds out of 12. But on defense, they had trouble suppressing VLT’s attack and lost the match 13-9. Deathmaker yet again was the most impactful on Chamber with a combined ACS of 271.
With this VLT is now locked in for LAN, and would now play with a lighter shoulder still trying to win for a better placement. While Orangutan would have to win 1 of the remaining 2 matches to qualify.
Match 3: Global Esports 2-0 Prime 5
After yesterday’s loss to Revenant, Global Esports must be quite shaken or so we believed, as the match proved to be something else. With both teams on 1-1, had to win to bring them closer to qualifying.
Global Esports chose fracture as their first map and made it look almost easy winning the first half 9-3 as the attacking team and closing it 13-4 on defense.
Coming to prime 5’s map pick Breeze, Global Esports managed to win their attacking half 11-1 spearheaded by SkRossi and skillZ and absolutely dominated prime 5, and easily closed out the map 13-1 winning the series 2-0, skillZ on the controller had an amazing impact with a combined ACS of 309.
After yesterday’s setback, this sure was a confident booster for Global Esports who are now 2-1. Prime 5 is still in the running but has a must-win tomorrow against Team Valor who themselves are facing the exit.
Match 4: Full Power Gaming 2-0 Exceeli Esports
Exceeli was facing tournament exit with this match and had to win the game while Full power was a cushion on 1-1.
On Split, Full Power managed to win the half 8-4 on attack despite a rocky start and had only 2 rounds out of the 6 first rounds. On defense, Full Power suppressed Exceeli’s attack despite losing the pistol round and closed the map 13-6
On the second map of haven, Full power with 1-0 up, managed to win the first half 10-2 on defense easily. Exceeli showed some resistance in the second half but eventually lost to Full power’s attack losing the map 5-13. With this Full Power Gaming won the series 2-0 with Abdur and Pokemon leading the team with 254 and 250 ACS.
With this loss, Exceeli would not be able to qualify for the LAN, while Full Power is 2-1 up just needing 1 win to qualify for the LAN.
Match 5: Reckoning Esports Union Gaming
Union had a must-win game today against Reckoning and had to win to stay in the running for LAN while Reckoning had a buffer and could afford to lose. Hikka from enigma was standing in and IGL’ing for them.
With Bind being the first map, Union put up a great attack against reckonings defense but managed to accumulate only 6 rounds despite the 4-1 lead. On defense, though they were unable to adjust to reckonings attack and won only one defensive round losing the map 7-13.
With a must-win map for Union in order to push the series to a third map, Union could not hold reckoning’s attack losing the half 4-8. Union showed resilience and brought it back to win the half 8-4 and pushed the game to overtime at 12-12.
In OT, Union managed to win the game 14-12 and push the game to the third map.
On the decider, Haven, Despite a strong start union only manage to get 5 rounds losing the half 5-7, But reckoning managed to win the 13-7 elimination Union and win the series 2-1. Deadly and Harsh had a combined ACS of 303 and 299 respectively and it helped Reckoning win the game.
Union now cant qualify for the LAN while reckoning just needs one another to win to qualify for LAN.
Match 6: Revenant Esports 0-2 Enigma Gaming
The final match of the day was a battle for the no. 1 spot and LAN qualifying as both teams were 2-0 in their group with Revenant coming on day 3 after pulling an upset over Global Esports and having all eyes on them to bring the same heat to Enigma Gaming.
Enigma’s pick of Ascent had enigma on the attack, and attack they, did breaking Revenant’s defense again and again and winning the half 8-4, They carried on the momentum and won the next two rounds making the scoreline 10-4, but Revenant wasn’t done yet and managed to string together multiple rounds and after 7-12, bring the match to OT.
In OT, The teams exchanged rounds, with both teams winning attack rounds, but In the end, Enigma managed to nullify Revenant’s attack in the second OT winning the game 15-13.
With such a close game for map 1 on Enigma’s map pick everyone expected a third map in the series but Enigma put up an impenetrable defense wall and shut down every attack from Revenant without allowing a single round to Revenant and closed the whole map 13-1 only losing the second half pistol. Rawfiul and Antidote were MVPs for the game with combined ACSs of 298 and 276 respectively.
Enigma is now qualified for the LAN and would be relieved to face the rest of the teams, while Revenant faces prime 5 on Monday for a chance to qualify for LAN.
The Union Game went on till 12 and finally closed with Union losing the game and going to 0-3 in the series, along with Union, Exceeli and Khumbu are now out of the race to qualify while Enigma and Velocity are the first two teams to qualify Chennai LAN. This concludes the valorant action for today.
Tomorrow Global Esports, Reckoning, Revenant, Full Power gaming, and Orangutan have a chance to qualify by winning their games while Prime 5 and team Valor are on the verge of exit. Good luck to the teams for tomorrow and Well played to the teams who have lost.
