Valorant Champions Tour Japan Challengers concluded today with Northeption as the new champions of Japan. Northeption defeated the defending champions Zeta Division to claim the VCT Master Copenhagen slot.
Northeption started their VCT Japan Challengers journey by playing the Week 1 open qualifier, where they managed to dominate their group to qualify for the main event.
In the VCT Japan Challengers Week 1 Main Event, Northeption took on Crazy Racoons and FAV gaming, beating both the teams with relative ease to qualify for the VCT Japan Challengers Playoffs.
As the top eight teams in the region, Northeption started their playoff journey by taking on Jadeite. On the first map of their playoff journey, Northeption lost to Jadeite 6-13 on their map pick. But they maintained their calm to reverse sweep Jadeite and continue their playoff journey.
Facing Crazy Racoons again in the upper semifinals, Northeption repeated their feat to win the game 2-1 again after the week one main stage.
Facing the defending champions Zeta division, Northeption faltered and lost to Zeta division 0-2, falling into the lower brackets.
In the lower brackets, they faced Crazy Racoons again, and this time around easily beat Crazy Racoons 2-0, with scores 13-6 and 13-9, to reach the Grand finals against Zeta Division with a chance of revenge.
The VCT Japan Challengers Grand Finals started with Northeption attacking Zeta’s map pick of Icebox. They started strong but only managed to get five rounds in the first half.
In the second half, Zeta seemed to have gained momentum reaching eleven rounds whilst Northeption was still on ten. But Northeption maintained composure and closed out the map 13-11.
On Northeption’s Haven, Zeta managed to decimate Norteption’s defence to win the half 8-4 to win the game 13-4 later. This set Northeption back mentally, but they came back stronger on Zeta’s map pick of fracture defeating Zeta 13-4 after winning ten attack rounds in the first half.
With a 2-1 lead in the match, Northeption started the fourth map Ascent wanting to close the game before Zeta could recover. Starting on Attack, Northeption managed to slip through Zeta Division’s defence, often winning the half 7-5.
Now on defence, Northeption put forward an impenetrable fortress, and Zeta failed to find an answer to the question Northeption asked and lost the map 7-13.
Winning the third map, Northeption closed the series 3-1 and defeated the defending champions to qualify for the VCT Masters Copenhagen. This would be their first International appearance, and they would try to impress the world similar to what Zeta did in Reykjavik.
You can read about the VCT Masters Copenhagen here.
More on Valorant here.
