It was a good day for Indian Valorant fans as all three of the Indian teams in contention at the Valorant Conquerors Championship Main Event registered wins in their first best-of-three encounter on Day 1 to take one step closer to qualifying for the Semi-Finals of the event.
The day started with Velocity Gaming taking on Bangladeshi powerhouse Exceeli Esports. VLT ran the show on their own map pick, denying Exceeli control of sites, wit the latter unable to get the spike planted in 10 of the 12 rounds on their Attack. Despite losing the second-half pistol, VLT bounced back and proceeded to end the map with a swift 13-3 win. Bind was a much closer affair, Exceeli getting off to a 4-1 lead. However, VLT were once again defiant on defence and closed out the first half 8-4. Exceeli came within a round of leveling the scores but VLT took full advantage of their Skye pick to coast to a 13-8 win on Bind and seal the series 2-0.
Crash Landing on You had a bright start on Team Exploit’s map pick, Ascent. However, the latter soon found their groove on their Attack side before winning 12 rounds in a row to seal Ascent 13-5. CLOY were absolutely shut down on their Attack side by Exploit, who gave away just a single round on their defence to gain enough of a lead, which they converted into a 13-4 win on the map to set up a date with Velocity Gaming in The Upper Bracket of Group A.
Nepalese outfit Damaru Gaming were always in with a tough task against Global Esports. Ganesh ‘SkRossi’ Gangadhar made his presence felt on Bind, registering an ADR of nearly 300 (299.6) on the map as GE steamrolled their way to a 13-3 win. Damaru gave a good account of themselves on the Defence on Split, gathering 5 rounds in the half. However, they were unable to breach the Global wall on Attack as they fell to a 13-6 defeat to make their way to the Elimination Bracket in Group B.
The last match of the day, the most anticipated by far, was expected to be a close affair, with Enigma Gaming taking on Salt Esports. However, EG ran through Salt Esports, giving them a total of 4 rounds over two maps, including a 13-1 result on Icebox.
There were two particular highlights for Day 1, featuring SkRossi’s near-300 ADR performance on Bind and Anuj ‘Amaterasu’ Sharma’s display of experience, with the VLT in-game leader converting 4 of 7 clutch situations he found himself in during their 2-0 series win over Exceeli. Abdul Haseeb ‘HSB’ Khan also showed his class, registering a Headshot percentage of 44 in the series against Crash Landing on You.
Day 2 has 3 games on offer, with Exceeli Esports battling it out against Crash Landing on You and Damaru Gaming up against Salt Esports in the Elimination matches in Group A and B respectively. Fans will also get to see one of Velocity Gaming and Team Exploit become the first team to qualify for the knockout phase of the VCC Main Event.
