Team Exploit have officially become the first team to grab themselves a spot in the knockout phase of the Valorant Conquerors Championship Main Event. The Pakistani powerhouse beat Velocity Gaming in the Group A Winners’ Bracket match over three maps in the best-of-three series (13-10 Icebox, 1-13 Ascent, 13-9 Breeze).
The win could be chalked down as somewhat of an upset, with Community predictions on The Spike favouring Velocity Gaming over Team Exploit in a 2-to-1 ratio. The game started on VLT’s map pick Icebox, with the Indian organization racing to a 6-0 lead on the Attack.
However, Usmain ‘soulM8’ Arain stepped up with the Viper on Exploit’s attack as they nabbed VLT’s pick 13-10. With their backs against the walls, VLT went with the Sova-Skye combination, with Anuj ‘Amaterasu’ Sharma donning the Australian agent.
VLT proceeded to shut Exploit down completely, with the latter finding just one round on their Attack side. VLT secured a 13-1 win on Ascent, pushing the series on to the decider, Breeze. VLT and Exploit were neck-and-neck to begin with, with the former managing to lap up a narrow 8-7 lead. However, Exploit started taking control of the proceedings and found themselves 12-9 up.
Mustafa ‘shooterR’ Kamal punished Mohit ‘mw1’ Wakle’s push from A as Exploit pushed into the B site. shooterR finished things off in style, with three more kills added to his tally for the round, quad-kill in total, as Exploit wrapped up Breeze with a 13-9 scoreline.
The defeat sends Velocity to the decider match against Exceeli Esports, with the winner set to become the second team to qualify from Group A for the knockout phase of the VCC Main Event.
