Yesterday in the Lower Bracket Round 2, Evil Geniuses faced NRG, and the new 100 Thieves faced the smeaging Faze Clan. And after a back and forth, grueling tug of war, NRG, and FaZe Clan emerged victorious, continuing their journey in Valorant Champions Tour NA Challengers Playoffs.
In the VCT NA playoffs, Yesterday, after losing to Optic Gaming in the upper semifinals, Evil Geniuses were pitted against NRG, who had just eliminated Ghost Gaming in the Lower Bracket Round 1.
EG has had a very effective run in the VCT NA Challengers defeating Sentinels and Optic Gaming. They won their opening match against Ghost Gaming, but losing to the #1 NA team Optic forced them into the Lower bracket.
NRG managed to qualify for the playoffs in their last match, edging over The Guard, and had to start in the lower bracket. Their first match had them battling Ghost Gaming, where they comfortably managed to win the game 2-0.
In the Round 2 of the VCT NA Challengers Lower Bracket, NRG facing EG seemed like a done and dusted affair when NRG lost the first map against EG 3-13. But NRG showed resilience and won their map pick 13-8, forcing the third map. In the third map, Both teams seemed neck and neck, winning six rounds in the first half. On defense, though, NRG managed to limit EG’s attack winning the game 13-11 and the match 2-1, thus eliminating EG from VCT NA Challengers.
The second match of Lower bracket Round 2 had FaZe Clan and 100 thieves battling each other for tournament contention. Faze Clan was sent to the lower bracket after losing to 100 thieves in their opening playoff match. In the lower bracket, they faced the fourth seed of Group B in luminosity and managed to edge them out, winning the game 2-1.
100 thieves faced Dephh-led XSet, after winning their opening game against FaZe and were utterly overhauled by XSet, putting them against FaZe again in the lower bracket.
With elimination on the horizon and a chance for revenge, Faze Clan showed their best performance, with Dicey and Babybay leading the charge. On 100 thieves’ map choice, FaZe managed to draw the regulation but could not hold out in the overtime, losing the first map 12-14. On Fracture, they dominated the first half and managed to defend against 100 thieves’ attack to win the map 13-10.
In the final map of Breeze, both teams fought tooth and nail, with the first half going into FaZe’s favor by one round. And the map continued till the last round, where FaZe managed to win 13-11 winning the match 2-1 completing their revenge and eliminating 100 Thieves.
NRG and FaZe Clan would now face each other in the Lower Bracket Semifinals, where the loser would be eliminated the winner would face the loser of Xset/Optic Gaming for a chance to qualify for the Valorant Champions Tour Masters Copenhagen. The winner of XSet/Optic would be the first NA team to qualify for the VCT Masters II. The Action of NA Challengers would resume on 24th June at 20:00 GMT.
