The grand finals of the NA Valorant Challengers Stage 1 lived up to its hype as OpTic Gaming battled it out against The Guard to determine the victor of the tournament and take home a lion’s share of the $200,000 prize pool. The intense BO5 series resulted in The Guard taking down OpTic 3-2 and gaining themselves a head start at the upcoming Valorant Masters Reykjavk.
The game went off to a seemingly normal start as OpTic and The Guard secured wins in their respective map picks Ascent and Icebox. However, the following map pick of OpTic saw The Guard dominating with a score of 13-2 as they snatched Breeze from their opponents. OpTic retaliated on the fourth game, which took place on Split, with a stellar performance of yay on his Chamber.
The fifth game on Haven was perhaps the most interesting of the series. Things looked bright for OpTic in the first half as they managed to secure 8 rounds on the attacking side, but The Guard had other plans. After losing the pistol round on the defending side, a seven-round winstreak from the latter helped them take the score to 11-9.
As the scoreline reflected 12-11, a brilliant 1v3 clutch from Sayaplayer sealed the win for The Guard and they were crowned the champions of the North American region.
Fans will be waiting to see these two teams in action once again in the Valorant Masters Reykjavk which kicks off on April 10th.