Sea, an e-commerce and gaming tech giant from Southeast Asia, is reportedly shutting down the operations of their game live streaming platform, Booyah, after facing a massive loss of $1 billion in their quarterly earnings. According to the report, Free Fire ban in India has impacted their revenue to a large extent.
Free Fire was one of the most trending games in India, generating a humongous revenue for the tech giant. Since the game was banned, the company has already incurred losses and the number has reached a staggering $1 billion, according to Reuters.
Sea Labs is shutting down several of their experimental projects including the development of game live streaming platform. This will reportedly lead to 30 to 40 people getting laid off from Garena’s team. This layoff is a part of Sea’s plan to increase profitability as per the reports.
Sea is the parent company that owns the gaming giant Garena. A spokesperson from the company said that Sea “made some changes to improve efficiency” in their operations that impact a number of roles, saying it would focus on the “long-term strength of Sea’s ecosystem”.
Garena and Sea collectively have incurred huge losses in the pandemic and the ban adds on to their pile. The share price of Sea plummeted by 72% this year and Garena shared a similar fate with a drop of 39% in quarterly paying users.
Sea has acted on this setback and tried to regain its profitability by taking some moves like warning stakeholders about a worrying situation between Garena and the Indian government in March 2022. They also laid people off at their e-commerce arm,Shopee, in regions like SEA, Mexico and Latin America.
Epic Games had previously added numerous DC and Marvel characters into Fortnite. In addition, the developers are quite popular for adding such eccentric characters into the game. This time, Fortnite has introduced Starfire, Princess of Tamaran, and founding member of the Teen Titans.
The Starfire bundle is now available in the item shop and we are going to discuss how you can acquire Starfire in Fortnite.
Unleash the explosive energy of Starfire, Princess of Tamaran and founding member of the Teen Titans!
You can either purchase the Starfire bundle or you can also purchase them individually. In the item shop, the Starfire bundle is available for 1800 V-Bucks. However, if you want to buy them individually, the Outfit, Starbolt Pickaxe, and Starfire’s Flourish Emote will cost you 1500, 800, and 300 V-Bucks respectively.
Pokimane has finally explained her silence and change in streaming schedule and as many would have guessed it had to do with her health.
Pokimane broke down in tears when explaining what caused her to take a break to which fans have responded by offering plethora of support. Since her announcement for a break in mid July, Pokimane has broken her silence in September.
September 1st saw Pokimane drop a video where she explains the break and all the changes that are to come in the following days, including type of content and a new streaming schedule.
“I do recognize that putting myself out there so much, especially streaming, it revolves around this constant feedback loop of people telling you what they think of you. From seven-second TikTok clips to 10-minute YouTube videos to 10-hour streams, and they all revolve around comments.” she says.
“at a point in my life where it doesn’t feel creatively fulfilling to feed into that anymore.” according to her.
“Streaming and gaming does fit in there, but it doesn’t have to be everything,” she said.
“My heart yearns for more, and it yearns to explore more, while still keeping that part of my identity, and I really hope you guys can be understanding of that.”
From now onwards, Pokimane will be starting a “new chapter” which likely means that less of her streaming content and more things on rest of the platforms. Streams will likely get reduced to 2-3 times a week but fans can find her on the likes of TikTok.
The 2022 Dota 2 battle pass, much like its predecessors, is loaded with amazing goodies that will motivate all players to complete the pass before it expires on January 12, 2023. This date marks the beginning of the pass’s next cycle.
The Battle pass for Dota 2 is loaded with a variety of rewards and cosmetics to choose from.
When it comes to accessing content for the battle pass, there are several different routes to go. Some players will adhere to the tasks and unlock as many levels as possible before the pass expires, but others may buy levels to speed up the process.
As players level up their battle passes, the tier rewards get more exclusive, and the most prestigious Dota 2 item is sealed at level 1000.
How to Get the International 11 Collector’s Aegis In Dota 2
Unlocking the 100th tier of the 2022 battle pass grants players in Dota 2 the opportunity to obtain the International 11 Collector’s Aegis. Once a player reaches level 1000 in their combat pass, a new section titled “Register for Deliver” will become available on their battle pass page.
After obtaining level 1000 of the battle pass, players will be required to register a valid shipping address in order to be eligible for the replica of the Aegis. The amount of time it takes for the Collector’s Aegis to be delivered to a player is greatly contingent on their location as well as the amount of time it takes for Valve to transport the replicas.
Qualified and registered players will be sent a notification email containing a tracking number as soon as the Aegises are dispatched.
Valve announced the venue for The International’s 11th edition. The International 11 (TI11) will take place in Singapore, as was revealed during the ESL One Stockholm Dota Major 2022.
The International will make its debut in Southeast Asia for the very first time with this year’s tournament. Previously, China made history by becoming the first country in Asia to ever play host to The International when it staged TI9 in the city of Shanghai in 2019.
The long wait for the Ti11 Dota 2 Battle Pass is over, and fans of the popular MOBA finally have the chance to get some incredible cosmetics for their favorite heroes while also supporting the professional scene of the game.
With the format of this year’s Battle Pass varying significantly from those of its predecessors, many are left confused about several features of the TI 2022 Battle Pass, the TI11 prize pool, and more.
This is why, we’re gonna clear everything up for our readers, and explain everything you need to know about the Dota 2 Battle Pass for 2022.
The 2022 Battle Pass arrives: Arcanas for Faceless Void and Razor, Personas for Crystal Maiden and Phantom Assassin, a Prestige set for Primal Beast, brand new Immortals, and so much more. https://t.co/bISzGUvXOhpic.twitter.com/Om4MWMUFlz
Dota 2 TI11 Battle Pass Explained: Part 1 & Part 2
Taking a different approach from previous years, Valve has decided to try out something new with this year’s Battle Pass, and it’s not necessarily bad. The splitting of the Battle Pass duration into two parts enables the community to enjoy it for an extended period of time, but it has its downsides.
For instance, the prize pool of the upcoming TI11 will undoubtedly be taking a hit in this new format. Generally, 25% of all the purchases made through sales of the Battle Pass go directly into the prize pool of The International. As the Part 2 of the 2022 Battle Pass will be extending till much later than the conclusion of The International 2022, the purchases made by the community during that period won’t be helping to fund its prize pool.
The Part 1 of the Battle Pass is the same as the Battle Passes of any other year’s, where fans can pay to purchase the Battle Pass and then grind or spend their way through the levels and earn various rewards. But some rewards, features, and game modes are locked till the release of Part 2 of the Battle Pass.
For this reason, fans across social media forums continue to raise their concerns about Valve putting all the good cosmetics in Part 2. Some Reddit users have also decided to not buy the Part 2 of the Battle Pass in protest, but this is where many are getting it wrong.
You don’t have to buy Part 2 of the Battle Pass if you’ve bought Part 1. Once you purchase the Battle Pass, you get to keep all the levels that you’ve earned during Part 1 when Part 2 drops. Fans can choose to purchase the levels that they need before the conclusion of TI11 to be able to support the prize pool of The International 2022.
It’s also safe to say that the vast majority of Battle Pass-related purchases will be made during Part 1 of the Pass, and a quarter of it will still be funding the prize pool of TI11. However, from the initial looks, it doesn’t seem that this year’s TI will be able to overtake TI10’s world record-setting prize pool of $40,018,195.
Whether or not Valve decides to use the purchases made during the Part 2 of the Battle Pass to support the prize pool of regional leagues or Majors in the 2023 DPC season still remains to be seen.
Dota 2 The International 2022 Prize Pool
At the time of writing, The International 2022 prize pool has hit $4,000,000 and is steadily growing as fans continue to make purchases involving the 2022 Battle Pass.
The Valorant Champions kicked off yesterday with Paper Rex and Leviatan securing their opening matches, today LOUD played ZETA Division, followed by Optic Gaming taking on BOOM, and the day concludes with a playoff qualification match between Paper Rex and Leviatan.
Valorant Champions Day 2 results:
Group
Team 1
Team 2
B
ZETA Division
0
2
LOUD
B
Optic Gaming
2
1
BOOM esports
A
Paper Rex
Leviatan
Valorant Champions Day 2 Results
Match 1 Zeta Division vs. LOUD:
The day’s first match kicked off with Reykjavik’s second and third runner-ups, LOUD and ZETA Division, taking on each other for the first time. Both teams exited early in the VCT Masters Copenhagen.
The brawl between the Japanese ZETA and Brazilian LOUD started on Ascent, LOUD’s map pick. The map started in Zeta’s favour, but the rounds went back and forth, with none of the teams winning more than two rounds in a row. The first half concluded with ZETA with a two-round lead.
The second half was a different ball game as LOUD went on to win six rounds in a row. ZETA did answer back with one, but LOUD’s defence held strong and closed down ZETA’s attacks to close out the map 13-8 after a 5-7 first half.
ZETA’s map picked seemed to be working well for ZETA, with them only losing two rounds out of the starting nine, but LOUD recovered well, closing the half 5-7, and their winning ways continued with LOUD completely shutting down ZETA’s attacks once again to win the map 13-9.
With the second map win, LOUD wins the series 2-0 up and moves onto the winners’ bracket of group B to face the winner of Optic Gaming and Boom Esports.
Match 2 of Group B had the debutant BOOM esports taking on one of the most consistent Valorant Titans of 2022 Optic Gaming. The match-up is surely a trial by fire for BOOM esports.
The match-up started with BOOM esports picking Breeze as their debut map, and on defence, they locked down both the sites to limit the Optic attack to only four rounds in the first half.
Optic returned the favour in the second half by repeating what their competitors did to them, forcing Overtime on Boom Esports. The Overtime started with both teams displaying individual heroics to exchange two attacks and two defence halves, and eventually, BOOM closed it out on attack after winning the defensive half.
Optic’s Bind started with Optic completely shutting down all the attack attempts made by BOOM and letting BOOM only take two rounds on attacks to close the half 10-2. The second half started well for BOOM, but Optic overwhelmed the BOOM defence to win the map 13-5 and force the third map.
The decider fracture seemed like Optic’s pick. With them on defence, despite losing the pistol round and the follow-up, Optic completely shut down BOOM’s attack to close the first half 9-3.
The Optic domination continued in the second half, with Optic winning the required four rounds without dropping a beat. With the map win, Optic Gaming wins the series 2-1 to face LOUD in a VCT Masters Reykjavik Finals rematch for a chance to qualify for the Valorant Champions Playoff.
BOOM will face the ZETA division in the lower bracket, and the series loser will be eliminated from Valorant Champions.
Match 3 Paper Rex vs. Leviatan
The first playoff Qualification match of Valorant Champions 2022 Instanbul has the Kings of APAC Paper Rex taking on Chilean Leviatan. With the brawl starting on Leviatan’s Haven, Leviatan started strong on defence, winning five out of six rounds, but Paper Rex adjusted quickly to close the half 6-6.
The second half started with both teams winning two rounds each, but Leviatan, on the attack, started dissecting Paper Rex’s defence to win five rounds in a row, winning the game 13-8.
With a map deficit, Paper Rex started Bind on the attack with their Yoru/Raze pick and garnered quick rounds to reach a possible 8-4 half, but clutches from Leviatan helped them secure a 6-6 half.
The anti-bonus win for Paper Rex made it seem that Paper Rex would run away with the map. Still, timely clutches from Shyy helped Leviatan regain momentum and the back and forth continued with Leviatan reading Paper Rex’s aggression to win the map 13-11 to win the series 2-0.
With this, Leviatan becomes the first team to qualify for the Valorant Champions playoff and push the VCT Masters Copenhagen finalists on the brink of elimination.
Indian esports community is witnessing a new controversy between Commonwealth Games Bronze Medal winning DOTA2 team captain Moin Ejaz and Esports Federation of India as the captain is accusing ESFI of not allowing any roster change for an entire year till Asian Games 2022 concludes.
ESFI is the current acting body between multiple official tournaments conducted across the world that has a national participation but it is not the official acting body formed or recognized by the Government of India.
Moin “No_Chance” Ejaz took it to his personal Facebook account to make a descriptive post of accusing ESFI for not accommodating any roster changes. He also mentioned that ESFI was not supportive of their qualification at Commonwealth Games but acted after they won the medal. The statement made by Moin Ejaz is as follows:
After securing bronze for India in the recent Commonwealth Esports Championship we might not be participating in the upcoming 14th WEC ,our Team whoops ( Team India ) is having issues with ESFI regarding team roster as they expect us to continue playing with the same roster for all upcoming tournaments till Asian games. We were not informed about that till now. ESFI is forcing us to continue playing with the same roster and if we refuse to play they’re giving our slot to another team to represent India in all the upcoming events including World Esports Championship being hosted in Bali Indonesia and the Asian games. they’re saying that only one team will represent India in all the events leading upto the Asian games which is a period of over one year. I don’t think this is fair for anyone playing Dota2 in India as everyone should have an equal opportunity to participate in every event. I’ll request ESFI to host fair and open qualifiers for all the upcoming events so that everyone has an equal chance of representing India which will also help the Dota2 scene in India to grow.
As Dota2 is very dynamic game any team can be better than the other in a period of time and just selecting one group of players to play all the tournaments for whole next year doesn’t sit right with me.
– Moin Ejaz, Captain, CWG DOTA2 Team India
ESFI reacts to Moin Ejaz’s Accusations
After putting out this entire statement, ESFI has responded to these accusations with a story of their own. According to them, it is essential for any roster representing India to stick together and play as a team for major international events. This is the most crucial reason as to why ESFI is not willing to accommodate any roster shuffles. Their entire statement on this matter is given below:
Claims made by Moin are completely baseless and lack understanding of the fair working of the selection process for any international tournaments where countries are represented. The bronze medal (DOTA) at Commonwealth Esports Championship is a giant leap towards people considering esports as a sport which has been the biggest fight for every esports athletes in India for years. This medal is a strong foundation to the fact that Asian Games is a year ahead where we stand today and every step that we take is formalising the efforts of making esports legitimate, recognised as a sport and also attract sponsorships, investments and avenues for every esports athlete. That Asian Games medal is must for esports to take the next level and to give it a best shot in whatever best way it is possible. Having said that there are certain norms in Asian Games which cannot be changed and we have to adhere to them: Teams that want to participate have to be given in advance and that process was already undertaken in April 2022 and it’s unfortunate that pandemic resulted in shifting the games next to next year. However, the Championship dates have changed but the participating team member names can’t be change as per the guideline that is already in place unless unavoidable subject to necessary process & approvals from the respective authorities. Having said that, this also gives us a whole year to prepare as a team, so do we keep changing or destabilising that process and in all good senses we are sure each one of you stand by ESFI when we say that this one year has to be constructively used to build an invincible team which is already being selected/named and prepare them for all kind of eventualities, rather than keep giving new faces a chance and send an under prepared team to Asian Games. These exposure events (like Commonwealth Esports Championship, 14th WEC etc.) are extremely important to mentally train them, ensure that this set of selected team members gain experience, understanding and confidence to play with every participant in such big tournaments ahead of the Asian Games. The objective and motto of ESFI is to maximise the benefits of working along the same lines. A player is pivotal to our objective which is to win a medal for the country. This will be a lifechanging milestone for the esports community at large and we should look at this larger picture more than anything. Hence our plan for CEC or 14th World Esports Championship and/or any other upcoming international tournament is to send the same team/athletes to prepare and harness them for the biggest challenge of their esports life/career and ESFI is doing everything for the same, this was very well conveyed to all the teams/players and we have conveyed the same in our previous communications also. But if we keep changing the teams then the purpose gets defeated- our goal is to win and not just participate. The details of the teams which are selected for Asian Games through national qualifiers are already submitted to the concerned authorities i.e., Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and Page 2 of 2 Asian Electronic Sports Federation (AESF). As per our discussion with the concerned authorities, RDAG regional qualifiers for the Asian Games 2022 are about to happen soon and the dates will be revealed once the federation gets the same
– Esports Federation of India
ESFI Vs Moin Ejaz Backstory: Both Perspectives
After releasing this entire statement, ESFI also provided with their own point of view of the backstory and explained why these incidents happened. A few hours after releasing this statement, Moin Ejaz posted yet another elaborative post explaining his perspective of how things happened. Both the statements are given below:
ESFI had conducted the national open qualifiers basis which team (DOTA) consisting of Krish Nitin Gupta, Abhishek Yadav, Ketan Sunil Goyal, Moin Ejaz, Shubham Goli & Darshan Bata (Substitute) qualified. Substitutes are taken-in to cover in case of emergencies. ESFI has always conducted open and fair national qualifiers for all participating international events including for 14th World Esports Championship (non Asian Games titles) For Commonwealth Esports Championship 2022, the team wanted a roster change (Krish Nitin Gupta to be replaced with Vishal). As an extraordinary exception, we accepted this request. Moin even confirmed via mail dated 9th Jun 2022, that this team will participate in the 14th World Esports Championship & Commonwealth Esports Championship, and each one of them had done their registration on 20th/21st Jun for 14th WEC too. Out of nowhere, we recently came to know that there is another roster change. This came to us as a shock as this team got a bronze, and why are we even looking at a roster change and not to forget the underlying genuine intent of giving the same team maximum exposure to get a podium finish at the Asian Games? The reason given to ESFI is “the new roster will be a better team and/or I cannot play with the existing xx player(s)”. We even received a complaint from one of the team members that he is being victimised and Moin is changing the roster on his own and playing politics. We are very well aware that the sports structure is new to our esports community; however, we also would want our community to appreciate that there are some guidelines which any sports federation has to follow. For 14th WEC, out of Krish Nitin Gupta, Abhishek Yadav, Ketan Sunil Goyal, Moin Ejaz, Shubham Goli, Vishal, and Darshan Bata, three of the players (Krish, Darshan and Vishal) are not playing so this team is effectively incomplete, and they need to complete their roster within these players for their participation in 14th WEC and the last date for ESFI to submit the team details is 03rd Sept 2022. It will be unfair to other teams who participated in the qualifiers if we keep allowing these roster changes, as they have every right to say that they will also form a new team (which will be a better team). As per the regulations, if the first-place team is not able to go, then the slot is to be given to the second-placed team and so on. All this was very well explained to the DOTA team in detail. Not to forget that there are teams/players of other game titles (Hearthstone, LOL, Streetfighter, FIFA) of Asian Games who are practising hard on regular basis & preparing for Asian Games andVELOCITY GAMING WINS SKYESPORTS PRO INVITATIONAL 2.0 ESFI is also working on getting better infrastructure and coaching etc. for them. These events are not private events, these events are governed by principal of sports, and we expect all the stakeholders to appreciate, respect and follow them.
– ESFI
The statement made by Moin Ejaz on this matter and explaining his own side of the story is as follows:
ESFI was asking us to forfeit from participating in commonwealth games Regional Qualifiers Dota2. When we were literally minutes away from playing our first game as they had lack of funds and were not sure if they could be able to send to Birmingham even if we qualify. They were more concerned about protecting their own image over the chance to participate in such a big event like Common Wealth Games. It is only after we pleaded and fought with them saying please let us participate and if we qualify we will try to arrange our own sponsor did they let us participate in the qualifiers. After we qualified we had no support from ESFI in any aspect including visas for which we had to pay the fees out of our own pockets. ESFI had told us that they will require a sponsorship in the amount of 10 lakhs approximately to cover our trip to Birmingham and back. We even managed to find a sponsors and got the sponsors in contact with ESFI but we did not receive any feedback from them. When we inquired as to what was happening with the sponsorship situation they told us that it was not our concern and that only ESFI will be negotiating with the sponsors even though we were the ones who presented them with this sponsor. In the end they were not able to reach an agreement with the sponsors that we had provided and 2 weeks before the start of the Commonwealth Games they informed us that they were not able to reach an agreement with the sponsors that we had provided, they also forbid us from taking the sponsorship directly saying that the whole event planning will be only be done by ESFI. At the end of this ordeal they somehow managed to book us tickets to Birmingham and acted as if they were doing us a huge favour by sending us there. After we won the bronze medal ESFI started acting as if they had supported us throughout our journey and facilitated us in achieving this objective when infact they were our biggest hinderance.
As to regarding our Asian game roster we never requested a change in that and will be happy to participate with the same roster which includes (Krish Dota) who cannot participate in any other event with us except for the Asian games as he currently plays for a professional Dota2 Team. So we had requested a roster change for only the other events, so the point ESFI is making that the same team should continue playing till the Asian games is invalid as our Asian games roster was never affected by this.
ESFI has personally called me out saying that I’m doing politics and trying to break apart this team which is further from the truth, I would like to ask ESFI to name that teammate who I have traumatized or harassed and if they can’t to stop spreading these baseless lies. All this time me and my team members have been putting up with the nonsense that ESFI has been spewing because we considered ourselves helpless and at their mercy. Now it is for the public to decide who is doing politics and who is the real culprit in this scenario
– – Moin Ejaz, Captain, CWG DOTA2 Team India
After this matter was revealed, big names like Shiva Nandy, owner of Skyesports, and 8Bit Thug, co-owner of S8UL, stood behind Ejaz. Shiva Nandy posted a screenshot of a tournament organizer accusing ESFI of signing “contracts of free work” of a year from the talents they outsource. 8Bit Thug jeered on the statement made by ESFI, rendering it as a joke.
ESFI has already been allegedly involved in several mismanagement cases like unfair contracts, power games and more such things. The body itself is not recognized by Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports or Indian Olympics Association(IOA) and this makes the case critical so as to how ESFI will play their role in providing facilities to the DOTA 2 team in the future.
Three months ago, Epic Games introduced the Gen Hoshino Soundwave Series in Fortnite. It was the time when Chapter 3 Season 3 was almost ready to be launched. The community was quite excited and the series became popular. Now, the new Chapter 3 Season 3 has introduced a lot of quests into the game. One of them is obtaining the Gen Hoshino Coin. Keep reading this article till the end to find out how to get the Gen Hoshino Coin in Fortnite.
How to get the Gen Hoshino Coin in Fortnite?
Acquiring the Gen Hoshino Coin is not that hard. Moreover, you can earn a lot of XP by collecting the Coin. To receive the Coin, you need to enter a Soundwave Series concert and spend at least 20 minutes. Once 20 minutes are over, you will see the Gen Hoshino Coin in front of you. You just need to collect it and get back to the main menu.
After coming back to the main menu you will receive 40,000 XP instantly along with the Gen Hoshino spray.
Stalwart Esports, one of the trending names in the gaming community, lost access to their Instagram account last night as some unknown entity breached their security to illegitimately post a few things on their social media front.
Gaming community is well versed with the hacking sagas as multiple famous personalities have lost access to their accounts till date. On a positive note, each one of them is able to recover such accounts almost instantly after getting help from the officials and a similar thing was seen with Stalwart Esports.
Stalwart Esports Instagram Hacked
Stalwart tweeted this information that their account was hacked last night. After going through some formalities, it seems that they have recovered their account relatively easily. While tweeting this information, they quoted that their fans should “ignore any messages or demand for any sort of financial assistance.”
Our instagram account is hacked and is not under our control since past 2 hours, we’re actively working on recovering the account. Please ignore any messages or demand for any sort of financial assistance, if asked. We will post any updates we get here.
Their owner also tweeted a similar post, praying for the return of their social account as soon as possible. It seems that he was handling this account prior to the hacking scenario. Apparently, the management also lost access to their social media accounts and were asked to pay a ransom to retrieve them.
Stalwart Esports retrieves their account
Stalwart Esports tweeted an update on this situation and revealed these minute details. Some posts were also made from the official account asking for financial aid but the hackers were unable to procure any ransom from fans as well. The accused attacker apparently deleted the account of Stalwart Esports’ founder as a form of revenge.
We’ve been able to recover our instagram account. Statement on the same. Thankyou for the patience, as promised we’ll never let you down. . Instagram jayega to apna twitter to hai apni family ko hasane ke liye 🙌. pic.twitter.com/zdN9xH9hsG
Currently, the officials are investigating this matter to understand the source of breach and other details attached to this case. Stalwart Esports was able to regain the access back to their accounts after a span of 12 hours.
The biggest Valorant tournament of the year, the Valorant Champions, kicks off today with the inaugural match of Group A, having the debutants EDward Gaming taking on the might of the Copenhagen Finalist Paper Rex.
Day 1 Results:
Group
Team 1
Team 2
A
Paper Rex
2
1
EDward Gaming
A
Leviatan
Team Liquid
Match 1 Paper Rex 2-1 EDward Gaming:
The East Asia LCQ winner came into the event as the debutant, and for their opening match, they faced the Valorant Masters Copenhagen finalists Paper Rex.
The teams play a similar style of Valorant, and the series was one of the best match-ups for Valorant. The series started with EDG picking Pearl, the newest map, as their map pick.
EDG on defense completely denied all the Paper Rex attacks, winning five rounds in a row, but Paper Rex showed why they are tournament contenders to win the next five rounds to finish the half 6-6.
The back and forth between the two teams continued in the second half, with Paper Rex reaching 12 first but EDG following up close. The last round had EDG on 11 and a chance to force overtime, but Paper Rex, despite the gun disadvantage, closed their opponent’s map 13-11 to go 1-0 up in the series.
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) August 31, 2022
With a disadvantageous position going into the second map, EDG completely flipped the script on Paper Rex and completely dominated Icebox on attack letting Paper Rex secure only two rounds in the first half.
The second half had Paper Rex stringing some rounds together, but EDG closed games 13-5 to force Haven.
Haven started with EDG and Paper Rex exchanging rounds, but Paper Rex won five rounds in a row and seemed to be in the control seat, but EDG stopped the bleeding to finish the half 5-7.
Paper Rex started their attack strong winning the first four rounds of the second half. EDG answered with two, but Paper Rex overwhelmed EDG’s defence to win the final map 13-7, winning the inaugural match 2-1.
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) August 31, 2022
Match 2 Leviatan 2-0 Team Liquid:
Coming off a hot LCQ run, Team Liquid came in to make a massive impact, while the directly qualified Leviatan came after a good run in VCT Masters Copenhagen.
The brawl started on Team Liquid’s Haven, but Leviatan completely shut down Liquid’s attack to easily close out the first half 8-4. The second half started in Leviatan’s favour, too, but Liquid managed to string four rounds in a row to bring the map closer.
Leviatan stopped the bleeding and closed the first map 13-10, going to their map pick with an advantage. Ascent had had Leviatan winning the starting four rounds, but Team Liquid answered with four rounds of their own to close the half 6-6.
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) August 31, 2022
The second half started with back and forths with Leviatan on defence, held off Scream-led Liquid’s attack to limit Liquid to only four in the second half, winning their opening match 2-0
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) August 31, 2022
Team Liquid now faces EDward Gaming in an elimination match, while Leviatan will face the mighty Paper Rex for a chance to qualify for the Valorant Champion Playoffs.
