The Challengers Finals event is all set to start tonight.
Four teams from North America have been determined for the upcoming VCT’s Challengers Finals event. Along with the qualifications, they have also been seeded accordingly from the fixtures they played all over the weekend. The Challengers Final iteration is scheduled to be played from April 30 – May 2.
Throughout the recently concluded event, we saw 8 teams lock horns in the Upper Bracket Quarter-Finals with the losers going down to the Lower Bracket rounds. Among the UBQF teams, Cloud9 Blue were able to maintain a flawless run over T1, Andbox, and NRG despite the roster changes they underwent which saw Skyler “Relyks” Weaver stepping down from the roster, eventually getting replaced by Ricky “floppy” Kemery who recently made the switch from Cloud9’s inactive CSGO roster to their Valorant division.
In the Grand finale, we saw Sentinels clean sweep Cloud9B by the scoreline of 3-0.
Today we present you the top 10 players from the Challengers 2 event and the ones to look out for in the upcoming Challengers Final event.
10. Sam “s0m” Oh (Team: NRG)
Transitioning from Counter-Strike in October, Sam has been excellent while serving his controller duties on the team, which ultimately led his side to progress on to the Challengers Final event in a bid to clinch an open spot at the Stage 2 Masters event to be held in Iceland.
9. Jacob “Yay” Whiteaker (Team: Andbox)
Jacob rose to dominance in the North American scene after he steered Complexity to playoffs at the FACEIT Major 2018 in London. Since then he has been consistent in every aspect of the game. In September 2020, he made his switch to Valorant and joined Andbox. With him on the team, Andbox were able to pull off the ultimate upset by breezing past through Sentinels in the Challengers 2 event.
8. Rahul “Curry” Nemani (Team: T1)
Curry from the United States who currently plays for T1 has been a phenomenal addition to the Korean-North American side after the former called his quits on Counter-Strike in February.
7. Ricky “floppy” Kemery (Team: Cloud9 Blue)
The 21-year-old North American was initially a part of the Colossus, a CSGO project which was initially handled and run by Henry “HenryG” Greer before the initiative was stalled as Cloud9 decided to put their Counter-Strike plans on hold. He later joined the forces of Cloud9 Blue’s Valorant roster eventually replacing Skyler “Relyks” Weaver who mutually decided to part ways with the team. Since the addition of Floppy, Cloud9 went on a flawless run through the upper bracket and in the process qualified for the Challengers Finals.
6. Daniel “Vice” Kim (Team: Andbox)
Previously of Cloud9 Blue, Vice entered Valorant’s professional scene by signing up with the former. After spending nearly a year with C9, he found himself a new home at Andbox where he replaced Chris “Rebo” Heindel on the active roster. Daniel seems to be the perfect breakthrough Andbox have wanted for long now as his addition steered Andbox to their first-ever Challengers Finals finish.
5. Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan (Team: Sentinels)
ShahZaM, no doubt till now has been the driving force behind Sentinels’ success. With Stage 1 Masters Championship already in the bag, Shahzeb and co have set their eyes on the second iteration of the series, to be later held in Iceland. Most recently, Sentinels qualified for the Challengers followed by a clean sweep over Cloud9 Blue in the Grand finals which was indeed a cherry on top of the cake.
4. Michael “poiz” Possis (Team: Cloud9 Blue)
Known for his trampling game-play in Valorant’s ranked mode, Poiz was handed a massive breakthrough in his career by signing up with Cloud9 for their Valorant Blue roster. Back then when he played by the IGN, “DOINKMACHINE97”, he placed second on the North American Leaderboard in October 2020 followed by his first-ever #1 finish on the same in the very next month. He is expected to breeze past through his opponents in the upcoming Challengers Finals.
3. Nathan “leaf” Orf (Team: Cloud9 Blue)
Leaf was widely considered the prodigy of the North American Counter-Strike scene and is known for his time at Chaos Esports Club. The organization though chose to dissolve their CSGO roster, which meant the youngster had to look for offers and a new team to call home. He soon signed up for C9B as a trial until he was brought aboard on a permanent basis by the organization. His recent showings did help the team to come out on top following a flawless run through the Challengers 2’s upper bracket.
2. Matthew “Wardell” Yu (Team: TSM)
Wardell has been one of the original members of Team SoloMid. In his recent showings, though TSM failed to qualify, his efforts have really been appreciated throughout.
1. Tyson “TenZ” Ngo (Team: Sentinels)
Ever since Sentinels acquired TenZ from Cloud9 Blue, it has been a dream run for the former after they finished as champions at the Stage 1 Masters. Now that Tyson is here to stay with them till Challengers Final, Sentinels eye to qualify for the LAN event, to be held in Iceland. But one should not forget, the 19-year-old Canadian is still under a loan contract and can be recalled by Cloud9.
The Finals event is set to begin from tonight with the fixtures already been determined by the game organizer according to final seedings and are as follows:
- 100 Thieves Vs Andbox: 30th April @ 00:30 IST
- Version1 Vs Sentinels: 30th April @ 00:30 IST
- Team Envy Vs Cloud9 Blue: 30th April @ 00:30 IST
- XSET Vs NRG: 30th April @ 00:30 IST
These Eight teams would compete for 2 open spots at the VCT Masters event to be held on LAN in Reykjavik, Iceland.
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