Valorant Esports is still very young, so certain teams have come out of the gate super strong and others are adapting. Last tournament (Pulse Invitational), we finally had a big upset when Cloud9 took down TSM in the quarterfinals.
More and more organizations are starting to enter the North American scene and this tournament is probably considered the most stacked one so far with 16 professional teams and 4 streamer teams. Regardless, you still expect the Tier 1 orgs to advance fairly easily in the group stage. Here are some notable matches that have occurred:
Mixup have been making waves as scrim gods and were thought to challenge GenG and Immortals in Group C. First two maps were as tight as can be, finishing 13-11, but GenG eventually settled down and dominated on Split.
TSM are still considered the #1 team in North America, but team Homeless are the dark horse in Group A with unsigned talent such as psalm and supaman. Homeless found a weakness on Map 2 (Bind) and took TSM to a Map 3, but TSM pull it out in the end.
The Group of Death (Group D) was considered the most stacked and unfair group with some picking Renegades to upset one of the bigger orgs in Cloud9 or Sentinels. Cloud9 look dominant on Ascent, but drop Split and bounce back on Bind. This is a big win to start the tournament.
Group A could be considered the Group of Life as there is no clear cut 2nd place team behind TSM. 100 Thieves are still a new team and performed well in their last showing, but team Homeless has other things to say about that. After dropping the first game on Bind, they bounce back to the next two on Split and Haven.
Both of these orgs have been established for awhile and have been pretty consistent, but Immortals haven't won anything, while GenG are coming off their win at the Pulse Invitational. Both looking to top Group C, Immortals come out on top with a convincing 2-0.
There was hope that the newly signed BBG (formerly Code7) would perform well in their first tournament under the org, but team Homeless are flying with confidence and after a nail-biting game 1, they dominated game 2 to secure 2nd place in Group A.
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No real surprises other than the Group of Life (Group A), where Homeless show up and take 2nd place in the group over Built By Gamers and 100 Thieves. Immortals beat Gen.G Esports in their match to take 1st place in Group C. All other top teams advance to the Bracket Stage: TSM, T1, Envy, Sentinels, and Cloud9.
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