A quarter of the matches on the second day of qualifiers for VCT North America Stage 3: Challengers 1 ended in major upsets. In three other matches, the favored team had to claw their way back to victory from a 1-0 deficit.
Perhaps the biggest upset of the day was
TSM
TSM
North America
Rank #14
seven
Johann Hernandez
gMd
Anthony Guimond
sym
Tyler Porter
tdawgg
Travis Regan
XXiF
Damion Cook
's defeat at the hands of
Noble
Noble
Inactive
Precision
Colin O'Neill
bdog
Brandon Sanders
LeviathanAG
Aleko Gabuniya
payen
Nathaniel Lopez
ZK
Timothy Ly
in the Ro32. TSM began the series down 1-0, and while TSM seemed poised to win anyway after a 13-1 victory in the second map, the favorites ended up out of the tournament after a 13-1 trouncing on the third and final map. This was the debut tournament for Sean "bang"
Bezerra, whose signing was made official this week.
The bottom of the bracket was defined by a pair of upsets:
NRG Esports
NRG Esports
North America
Rank #1
FiNESSE
Pujan Mehta
s0m
Sam Oh
Verno
Andrew Maust
mada
Adam Pampuch
Ethan
Ethan Arnold
's 2-0 defeat to
VIRTUOSO
VIRTUOSO
Inactive
King
Aiden King
Eley
Zach Stauffer
DBK
Dylan Bazic-Kulangiev
Blahst
Nathan Brand
snxper
Louis Lama
and
Immortals
Immortals
Inactive
's 2-1 defeat to the
Pioneers
Pioneers
Inactive
jmoh
Jason Mohandessi
wedid
Matthew Suchan
thief
Brady Dever
Critical
Tristan Trinacty
. VIRTUOSO and the Kansas City Pioneers will now meet each other on Sunday to determine the final team to make the main event of Stage 3 Challengers 1.
The day's final upset saw
FaZe Clan
FaZe Clan
Inactive
POISED
Kevin Ngo
mummAy
Anthony DiPaolo
TiGG
Tanner Spanu
BABYBAY
Andrej Francisty
supamen
Phat Le
lose to
DarkZero Esports
DarkZero Esports
Inactive
2-1. DarkZero pulled off an overtime win in the first map to take the early lead and then closed out a tight final map later to win the series. This is the debut tournament for DarkZero after the organization recently signed KookyKoalas.
But other teams experienced close calls themselves.
Gen.G
Gen.G
Korea
Rank #1
Foxy9
Jung Jae-sung (정재성)
t3xture
Kim Na-ra (김나라)
Munchkin
Byeon Sang-beom (변상범)
yoman
Chae Young-moon (채영문)
Karon
Kim Won-tae (김원태)
had to come back from a first map defeat to
Knights
Knights
Inactive
SlLO
Zeus
dáel
Madré
fox
to win their series.
SoaR
SoaR
Inactive
epathy
Ngawang Chonjor
fiziq
Lucas Blow
v1c
Victor Truong
Trill
Ashley Powell
narrowly defeated
100 Thieves
100 Thieves
North America
Rank #6
zander
Alexander Dituri
Cryocells
Matthew Panganiban
eeiu
Daniel Vucenovic
Boostio
Kelden Pupello
Asuna
Peter Mazuryk
in the first map of their series.
T1
T1
Korea
Rank #2
stax
Kim Gu-taek (김구택)
Meteor
Kim Tae-oh (김태오)
Sylvan
Go Young-sup (고영섭)
BuZz
Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철)
iZu
Ham Woo-ju (함우주)
was blown out by
Ghost Gaming
Ghost Gaming
Inactive
koalanoob
Gianfranco Potestio
NiSMO
Marc-Andre Tayar
aproto
Alex Protopapas
brawk
Brock Somerhalder
johnqt
Mohamed Amine Ouarid
in the first map, but won the next two maps 13-0 and 13-3.
In total, four matches ended in upsets and seven matches, including all four of the matches that ended in upsets, began with the favorites down 1-0.
The next two days will determine which eight teams qualify for the main event of Stage 3 Challengers 1. North America's favorites will hope to stave off anymore upsets in that time.