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.