Four teams secured their spots in VCT NA Stage 3: Challengers 2, the final Challengers event of the year.
FaZe Clan
FaZe Clan
Inactive
POISED
Kevin Ngo
mummAy
Anthony DiPaolo
TiGG
Tanner Spanu
BABYBAY
Andrej Francisty
supamen
Phat Le
and
TSM
TSM
North America
Rank #9
Recoil
seven
Johann Hernandez
gMd
Anthony Guimond
vora
sym
Tyler Porter
survived close matches to qualify on Saturday.
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)
and
Luminosity
Luminosity
Inactive
moose
Kaleb Jayne
mada
Adam Pampuch
dazzLe
Will Loafman
bdog
Brandon Sanders
TiGG
Tanner Spanu
breezed through a little easier to qualify on Sunday. They will play in the main event with the teams who qualified for Challengers 1 but fell short of qualification to the regional final:
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)
,
Pioneers
Pioneers
Inactive
jmoh
Jason Mohandessi
wedid
Matthew Suchan
thief
Brady Dever
Critical
Tristan Trinacty
,
Version1
Version1
Inactive
, and
Rise
Rise
Inactive
.
This weekend's qualifier served as a final opportunity for most teams to advance one step further to a pair of LAN events that will end the first year of the Valorant Champions Tour. The VCT season is over for all of the teams who fell short of qualification for S3 Challengers 2, sans
Cloud9
Cloud9
North America
Rank #8
Xeppaa
Erick Bach
v1c
Victor Truong
mitch
Mitch Semago
neT
Michael Bernet
OXY
Francis Hoang
and
NRG Esports
NRG Esports
North America
Rank #4
FiNESSE
Pujan Mehta
s0m
Sam Oh
Verno
Andrew Maust
mada
Adam Pampuch
Ethan
Ethan Arnold
. Those two teams currently remain within the top 10 in VCT NA circuit points, which is a high enough placing to guarantee a spot in the Last Chance Qualifier for the end-of-year Champions LAN.
The weekend's high stakes proved to be enough to spark intense matches throughout the weekend.
FaZe secured its spot in Challengers 2 by narrowly edging out
Ghost Gaming
Ghost Gaming
Inactive
koalanoob
Gianfranco Potestio
NiSMO
Marc-Andre Tayar
aproto
Alex Protopapas
brawk
Brock Somerhalder
johnqt
Mohamed Amine Ouarid
in back-to-back maps. The first map of the match ended 14-12 in favor of FaZe, and the second map ended 13-11. Each team finished with a 1v3 clutch to their name by the end of the match: Danny "HUYNH"
Huynh secured one in the first map and Andrej "BABYBAY"
Francisty had one of his own in the second map.
TSM needed to survive a pair of tough matches to make it into the final Challengers event of the season. The team went toe-to-toe with
Andbox
Andbox
Inactive
oderus
Chad Miller
mummAy
Anthony DiPaolo
Lear
Dayton Akau
Jonaaa6
Jonard Penaflor
vice
Daniel Kim
in the Ro16, securing the match with a marathon third and final map: 20-18. Their next match, with
DarkZero Esports
DarkZero Esports
Inactive
, proved to be a nailbiter of its own after DarkZero won the first map. TSM needed overtime to stave off elimination in the second map, winning 14-12, before handily winning the final map 13-8 to take the match.
TSM has qualified for two Challengers events this year and finished just outside the top four in both of them.
Both T1 and LG finished their qualifier runs with fairly comfortable 2-0 victories, although LG's match in particular was not without excitement. LG's sweep of C9B was with the help of three aces, the first two being just two rounds apart and Diondre "YaBoiDre" Bond earning one on each map.
The main event is set to begin this week. Pick 'ems are open for the event.