Oxygen Esports Oxygen Esports Inactive and FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix Inactive SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin Zyppan Pontus Eek ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky ardiis Ardis Svarenieks were eliminated in today's matches of the Stage 3: EMEA Challengers Playoffs.
Both teams have thus lost their chances of going to Stage 3: Masters Berlin. Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Unranked nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak and forZe forZe Inactive SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin Art1st Vyacheslav Lyadnov Coffee Nikita Antsypirovich have survived but will have to face elimination two more times if they are to go to Germany.
Due to yesterday's issues, both Oxygen and FunPlus Phoenix started their days a little earlier. They had to face G2 Esports G2 Esports Inactive and Papara SuperMassive Papara SuperMassive Europe Unranked skylen Asil Yalçın ip0TT Yiğit Karadeniz VenTT Emre Bozkurt Celasun Emir Celasun umu7 Umut Pekdoğan , respectively, to decide today's lower bracket matches.
G2 Esports vs. Oxygen Esports (G2 2-0)
When yesterday's game was stopped, G2 were 1-0 up on maps after a ruthless 13-2 on Icebox, and looked to be on their way to victory on Breeze, 10-6. The game reboot helped Oxygen and they managed to close the gap even more, managing to secure overtime.
Oscar "Mixwell" Cañellas successfully defended a B site retake from Göktuğ "XiSTOU" Canciğer and m1tez to put his team on match point. Weaving in between the same site's pillar and his Viper's Toxic Screen, Auni "AvovA" Chahade took down four and guaranteed G2's survival in the upper bracket.
All heads for AvovA.SuperMassive Blaze vs. FunPlus Phoenix (SuperMassive Blaze 2-0)
FPX were up 10-7 on Split when their match was halted. SuperMassive Blaze were looking for a comeback yesterday, having closed the gap from 7-0 down to 10-6. Yesterday ended with FPX taking their tenth round, but it started today with a slew of rounds from the Turkish powerhouse, winning seven in a row to win the map 13-10 and close out the series 2-0.
Oxygen Esports vs. Team Liquid (Liquid 2-0)
Travis "L1NK" Mendoza got a 4K on the Haven pistol. In the next round, Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom knocked down three. Oxygen got on the board on the third round thanks to a solid C retake.
And that was it for the Turks. Oxygen weren't able to win any more rounds throughout the first map. Liquid wrapped Haven up in under 25 minutes to place themselves on match point. Despite that, L1NK disregarded that Oxygen were just easy for them in the on-stream post-match interview. "That's a bit outrageous. It's just how it goes sometimes. They might not be on it today, they might not have been on it last time. We're Team Liquid, we should be comfortable with any team."
Oxygen's results weren't much more favorable on Breeze. Burak "glovee" Yıldırım kept his head cool in a 1v1 against ScreaM to win his team the first round. Erdem "Toronto" Soğukpınar won his team the second round, but by this time there wasn't much Oxygen could do. Map 2 was a 13-3 victory the way of Liquid, securing their superiority over the Turkish squad.
The one-sided scoreline resulted in enormous numbers for the Liquid camp. ScreaM finished the series with a 365 ACS average, while Jamppi was busy on his way to a 3.36 K:D ratio and +26 differential. "We showed everyone that the day before was a bit of a fluke," L1NK said in the post-match interview.
ScreaM and m1tez carried their teams, with the former scoring 422 ACS on BreezeLiquid's flex went on to say they had learned from previous results. "We've always been known for being a bit creative. Maybe it's actually time we go back to our comfort picks and we shouldn't be as creative as we're trying to be." L1NK specified "Dom [soulcas] back on Raze, Adil [ScreaM] on Reyna, everyone knows they're gonna bang on these Agents so we just thought 'stick 'em on it, let 'em have fun' and we're back."
Regarding the future and being disregarded by many for Berlin, L1NK answered that "[He swears] everyone hates us for no reason, we're all nice guys. But, yeah, of course it's fuel [to the fire]." The Brit is convinced they'll make it. "No one believes in us, we'll just come and do it again, you'll see... actually, let me hold my words because if I say that and we don't qualify I'll be on Twitter. So, we're just coming to play our game."
FunPlus Phoenix vs. forZe (forZe 2-1)
Despite losing the first two rounds of Icebox, FPX quickly got on the board. Nikita "Coffee" Antsypirovich tied the match up, but FPX started running away with the map. A Lockdown from Dmitry "SUYGETSU" Ilyushin allowed Nikolai "zeddy" Lapko to ninja defuse on A forhis team's fourth round, but that was about it.
forZe weren't able to put any more rounds on the board. The side switch only spurred the squad on even further to take the map 13-4, starting it out strongly.
zeddy just... doesn't care.forZe showed why they picked Bind with an 8-4 scoreline that was more dominating than it seemed. FPX started crawling back into the match. After four round wins in the second half, they took a timeout.
Carl "Erik" Erik Victor William Sandgren's words kicked in late but they took his team to the longest map in Valorant history. The teams duked it for 22 rounds straight, with forZe often on the defensive. They ended up winning the map 24-22, beating the previous record set between TSM TSM North America Unranked seven Johann Hernandez gMd Anthony Guimond and Gen.G Gen.G Korea Unranked 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) , 23-21 for the former.
For Bind, Pontus "Zyppan" Eek stands out with a 41% headshot percentage in a total of 39 kills, while Dmitriy "dimasick" Matvienko carried a 190 ADR. Unlike FPX, however, all of forZe's players had over 30 kills, all within seven kills of each other.
After two hours and 15 minutes, the series still wasn't close to over.
zeddy's unexpected B presence ended the longest overtime in Valorant.forZe's energy was at an all-time high after winning such a tough Bind. It was easy to see. They quickly jumped ahead of FPX while attacking 7-2. dimasick and Andrey "Shao" Kiprsky denied a 2v4 retake from forZe for the second half pistol round, guiding his team to a tied scoreline.
FPX couldn't carry the momentum to secure the advantage and forZe bit back. Four consecutive rounds from FPX were answered with four consecutive rounds from forZe. FPX stormed onto B, but forZe played well inside Shao's Viper's Pit to take the map 13-8, eliminating their opponents from Berlin contention.
FPX's elimination today has put their LCQ position in jeopardy. FPX currently holds 105 points. The squad is currently sharing the bottom two slots with Guild Esports Guild Esports Inactive . If Guild wins their match tomorrow, FPX are automatically placed in ninth. Even if Guild don't win against Fire Flux Esports Fire Flux Esports Europe Unranked , G2 and SuperMassive Blaze maintaining their good runs in the EMEA Challengers Playoffs will place FPX in 10th, requiring an EMEA team to win Berlin if they are to reach LCQ and Champions.
Elimination continues tomorrow. Starting at 3 p.m. CEST, two more teams will be knocked out. Guild will face Fire Flux first, followed by a match between Giants Gaming Giants Gaming Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Fit1nho Adolfo Gallego nukkye Žygimantas Chmieliauskas hoody Aaro Peltokangas Cloud Kirill Nehozhin and Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Unranked ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky .