VCT Americas: Ascension kicks off on June 30 as 6 teams compete for one slot in the VCT Americas league for the next two years. The round-robin group stage and most of the double elimination playoffs bracket will be held in the Riot Games Brazil studio from June 30 - July 5. The remaining teams will finish the tournament at Pavilhão Pacaembu from July 8 - 9.

The group stage consists of two groups with three teams each from a different region. These teams will play a Bo3 against the other teams in their group for seeding for the playoffs. The top team from each group will be placed directly into the Upper Semifinals, as the other four teams face off in Upper Round 1.

Group A includes VCL North Americas champions M80, VCL Brazil champions The Union, and LATAM #2 seed FUSION. Group B features NA #2 seed The Guard, Brazil #2 seed 00Nation, and LATAM champions 9z Team.

Group A

Canada - M80 M80 North America Rank #5 Kyu Mirel Braco Hrustemovic Sato Eduardo Kenzo Nagahama Sato bao Okeanos Anthony Nguyen bdog Brandon Sanders

For those who followed Challengers in North America, it should be no surprise to see M80 make VCT Americas: Ascension. The core of the squad ( NiSMO , johnqt , koalanoob ) comes from last year's Ghost Gaming Ghost Gaming Inactive koalanoob Gianfranco Potestio NiSMO Marc-Andre Tayar aproto Alex Protopapas brawk Brock Somerhalder johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid team, which went toe to toe with teams such as XSET and OpTic Gaming in Challengers last year. The trio combined with other top Challengers talents eeiu and zander to create a team worthy of a spot in VCT Americas.

Since the inception of this year's roster M80 has lost just two matches, one in Split 1 and one in Split 2. M80 dropped just one map in the VCL playoffs, beating The Guard in the grand finals 3-1.

Across the entirety of the season, all five of M80's players rank in the top seven of players by rating in North America. Undoubtedly a favorite for the event, it will be interesting to see how teams from other regions match up.

Brazil - The Union The Union Inactive Askia Estevão Ferreira GuhRVN Gustavo Ferreira pancc Fillipe Martins ntk Lucas Martins raafa Rafael Lima

Retelling a similar story of dominance, The Union comes out of Brazil with just two domestic series losses and not having lost since February. Easing through the playoffs, The Union swept 00Nation in both the Upper Finals and Grand Finals to secure their place in Ascension. This Brazilian squad has cruised through VCL Brazil, drawing comparisons to M80 and setting up a captivating opening match for Americas Ascension.

Since the addition of Askia as the main duelist player in May, The Union has gone 13-2 in map count. Similar to M80 in North America, all five players for The Union ranked in the top 15 of rating for Split 2.

Despite fielding relatively new talent across the roster, The Union does have international experience with ntk on the roster. The São Paulo crowd could also be an advantage for the Brazilian Challengers champs.

LATAM North - FUSION FUSION Latin America North Rank #18 Dobsha Juan-Diego Llobregat Xhowi Luis Enmanuel Corcino Garcia prask Mike Cortbani MiniNiwde Lenin Mateo Jrmzie

FUSION did not win both domestic splits that their fellow Group A competitors did domestically, but are LATAM North champions all the same. FUSION just beat out Split 1 champs Six Karma Six Karma Latin America North Rank #7 Mephisto KILLY rowancy Constantino Grijalva Peloncito Oscar Israel Palacios Martinez otaQ Ryu for the LATAM North spot in Americas Ascension. A 3-1 victory for FUSION in the grand finals of the Split 2 playoffs secured their placing.

Even though FUSION did not win both splits, the team lost just two matches during their season, both to Six Karma in Split 1. In the LATAM finals against 9z Team from LATAM South, FUSION were swept handily, winning just 14 rounds across three maps.

Darker and Mited lead Split 2 in rating, and have been a part of FUSION dating back to the Champions Last Chance Qualifier for South America last year.

Group B

North America - The Guard The Guard Inactive JonahP Jonah Pulice trent Trent Cairns neT Michael Bernet valyn Jacob Batio tex Ian Botsch

The Guard should be a familiar name to VALORANT esports fans. The North American roster stormed onto the scene at the start of last year, winning VCT NA Stage 1: Challengers and making an appearance at VCT Masters: Reykjavik. After losing Sayaplayer to T1 and picking up tex as a replacement in the offseason, many looked to The Guard as an early favorite for Ascension.

Although not as dominant as M80 in North America, The Guard earned their spot in São Paulo.
After finishing second in both regular season splits, The Guard took down Moist Moguls Moist Moguls Inactive aproto Alex Protopapas sym Tyler Porter brawk Brock Somerhalder flyuh Xavier Carlson thief Brady Dever 3-0 in the Lower Final of the Challengers playoffs after losing to them earlier in the tournament.

Players like trent and valyn were considered talented enough for roster spots in franchising before the season. With the most international experience at Americas Ascension, The Guard looks to feed off that to rejoin the best of the best in the Americas.

Brazil - 00Nation 00Nation Inactive artzin Arthur Araujo shion Gabriel Vilela b4rtin Bruno Câmara xand Alexandre Zizi bezn1 Gabriel Luiz da Costa

The second team from Challengers Brazil, 00Nation has the most Cinderella-like story of any team at the event. In Split 1, the newly formed team went 2-5, missing out entirely on playoffs. After bringing in xand and bezn1 to the team ahead of Split 2, 00Nation finished third in the regular season before taking down ODDIK ODDIK Inactive in the Lower Final of playoffs in 2-1 fashion.

That last victory secured their place at Americas Ascension. 00Nation contains a few players with international experience with shion , xand, and bezn1. shion led all of Split 2 in clutch success rate, and tied for second in rating. xand, since joining from KRÜ, went 98-54 in first duels.

LATAM South - 9z Team 9z Team Latin America South Rank #3 Tacolilla Vicente Compagnon suther Tomás Zurita delz1k Joaquin Espinoza NagZ Juan Pablo Lopez Mikey Tap Luciano Pensa

9z Team are the champions of LATAM after taking down FUSION in the LATAM Finals in scintillating 3-0 fashion. Having been stuck behind KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #2 keznit Angelo Mori Mazino Roberto Rivas adverso Benjamín Poblete Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro and LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN Latin America South Rank #1 Demon1 Max Mazanov tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena C0M Corbin Lee nataNk Nathan Bocqueho in LATAM for the past few years, 9z will finally have their chance on the international stage in São Paulo. Through both splits and playoffs in LATAM South, the Argentinian/Chilean squad dropped just two series.

All-around team play is the name of the game for 9z, with all five players in between a K/D of 1.10 - 1.20 during Split 2. Duelist player Tuli dropped 100 first kills across Split 2 and led the region in ACS, while his four other teammates landed in the top six of rating.

9z have been stuck under Leviatán and KRÜ's shadow in the LATAM region since the beginning of the VCT ecosystem, but now they have the chance to stand with them in the VCT: Americas league.