Team SMG GC Team SMG GC Inactive enerii Odella Abraham Alexy Alexy Francisco shirazi Kelly Jaudian Kamiyu Camille Enriquez defeated KRÜ BLAZE KRÜ BLAZE Latin America South Rank #3 dods Caue Fernandes conir Constanza Reyes romily Romina Alvarez micaela Micaela Ferreyra biazik Beatriz Begnossi 2-0 in the lower bracket round two of 2023 Game Changers Championship. Team SMG GC will now advance to the lower bracket semifinal, where they will face off against the winner of BBL Queens v. Team Liquid Brazil. Meanwhile, KRÜ have been eliminated from the event.

SMG "Alexy" performing on stage SMG "Alexy" performing on stage

Lotus was a 13-3 stomp in the favor of SMG. The APAC team did not pull out their infamous four duelist composition again on the map, but instead ran a more standard one-duelist composition with duelist player enerii on Raze.

Nevertheless, the team continued to demonstrate their aggressive playstyle. Killjoy player Kohaibi came out of the gate swinging with a strong defense-side 3K, leading to an incredible 11-round snowball for SMG.

KRÜ came close to taking a round off SMG several times, but the APAC players were unwilling to relent. In one memorable example, Kamiyu clutched a 2v1 to save SMG from a near loss with a 4v2 advantage.

Following Lotus, SMG coach Cobalt was asked how the players and staff spent their day off after their defeat at the hands of G2.

“Crying,” first responded Cobalt, deadpan. After some prodding, he revealed, “I think we just spent some time to refocus our headspace, then we went through the VODs, took a bit of rest, and had a really good dinner. And then we just came in and played our game.”

Going into Bind, the desk expressed some surprise that KRÜ would choose the map against SMG, especially since SMG had just won Bind against G2 Gozen G2 Gozen Europe Rank #5 rezq Eda Naz Akçocuk amy Amy Lai Vania Aleyna Keskin Petra Petra Stoker mimi Michaela Lintrup , the reigning champions of Valorant Game Changers 2022.

To their credit, KRÜ kept the first half of the map competitive. Following Alexy 's devastating round six 1v2 clutch, romily initiated a clutch of her own, killing Kamiyu and enerii on the defuse after her teammate micaela was caught by a Raze ult.

But after halftime, SMG showed off their prowess on Bind. On round 17, the APAC team won a thrifty by deftly exploiting the space on A Site that KRÜ bogglingly handed to them for free. Star duelist enerii also had a chance to show off her aim with a 1v1 Sheriff headshot onto conir .

The last round on Bind ended in an explosive manner with a 4v4 retake situation on B, ultimately coming down to a gunfight and another 1v1 scenario with enerii vs. opposing duelist micaela.

enerii topped the leaderboard in terms of ACS, ending with a score of 256 and a +6 differential. However, initiator teammate Alexy ended with an unmatched KDA of 35/17/17 and an incredible +18 differential. None of the players on KRÜ went positive.

In her post-match interview, enerii revealed a little bit about her team's comfort on Lotus.

“We really like three site maps because we do well with rotations and stuff, and I think that's our biggest strength,” said enerii. “[Lotus] is also my favorite map because I get to play Raze.”

As for who she wanted to play against in their next game, enerii chose BBL Queens BBL Queens Europe Rank #12 jduh Ceyda Kondu proxima Aslıhan Uslu Wens Gülce Eda Sürmeli alkyia Azra Erin Felipa Zehra Durak .

“To be honest, I really want to face against BBL because I think they're a really strong team, and I always watch their games at home,” she continued. “So I'm really excited to go against them on stage.”

Whether BBL Queens or Team Liquid Brazil Team Liquid Brazil Brazil Rank #11 Bizerra Vitoria Vieira Joojina Letícia Paiva isaa Isabeli Esser daiki Natalia Vilela bstrdd Paula Naguil , enerii won't have to wait long to face her next opponent. SMG only have a day to prepare for the lower bracket semifinal, which will be played on Saturday, Dec. 2 as the first match of the day.