A close three map series ends with 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) advancing to the AfreecaTV Valorant League playoffs. Their opponents, Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #21 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kamyk Maks Rychlewski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak , will play later tonight against either EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #1 S1Mon Hsien Meng-Hsun (谢孟勋) ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) / Fancy United Esports Fancy United Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #14 YESicaN Đinh Đình Đạt foxy Crus Lư Tiến Huy Hyuse tok1o Nia twilight to continue their stay at the event.

This is the first time in the organizations' history that they play each other, despite participating in all international VCT events this year and being among the first orgs to enter Valorant back in 2020.

Both teams are the sole remaining representatives for their region at the event, with Liquid being the only European team invited and DRX DRX Korea Rank #4 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Athan Na Ha-jun (나하준) freeing No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) , the other Korean team featured, losing yesterday to Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #3 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov in the Group A decider.

The match started off on Lotus, which both teams had played on in their previous matches. T1's offense secured them an early lead, but Liquid managed to string together a round win streak to end the half 7-5. The Korean team answered in turn, a streak of their own secured map point. For the next three rounds, Team Liquid stopped the bleed and were able to send the map to overtime.

Keiko 's Raze nets him an ace

A pair of aces kept the match going, but Liquid closed out their map pick 16-14. Keiko in particular salvaged a sub-par regulation period with nine overtime kills, his own ace, and a clutch in the final round.

The tide turned on Breeze, however, as T1 took their map 13-9. Their double-duelist, double-controller composition was too much to handle for Liquid. iZu and Sayaplayer had a combined 6-1 first kills/first deaths on their attack half. The rest of the team helped with the cleanup, of course, closing out rounds thanks to clutches, lurks, and trading.

Rossy caps off a thrifty win with a clutch

After half time, Rossy and xccurate completely shut down Liquid's attack. Finding 10 kills apiece, xccurate held the line with 4 first eliminations, while Rossy contributed with 4 assists and a 100% KAST.

The series continued to the decider, Ascent. Jamppi single-handedly took control of the first half, scoring an incredible 22 eliminations (five first kills), a 2.15 rating, and 506 ACS. His heroics didn't yield the results that Liquid would have wanted, as T1 winning the pistol round and Sayaplayer putting up a respectable performance of his own kept the score close at 7-5.

Team Liquid then won their third pistol of the series, countered by T1 taking the next two rounds. A triple kill from Mistic extended Liquid's lead and forced their opponent on a weak buy for round 17.

Initially, the European squad was exploring the map, probing T1's setup to avoid any potential trap plays or stacks. Once confirmed, their opponent's presence on A convinced Liquid to regroup and overwhelm the lone player on the other side of the map.

carpe eliminates five

With nothing more than a Sheriff, carpe was able to hold Liquid's push by himself. Two rounds later, Rossy got his own ace. T1 went on to close out the map 13-10.

The victory means T1 advances to playoffs, while Liquid will have to win another series later tonight. The Korean team will next play Paper Rex, meaning xccurate will face off against his brother, f0rsakeN . Whichever team qualifies from Group B will meet Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #4 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid in the other semifinal.

“We're doing pretty good,” Carpe said in the post-match interview. “I'm sure we're going to surprise people with how much we can do.”