The first day of Valorant Champions concluded with play from Group D and C. The favorites took wins in the first two matches while the day ended with a surprising upset, according to VLR pick‘ems where 65% of people had Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #8 Xeppaa Erick Bach v1c Victor Truong mitch Mitch Semago neT Michael Bernet OXY Francis Hoang coming out on top.

The tournament had a peak of 690,000 viewers tuning in during the opening match, according to Esports Charts. That already nears Masters: Berlin's peak viewership which was 811,370 during round two of the match between Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #3 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid and G2 Esports G2 Esports Inactive .

Match 1: Vision Strikers vs FULL SENSE

The opening series saw APAC LCQ winners FULL SENSE FULL SENSE Asia-Pacific Rank #1 Leviathan Thanyathon Nakmee Laz Kittikawin Jirawatkakan Killua Tanate Teerasawad seph1roth Chinnakrit Phoojaroen Potter Sutthichai Promsrikaew take on Korean powerhouse Vision Strikers Vision Strikers Inactive stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Rb Goo Sang-min (구상민) Zest Kim Ki-seok (김기석) BuZz Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) .

Vision Strikers started off strong winning the four of the first five rounds. Although FULL SENSE were consistently aggressive on defense, Vision Strikers' exquisite team play proved to be too much for FULL SENSE as they won the map 13-5. The MVP was undoubtedly Kim "stax" Gu-taek (김구택), who finished the map with an insane 53% headshot percentage and match-high 22 kills on Breach.

“Korea has a playstyle that is really team comp [heavy], so we bounce plays off of each other,” said stax in a post-match interview. “From the very beginning, in the beta stage of the game, I was forced to play Breach a lot, so now you could say I am Breach himself.”

Next up was Breeze, a map Vision Strikers had played only once before roughly four months ago. Both teams had identical compositions, but the x-factor was Yu "BuZz" Byeong-cheol (유병철)'s performance on Jett. He started the series quietly on Haven, and picked up on Breeze with a match-high 26 kills while only dying nine times. While FULL SENSE showed signs of life, Vision Strikers quickly shut them down and finished the match with another 13-5 victory.

BuZz secures a shaky round

The notorious Kim "Lakia" Jong-min (김종민) did not play in today's series, however, it is possible that he will participate soon in other maps besides Bind.

“All I can tell you is that he may not be playing Bind,” stax said when asked about Lakia's current role. “But he may or may not be playing on other maps.”

This loss places FULL SENSE on the verge of elimination, playing against Cloud9 Blue on December 5. Vision Strikers will face FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #6 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder for qualification to the playoff stage on December 3.

Match 2: Crazy Racoon vs Team Vikings

Both teams have experience with international LAN tournaments, however, Team Vikings Team Vikings Inactive Veroneze Vinícius Ribeiro Ds Daniel Silva swag João Neto pollo Julio Silva seemed to be more prepared throughout today's series.

They took control by winning the first five rounds on Crazy Raccoon Crazy Raccoon Inactive 's map pick, Icebox. The Japanese representatives recovered some, finishing the half tied six a piece, but the Brazilians eventually secured the map 13-9.

Unfortunate blunder by Crazy Raccoon

The second map was on one of Team Vikings' best maps, Haven. This map replicated the previous one with them winning six of the first seven rounds. Crazy Raccoons closed the gap with another tied half, but the second half is where Team Vikings went berserk on the attack side. They won the first six rounds, not by bomb plants, but by consecutively eliminating all five of their opponents. Team Vikings went on to finish the map 13-8.

“We had these three months to work quietly, nobody knew about us,” Gustavo "Sacy" Rossi said. “People were not respecting us in a way, people were talking a lot. We were just [focusing on] baby steps. We respect everyone, we are humble enough, and we need to prove ourselves in the game.”

With this victory they will face the winner of Team Secret Team Secret Asia-Pacific Rank #9 invy Adrian Jiggs Reyes JessieVash Jessie Cuyco Wild0reoo Brheyanne Christ Reyes 2GE James Goopio Jremy Jeremy Cabrera and Gambit Esports Gambit Esports Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Chronicle Timofey Khromov d3ffo Nikita Sudakov sheydos Bogdan Naumov nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin to make it to the playoff stage.

Match 3: Fnatic vs Cloud9 Blue

The match of the day, by far, was the NA vs EU showdown between Fnatic and Cloud9.

The fight kicked off on Icebox, with Cloud9 winning the first two rounds. However, Fnatic would turn the tables, winning the next three. Both teams would eventually round the half out after exchanging bunches of rounds, with Fnatic getting the better of Cloud9 7-5.

Although they just lost four consecutive rounds, Cloud9 rebounded in the second half by taking four of their own. However, Fnatic responded with two opening picks by Domagoj "doma" Fancev and James "Mistic" Orfila, giving the squad momentum for the remainder of the half. Fnatic's superb site executions gave them the first map with a score of 13-11.

Boaster all smiles on opening day Boaster is all smiles on opening day (Photo by Lance Skundrich/Riot Games).

The next map, Split, was a nail-biter from the very beginning. Both teams would trade blow for blow in the first half. They ended the half with another 7-5 scoreline.

The second half was a completely different story. Fnatic won four out of the first five rounds extending their lead 11-6. However, a firefight in favor of Cloud9 seemingly gave them a fresh breath of air. They went on to win the next seven rounds to force a map three.

“Our mentality was pretty good the entire time, I think maybe we got a little stressed on Icebox because it was our first match on LAN as a team,” said Anthony "vanity" Malaspina. Obviously there is going to be a lot of pressure but I think we did a good job of dealing with it.”

Despite the brutal loss on Split, Fnatic rebounded well on the final map, Fracture. This was the first time Cloud9 had played the new map in an official match while Fnatic previously played it once before against FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix Inactive SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin Zyppan Pontus Eek ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky ardiis Ardis Svarenieks in the Red Bull Home Ground. As a result, Fnatic quickly demonstrated a better understanding of how to control the map than Cloud9. They finished the half up 8-4. Fnatic carried its momentum into the second half by winning the first three rounds. Just as many lost hope for Cloud9, they began to do exactly what they did on the Split.

Three back-to-back multikills by three different players chipped away the gap to 12-9. Cloud9 began to slow their style of attack and take control of the map similarly to how Fnatic played in the first half. In round 23, an insane fake site execution caused Fnatic to burn two game-changing ultimates to give Cloud9 the edge it needed to win the round and close the scoreline to a one round difference. They won the next round with the help of a 3K by Nathan "leaf" Orf which forced overtime.

Just as the game looked finished, with all the momentum in Cloud9's favor, Fnatic soared when it mattered most. A couple of opening picks by their star fragger Nikita "Derke" Sirmitev gave Fnatic the edge in the first overtime round. Now they were on defense, the side they struggled with the most. However, an immaculate retake allowed Fnatic to close the match out 14-12.

Fnatic close out a long series and pull out an interesting celebration

“I think the biggest thing we struggled with today is that they had a lot of stuff that we've never seen before because neither team likes Fracture,” vanity explained. “It was really good honestly, it catches you off-guard. [But] I think if we play them in a rematch we have a good chance to take it.”

Fnatic will now face Vision Strikers to make it to the playoff stage on December 3. Cloud9 has to avoid elimination from the competition in a match against FULL SENSE on December 5. However, Cloud9's players are looking forward to another lower bracket run.

Looking Ahead

More group openers will be played tomorrow, December 2, specifically for Group B and C.

The losers will have to avoid elimination twice to continue while the winners will be one game away from playoffs.

*Feature image credit: Wojciech Wandzel/Riot Games