I noticed on VLR there hasn't been any notable writeups about the NA VCT Challenger groups since they started, so I figured I'd take matters into my own hands
Week 4 of VCT saw playoffs solidified for Group A and the battle for top 4 continue to wage on in Group B. Six matches were played over the weekend, with the final week of competition approaching and the playoff bracket for Masters on the horizon.
Rise vs Sentinels (Sentinels 2-1)
The VCT weekend opened with Haven, with both teams duking it out in the first half leading to a 7-5 scoreline in favor of Rise going into Sentinel's attack half, where Sentinels were able to find their footing and win 4 commanding rounds in a row, pulling ahead to 9-7, needing 4 more rounds to close out the map. However, after Rise called a timeout, the team found their footing and won 6 rounds in a row to end the first map at 13-9.
Map 2 saw Sentinels put an absolute clinic on Fracture, a map they have been playing very well on. Sen were up 9-3 at the half, and after winning the second pistol round, were up 11-3. However, Rise kept themselves in the map with crucial openers by Shanks, as well as a 4K spectre clutch by Poised. Alas, the comeback fell short on the final round of regulation as Sentinels forced map 3 after a tight 13-11 win.
The final map of the series, Bind, saw Rise pull ahead to an early 4-0 start, but Sentinels found their stride, winning 7 of the next 8 rounds, resulting in a 7-5 halftime score in favor of Sentinels. After Rise won the second half pistol and a tight bonus round, Rise once again gained the lead at 8-7, but Sentinels again shut down Rise's momentum, winning the next 6 rounds to close out the series 13-8.
Despite the loss, the series MVP goes to Derrek with 254 ACS and earning 59 kills across all 3 maps. Sentinels are now qualified for the playoff bracket, and Rise are on the brink of elimination. Interestingly, this is the third series where Sentinels won the series after losing the first map.
Evil Geniuses vs The Guard (Guard 2-0)
The second match of the day proved to be a bit of a beatdown, with a already-qualified Guard battering an 0-3 Evil Geniuses.
The first map took us to Haven, Where EG had a strong start after losing the pistol, winning four consecutive rounds to build a 4-2 lead. However, Guard would win the next 5 rounds, before EG were able to stop the bleeding at the end up of the half, leading to a 7-5 halftime score in favor of Guard. After Guard won the second half pistol, EG began to string rounds together to once again make the map competitive, largely off the back of Boostio who was getting EG into a lot of their bombsites. However, at the 8-9 scoreline, Guard began to pull ahead, winning 4 of the next 5 rounds to close Map 1 out 13-9.
Map 2 took us to icebox, where EG started on attack, and again found themselves down 5-7 at the half, with Guard showing a strong retake game on defense, with 5 of their 7 round wins coming from bomb defusals. However, EG began to show their own strength going into their defender half, winning 6 rounds in a row, and building an 11-7 lead. With Guard two rounds away from a map three, the squad once again began to string together rounds, winning 6 straight rounds on their end to close out the map 13-11 in favor of Guard, with a heartbreaking loss for EG. The comeback can be attributed to the stand-out performance of Sayaplayer, who earned 28 kills on icebox, and 50 across the entire series.
Guard now move to 4-0 and will face the also undefeated Cloud9 next week in a fight for the top seed of Group A. EG are eliminated from playoff contention with this loss, and will play their final match versus 100T next week.
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