1)Sentinels - Reykjavík 2021
2)Optic - Reykjavík 2022
3)Loud - Reykjavík 2022
4)The Guard - NA Stage 1 Challengers 2022
5)Zeta and PRX - Reykjavík 2022
no hate to these teams, they are still good but not tier 1.
The game was new, Sentinels dominated the whole scene at that time, so that means at that time no fluke
Optic same as Sentinels last year with the exception that Fpx wasn't in Iceland + Fnatic no derke + never thought G2 could win (M3C still better)
LOUD played well
Guard kinda expected lan choke (nerves?), especially when they started right in playoffs (cold)
Zeta and PRX both played really well and Zeta improvement immensely over the tournament. PRX still crazy W Gaming
Someone in comments mentioned Acend champions. They had the hardest run and defeated like every region in that tourney. Brazil, NA, SEA, EU, CIS. The best teams of these regions not to forget
In what universe was Acends run the hardest out of Champions? They faced garbage teams the whole way through till the finals.
Envy looked like tier 2 garbage in their game against Acend, Vivo Keyd was probably their lowest rated opponent AND THAT WAS THE TEAM THEY LOST TO ONCE AND ALMOST LOST TO AGAIN WITH A 7-0 FREE STARTING LEAD, Team Secret who looked absolutely flat in the match against Acend honestly felt like match fixing not even gonna lie Dubstep sucking Cneds cock midgame, Team Liquid looked just as flat as Team Secret and they played the worst valorant out of all the matches in the knockout stage (other than Team Secret).
Gambit was arguably the only challenge for them and even in the finals Gambit had so many questionable moments but I wont say that thats the reason Acend won cause the real reason they won was their cockiest player stepped it up for the first time and last time of his valorant career and actually did something that person being starxo. If it wasnt for his constant lucky and truly unbelievable multi frags they wouldnt have even gotten close, tho i guess thats gambits fault for sometimes not fully clearing things