2Game Esports rises above the rest

VCL Americas Ascension Playoffs has come to a close with 2Game Esports coming out on top and earning their rightful place amongst the Americas VCT League. The Brazilian team had a flawless playoffs run, beating tournament favorites, M80, twice as well as dominating All Knights who proved themselves in the group stage and quickly became a team to watch for.

2Game Esports came into the playoffs off the back of a rough end to their group stage, losing their last 3 matches and struggling to find success. It was seemingly imperative for them to refresh themselves and come up with an improved game plan into playoffs. It was not far-fetched to count the team out of the tournament at this point.

That’s when they proved they have what it takes.

With a decisive 2-0 against M80, their playoff run started with a massive upset. The team then went against the LATAM breakout stars of All Knights, led by the young Dantedeu5 who was obliterating every team with his insane neon pick. But 2G would not falter, beating them 2-1 and silencing any doubters calling their run a fluke. They proved they could do it. They were the real deal. They were here to win.

It all came down to the Grand Final. M80 had gone on an incredible lower bracket run to claw their way back into a rematch, and all hopes of North America lied with the Canadian-based team. All bets were off. 2Game Esports leveraged their winner’s bracket ban advantage and left M80’s permaban as the last map in the series.

The series itself didn’t disappoint. With the match going the full distance, both teams went back and forth taking maps away and absolutely giving it everything they had. 2G even came out onto Haven, a map that they’d never played before, with a very unique comp, adopting FNATIC, and dominating all throughout the map, completely stunning everyone. It was then here that M80’s fatigue and struggles really showed. Whiffs and misplays plagued their last rounds and it was only a matter of time, as their fate was sealed by having to play their permaban.

Previously, during their group stage it was discovered that after their loss from All Knights, Zap led a heartfelt speech amongst the team directed at spike. The team had just suffered a loss after leading 9-3 at the half, after the misfortunes of a few bad plays made by the team. Spike felt this the most, being a very young player, with the weight of the competition on his shoulders, he couldn’t help but feel responsible. This was where Zap came in and lifted him back right on his feet, saying “One game doesn’t define you…You’re still THE spike…” The team went on to make history.

Beating every expectation as the #2 seed from Brazil without actually ever placing higher than 3rd during their regional splits, making it to Ascension based on points. With a young roster, with complete unknowns, without anyone really believing they’d be the ones to do it. 2G has lifted that Ascension trophy, and they will now be joining the VCT.

And now we’ll have to watch 2G vs G2.

Credit to:
@mayadotexe for the clip on 2G
@2Game Esports for the content itself
VLR

Words From The Writer
Hello all! Thanks so much for reading. My name’s Dante, otherwise known as “Dayeus.” I’m a young, aspiring journalist/content creator with a love for gaming and competition. I’ve been following Valorant’s esports scene since the game’s inception and hope to one day grow my knowledge and ability to inform to not just mine but yours, the reader’s, expectations. Please understand that my writing is a work in progress and I’ll keep looking to improve it.
Check out my Twitter: @Dayeusss

Star players shine as M80 dominate the group stage

The VCL Americas Ascension tournament has proven to be an exciting tournament across all series with breakout performances from a few star players…at least when we can watch it. Countless tech pauses and massive delays have made watching the competition a heavily arduous task.

M80 came into the tournament as the team to watch for. With a history of being the runners-up at last year’s Ascension tournament and being the #1 North American seed, all eyes were on the proven roster coming into the event, and boy did they dominate. With a flawless 5-0 record and 10/3 map ratio, M80 have proven that they are the team that everyone should be watching. The team has also continued to innovate by removing their previously dominant Lotus comp and swapping in a brand new one with Yoru and Breach in place of Sage and Deadlock. Though their match record shows a dominant performance their scores in each map however, did not reflect that. Multiple overtime matches and less than 4 round differences were mostly across their victories. Despite these close scores, wins are in-fact wins, and it goes to show that M80 have the ability to close out these close maps. Can they close out the tournament?

All Knights has blown away all expectations of the roster with the unbelievable performances from Dantedeu5. Both he and the former Leviatan player, adverso, have put the Argentinians and Chilean on their back and brought them to a #2 seed finish in groups. An incredibly close 0-2 loss to M80 however, are leaving the team with a little more to be desired if they want a chance at claiming the Ascension trophy.

Galorys are continuing the conversation of breakout star players with lukxo. The Galorys controller player has put up numbers of an upper +15 K/D ratio. His start to the tournament was a bit too slow and patient, seemingly too careful with how lukxo elected to take his fights. But a slower, tentative start didn’t last long for the Brazilian player leading to some unreal performances especially as a player in the smokes role. Despite this, the team has experienced three losses in groups. The rest of the roster has to match lukxo’s level of dominance in order to move forward in the tournament.

2Game Esports has had a rougher go at the later half of the group stage after a 2-0 start beating TSM and RETA Esports. Their key players remain silentzz and spike with superb performances when they win but struggles when they lose. 2GE also lost out to their bigger brothers in Galorys which was a wonder of if they’d finally triumph over their Brazilian comrades. The team has to come into playoffs having barely skimmed through to the playoff stage on a 3 match loss streak, with fresh ideas and a better plan moving forward.

About The Writer
Hello all! My name’s Dante, otherwise known as “Dayeus.” I’m a young, aspiring journalist/content creator with a love for gaming and competition. I’ve been following Valorant’s esports scene since the game’s inception and hope to one day grow my knowledge and ability to inform to not just mine but yours, the reader’s, expectations. Please understand that my writing is a work in progress and I’ll keep looking to improve it. Thanks for reading!
Check out my Twitter: @Dayeusss

North America and LATAM Fall Short in Groups

North America’s TSM and LATAM’s RETA Esports have fallen short in Mexico, failing to qualify for the Playoff stage at this year’s VCL Americas Ascension. Coming into the event, it’s safe to say that North America’s #2 seed and LATAM’s #1 had higher expectations to make it into the playoffs at minimum. But, in the end, both teams will have to say goodbye to their chances at the VCT Americas league.

For TSM, being from North America presents a number of advantages from historically stronger competition to better and more consistent scrim partners by being in close proximity to VCT Americas. Despite the surprise of the team making it to the event, the expectations remained high for NA’s #2 seed. However, the team struggled on multiple fronts in ways that were heartbreaking for TSM fans. The team wasn’t able to string a series of rounds together even in advantageous situations. Poor team play and inability to close out rounds led to their exit as the team with the lowest win/loss ratio, despite high hopes following the team’s Cinderella run to make the Ascension tournament.

All eyes were on RETA Esports coming into Ascension as their unbelievable season record leading up to the tournament labeled them as a highly dominant team entering the event. Three of their maps played at the event were losses of at least 4-13 or worse. Their losses can be attributed to inconsistent performances from the team and a monumental struggle with their game plan on Bind. Those heavy losses would bite them in the future leading to their unfortunate end in Ascension by missing out in playoffs by 16 rounds.

Regardless of their end, both TSM and RETA Esports proved to be formidable opponents in their own right throughout their season. With TSM proving that they should never be counted out, and RETA closing out their regionals with an out-of-this-world, dominant season record. Fans should feel hopeful and excited for both contenders’ futures in the Valorant scene.

Stay tuned for the VCL Americas Ascension Playoffs preview.

About The Writer
Hello all! My name’s Dante, otherwise known as “Dayeus.” I’m a young, aspiring journalist/content creator with a love for gaming and competition. I’ve been following Valorant’s esports scene since the game’s inception and hope to one day grow my knowledge and ability to inform to not just mine but yours, the reader’s, expectations. Please understand that my writing is a work in progress and I’ll keep looking to improve it. Thanks for reading!
Check out my Twitter: @Dayeusss

EDIT

Tex was not on M80, JohnQT was. Thanks for pointing it out

This year’s VALORANT Challengers League Americas Ascension tournament marks the end of VALORANT’s second year in its league partnership system. The winner of this 6 team tournament will join the likes of Sentinels, 100 Thieves, and LOUD in the VALORANT Champions Tour Americas circuit. North America, Latin America, and Brazil have each sent two of their best teams to fight for the ultimate right to go against the best that Americas has to offer. This year’s VCL Americas Ascension tournament takes place in Monterrey, Mexico from September 10-21 at the Backstage venue.

MEET THE TEAMS

North America

M80
Duelist - koalanoob
Flex - NiSMO
Initiator - BcJ
Controller - Zander
Sentinel - neT
———
Head Coach - Happy
Coach - Gunter

M80 has returned to the Ascension tourney after last year’s runner-up result. After making a roster change at the start of the year with the addition of BcJ and Nitr0 having lost JohnQT and Eeiu, the team managed to continue performing at a high level, but fell short of a top result during their Mid-Season Cup.

M80 then made a mid-season roster change with the addition of neT in place of Nitr0 and have since built an 8-0 record throughout almost all of VCL North America Stage 2. Their players’ consistent statlines along with their resilience of playing from behind in 2nd halves has been tremendously commendable. M80’s unconventional Lotus non-duelist, triple sentinel comp has brought them continued success and is sure to be a powerful tool should teams elect not to target ban the map. Will the team be able to finally join the big dogs in tier 1 or fall at the finish line yet again?

TSM
Duelist - sym
Flex - seven
Initiator - POISED
Controller - gMd
Sentinel - aproto
———
Head Coach - Faded

Probably one of the least expected teams among those attending is TSM. Having achieved no higher than 5th place across VCL North America’s Stage 1 and 2 and the Mid-Season Cup, the fan expectations of TSM were instead looking towards the next season.

However, an early fall to the lower bracket of VCL North America Stage 2 Playoffs into an outstanding performance by the collective team propelled them into NA’s #2 Ascension slot. A dominant Bind 3-0 record has cemented the map as a favorite of the team. Seven’s breakout playoff performance alongside Sym’s staggering 66/61 first kills to first deaths numbers conveys a ridiculous amount of opening duels.

The remaining kryptonite of the team is M80 themselves, having been unable to claim a map against the #1 seed across their 2 matchups in playoffs. Time will tell if this impressive performance will last in order to complete the run or if they cooled off after their month-long break.

LATAM

RETA Esports
Duelist - snw
Flex - suther
Initiator - murizzz
Controller - delz1k
Sentinel - NagZ
———
Head Coach - WKN
Coach - joman

RETA Esports are bringing a level of dominance of LATAM North close to levels of Apeks of VCL EMEA last year, at an unreal 16-3 match record. RETA has recruited previous KRU players, NagZ and delz1k alongside former MIBR’s Murizzz to provide high-quality experience to the team.

Both Bind and Ascent have been consistent battlegrounds for them with fairly standard compositions. This standard level of play, however, can be easily improved on and leveled up. Have they achieved the level needed to lift the trophy?

All Knights
Duelist - Dantedeu5
Flex - NicoMachine
Initiator - adverso
Controller - Cebando
Sentinel - tinchoff
———
Head Coach - ZONYK
Analyst - bast1

LATAM as a region has had the fortune to send one team each from both the North and South. Hailing from the South end are the Argentinians from All Knights. Generally speaking, All Knights have had a fairly successful year with the bane of their existence being 9z Team before they finally defeated their rivals (3-1) at the conclusion of their 2nd split.

The long standing core team pulled together the addition of Dantedeu5 for the 2024 season and recently integrated the Neon meta into more of their compositions with the star duelist. Their initiator adverso has also brought along tier 1 experience after a year stint with Leviatan including a few international tournaments.

Brazil

Galorys
Duelist - Sato
Flex - Urango
Initiator - Evilkyk
Controller - lukxo
Sentinel - rood
———
Coach - shaW
Sub - DRAGziKW, hide

The roster of MIXX have been playing together as a collective for nearly 2 years total with Galorys acquiring the roster under their banner for the 2024 season. The roster had a rough mid season with back to back 4 streak losses with a single win dividing them.

However, their recent streak of winning 6 of their last 7 games through their regional and all-around playoffs has propelled them into the #1 spot for Brazil VCL with star performances from lukxo and Sato. Will the team be able to join VCT and perhaps bolster Brazil’s strength?

2Game Esports
Duelist - spike
Flex - Iz
Initiator - pryze
Controller - silentzz
Sentinel - Zap
———
Head Coach - faithz0r
Coach - Yushi

Similar to Galorys, the 2Game Esports roster has been a long standing core of players that have stuck together for more than a year’s time. Once again, like their Brazilian comrades, they too had a rough mid-season but were then able to string multiple wins together throughout split 2.

Their last hurdle remains the Galorys team. The 2GE squad are currently on the losing end of a 1-3 record against their rivals across this year. Will 2Game Esports finally be able to trump their big brother and claim the Ascension trophy?

About the Writer
Hello all! My name’s Dante, otherwise known as “Dayeus.” I’m a young, aspiring journalist/content creator looking to work more Valorant esports content. This is my first public piece about VCT and Valorant esports. I’ve been following Valorant’s esports scene since the game’s inception and hope to one day grow my knowledge and ability to inform to not just mine but yours, the reader’s, expectations. Please understand that my writing is a work in progress and I’ll keep looking to improve it. Thanks for reading!
Check out my Twitter: @Dayeusss