Star-studded VALORANT roster upset, knocked out of Challengers qualifiers

Dark Ratio have eliminated Stewie2K and The Nation from the VCT Challengers qualifiers, becoming the final team to qualify for the main event in the process.

The Nation seemed to be the most interesting team attempting to qualify for Challengers, considering it is a team comprised of experienced FPS talents Stewie2k, brax, and WARDELL, in addition to up-and-comers Daniel “Rossy” Abedrabbo and Tanner “TiGG” Spanu.

With veterans at the helm, many fans expected The Nation to at least qualify for Challengers whether it was through the lower bracket or not. But a critical loss to BreakThru in the upper bracket cost The Nation their advantage and they were tasked with fighting for the final spot. On the other side of the coin, Dark Ratio’s band of miscellaneous Dark Zero players were led by former 100 Thieves duelist Will Cheng. 

This was the second time these two teams had faced off. Earlier in the tournament, The Nation swept Dark Ratio in dominant fashion with 26 round wins to just 14. The grind through the lower bracket of Challengers was all Dark Ratio needed to bounce back against the team that had sent them through the gauntlet, however.

Although a nail-biter of a series, Dark Ratio proved they were the more polished team by winning 13-10 on Fracture to take the series 2-1. The Nation are not completely out of Challengers contention yet, as they have other ways to qualify, but this event served as the perfect example that big names aren’t always the ones that come out on top.