The first two spots at the VALORANT Champions Tour Masters Tokyo playoffs were filled on June 12 by American squads following two very close series—but the teams who made it were both unexpected and fought tooth and nail to get in.
Heading into VCT’s second LAN of the season, the Americas region was led by Brazilian team LOUD but had two North American teams contending for the top spot: NRG and Evil Geniuses.
With only the top seeds getting auto-qualification to the playoff stage of the tournament, NRG and EG had to fight to keep their title hopes alive. But thanks to some great form and amazing performances, both North American squads have gone undefeated in groups to lock in the first two spots in the Masters Tokyo playoffs.
It wasn’t easy for either team, with EG getting the cleaner path through despite facing, arguably, the tougher opponents. Their wins over FUT Esports and DRX were relatively clean—surprisingly so for a team who weren’t even expected to make the regional playoffs, let alone the playoff stage of the international tournament.
But, through teamwork and great Sova play, EG made their way through groups to qualify for the playoffs first. One more spot from that group remains, with DRX the favorite to qualify.
In reality, it was NRG who had to squeak their way in, through a close series against T1. Despite T1’s close match against EDward Gaming, they played up to their opposition by taking the first map, Lotus, 13-11.
It nearly went to overtime, but thanks to the performances of Lee “Carpe” Jae-hyeok on Skye and Byeon “Munchkin” Sang-beom on Killjoy, they were able to out-frag NRG on their map pick. Carpe, in particular, stood out, using his flashes well to surprise NRG in a variety of scenarios, from post-plants to quick site hits on the attack.
The second map wasn’t nearly as close, with NRG’s confidence on Bind showing. The teams were level at the half but after a switch to the defense side, NRG only lost one round to close out the map 13-7. Victor Wong on the Raze was the cog in the EG war machine, using his Showstopper ultimate to get what seemed like two free kills every time he shot it.
In the end, it all came down to Pearl, where it looked like NRG was going to end the series quickly. A 7-0 lead disappeared, however, heading into a 7-5 half with T1 quickly tying the map.
It was a map of streaky play, with plenty of clutch moments from both sides. One of the most notable was from Sayaplayer, using his Jett knives to down four enemies—one while fully blind.
It all came down to which team could get the more important pop-off moments, and Ardis “ardiis” Svarenieks and Austin “crashies” Roberts led that charge to prevent the map from going to overtime and securing the win, 13-11. When it comes to his clutch moments, crashies was quick to shout out a former teammate but also knew they could’ve played better strategically to earn that win.
“It’s in the blood, ice in the veins, shoutout to Marved for that one,” crashies said in a post-match interview. “We definitely played super sloppy today, but the hero plays were pulled out. We don’t ever want to win that way, usually winning using strats or anti-strats, but we managed.”
NRG and EG will move on to the VCT Tokyo Masters playoff stage, with two more teams from the group stage joining them on June 16.
Published: Jun 13, 2023 03:45 am