With both Acend and G2 Esports fighting for a playoff spot with their backs against the wall in EMEA VALORANT Champions Tour Stage Two, Acend held on despite a dominating opening map from G2’s Oscar “mixwell” Cañellas Colocho, securing a necessary 2-1 victory.
The series began in stunning fashion, with mixwell and G2 dismantling Acend on their map choice of Split. With no initiator on their attack side, Acend had no answer for mixwell’s Chamber, and their entry player zeek (on Raze) only got two first kills against eight first deaths. Acend’s Jett star cNed had an abnormally abysmal game; two total kills and 14 deaths. Mixwell, on the other hand, notched 23 kills against only eight deaths, leading to an impressive 13-3 win on Split.
Learning from their mistakes, Acend opted for a double-initiator comp on Icebox with KAY/O and Sova. Things went well enough for Acend early on defense, shutting down G2 executes on B en route to a 5-2 lead, and despite G2 fighting their way back to a 9-9 tie, Acend pulled away at the end with their own successful B executes. Acend claimed victory on G2’s Icebox pick 13-10.
Bind started out exactly the way it did on Icebox, with Acend jumping out to an early lead only for G2 to fire right back. G2 answered Acend’s 5-1 start with six straight attack rounds to take the lead heading into defense. Again just like on Icebox, both teams were tied late in the map 10-10, and Acend just narrowly crossed the finish line first 13-11.
With the loss, G2 drops to a 1-3 record and are mathematically eliminated from EMEA playoff contention. They can’t catch 3-0 Fnatic even if Fnatic drop both of their final series, and FPX and Acend now own the head-to-head tiebreaker over G2. With the points earned from Stage One and Masters One, G2 has locked in a spot at the EMEA Last Chance Qualifier. They still have one more Stage Two match against Fnatic next week.
Published: Jun 3, 2022 12:21 pm