Rise and FaZe Clan, both of whom have esteemed VALORANT rosters, were knocked out of VCT Challengers Playoffs on the second day of competition, and are out of the running for VCT Berlin.
VCT Challenger Playoffs for the North American region are stacked with excellent teams. As such, it’s not necessarily a surprise when highly-rated teams are knocked out relatively early.
Both teams are qualified for the Last Chance Qualifiers for VCT Champions, the VALORANT equivalent to League of Legends‘ Worlds tournament.
Both Rise and FaZe appeared to run out of gas towards the end of their second matches of the day. Both teams played two best-of-threes that went the distance. Rise triumphed over TSM 2-1 before XSET outlasted them in a grueling best-of-three, thanks to some statistical brilliance from Rory “dephh” Jackson. FaZe dispatched Luminosity in their first match of the day, but was outlasted by Envy 2-1 in the second. FaZe mostly held new Envy star Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker to reasonable stats, but it wasn’t enough to collect a win.
Fortunately for both teams, they’ll get another shot at VCT Champions. Envy and XSET will play tomorrow, Aug. 13 in a knockout match. The winner will claim a spot in VCT Berlin. The other two spots gifted by tournament placement have already been claimed by 100 Thieves and Sentinels, who are both in the upper bracket finals. The upper bracket finals are also set for Aug. 13.
VCT Berlin will begin on Sept. 9 and last until Sept. 19. There is no public date set for the Last Chance Qualifier.
