New Version1 roster bows out, The Nation thrive, others fall in Challengers qualifier

The VALORANT Challengers North America open qualifier was full of ups and downs with some notable teams upset in the early stages. 

Version1, which came into the open qualifier with a new star-studded female roster, was unable to move past the first round of the lower bracket in the round of 32. The roster, led by former Cloud9 White players Alexis Guarrasi and Melanie “meL” Capone, was defeated by ‘Rat Attack.’ 

Meanwhile, other prominent teams had better luck, with ‘The Nation’ securing a spot in the upper quarterfinals following a convincing 2-0 victory over ‘Dark Ratio,’ one of the favorites to qualify for Challengers through the qualifier. 

As a result of the loss, Dark Ratio are set to face off against ‘Division Zero’ in the second round of the lower bracket later tonight. 

The Nation, which features former CS:GO Major winner Jake “Stewie2k” Yip, former TSM star Matthew “WARDELL” Yu, Braxton “brax” Pierce, Daniel “Rossy” Abedrabbo, and Tanner “TiGG” Spanu, have lost one map at the time of writing out of five games played. 

On the other side of the bracket streamer Disguised Toast’s roster will face off against NSIC in the upper quarterfinals. DSG managed to take down several unsigned rosters but they will come up against harder opponents further in the tournament. 

Oxygen Esports, similar to The Nation, have made it to the upper quarterfinals with one map loss, also. 

The Challengers open qualifier is set to continue later tonight with the top four set to qualify for the first split of Challengers one, which begins in February.