Top 5 plays you might have missed at VALORANT Champions 2022

VALORANT Champions 2022 was one for the history books. The culmination of the 2022 VCT season determined the second-ever world champions: Brazil’s LOUD. Not only was it the first time a non-North American or EMEA team claimed an international trophy, but it was the most-watched VALORANT ever capped off by the most-watched grand final ever.

Champions 2022 was made by its moments; the debut of China, DRX’s long-awaited international breakthrough, the FPX vs. XSET replay controversy, and the nearly flawless playoff run of LOUD. But within those moments and stories are the iconic plays that serve as bookmarks to the tales told at Champions 2022.

Missed a day or a big play? Here are the top five plays from VALORANT Champions 2022 if you missed them.

Top five plays from VALORANT Champions 2022

Crashies’ incredible Fracture ropes ace against BOOM

As impressive as OpTic’s final result at Champions was, the eventual grand finalists got off to a shaky start in their opening series against Indonesia’s BOOM Esports. They fell in overtime on Breeze, but rallied with two straight decisive wins on Bind and Fracture. On Fracture, OpTic had already built an incredible lead when an even more incredible moment occurred. 

Looking to execute on A, BOOM was pushed back after some early OpTic utility, and the team collectively went to cross to the other side of the map via the ropes. Unfortunately for them, OpTic’s crashies had already pushed past Arcade to where the zipline ended, and like fish in a barrel, picked off all five BOOM players as they were crossing.

Rb’s amazing A site hold caps off second-half Ascent comeback against FURIA

Rb made a handful of impressive plays during DRX’s run, and one of the most spectacular came in their first map of the event at a time when the team needed it. DRX lost the opening eight rounds of Ascent to FURIA and trailed 9-3 of the half but rallied back after switching to defense. The comeback looked like it might fall on the final hurdle, but Rb delivered.

In a three-vs-five and with the entire attacking FURIA team surrounding him on A, Rb hopped into the corner by door with no armor and no utility and held the line. He got the first attacker pushing out of the smoke in Tree before doing a full 180 to drop the spike carrier. He moved to the other side of the door, got two more, and even though his ace is stolen, it was more than enough to send the map to overtime, where DRX would eventually come out on top.

Jinggg’s ingenious Raze ultimate on Pearl 

Against EDward Gaming in a marquee match between two of Asia’s top teams, Paper Rex’s opponent opted to kick off the entire Champions 2022 event with a Pearl pick. But even though it was EDG’s pick, it was PRX who brought out the smart plays.

Waiting in B Link was Jingg, who had blast packed his way up onto a box. Just as EDG began their B execute, Jingg activated his ultimate and blast packs even higher into the air to be able to see B long. The Showstopper connected with the opposing Viper via this elevated gap, taking away some much-needed utility the attackers wanted for their execute.

Aspas wins impossible one-vs-three low-health clutch against OpTic in grand final

Everything went LOUD’s way during their world championship run, losing only one series to OpTic during the group stage and beating their rivals not once but twice during playoffs. The grand finals was an exceptional showing for LOUD and Brazil, especially for their star duelist aspas.

After taking map one but trailing in the second, OpTic looked poised to decisively tie the series on Bind. Aspas was faced with an impossible situation: a one-vs-three with only 35 health and 12 seconds on the clock with the spike down. But somehow, he used the box on short A to get headshots on FNS and Marved, then used the grenade he earned from those kills to flush out Victor and get the final kill with less than two seconds remaining.

Victor outplays ScreaM, exposing the flaws in the Phoenix ultimate

For Liquid and OpTic fans, this is a moment that will live in infamy for completely different reasons. Liquid had managed to take a one-map lead in this opening playoff series but failed to close out the match on Bind or Ascent. And their loss on Ascent was highlighted by a stunning result to a 1v1 between Victor and ScreaM.

With spike planted for OpTic, ScreaM opted to his ultimate to get a free engagement on Victor. The problem was that he couldn’t find Victor, but Victor found where his ultimate would recall and knew that ScreaM didn’t have time for a full defuse before he would be recalled. ScreaM just noticed where Victor was going before time ran out, but it was too late, and before the recalled ScreaM could even pop his collar, Victor plunged his knife into his back.