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Pop Flash Event Preview

The VALORANT tournament by Flashpoint will be the last official IGNITION Series event. The North American teams will get... Fabio | 26. August 2020

The VALORANT tournament by Flashpoint will be the last official IGNITION Series event. The North American teams will get one last chance to prove themselves at this competition. So who can make it to the playoffs?

GROUP A

In Group A, we meet the winners of the previous NA VALORANT tournament. Team SoloMid were able to best Sentinels in the Grand Finals of the FaZe Clan Invitational and won $25,000 along the way. Now, Cloud9, Dignitas and Gen.G are standing in their way. It’s been quite a while since we have seen TSM and C9 clash. Dignitas have just recently brought their roster on board and signed their fifth player just yesterday. Ryan “Shanks” Ngo will conduct a trial phase for the team, which will obviously affect their ability to perform here. The other 3 teams have had a stable roster for quite a while. Even though Cloud9 had only announced their last player, Daniel “vice” Kim, on August 17, he had already competed with them at the FaZe Clan Invitational.

The chances for Dignitas are not looking all too great. TSM, on the other hand, have been riding a wave of success recently. Matthew “Wardell” Yu, a fantastic CS:GO player in his own right, is now sweeping the competitive VALORANT scene. With a 1.42 KD, he was able to impress at the Invitational. However, the same holds true for Tyson “TenZ” Ngo from Cloud9. Both players will attempt to carry their teams into the playoffs.

GROUP B

With the runners-up of the FaZe Clan Invitational, Group B has a lot on offer as well. Sentinels will try to secure their playoffs spot early on. Immortals, Envy and T1 are blocking their path. With regards to Immortals, Sentinels should feel quite comfortable. In their last match-up, they delivered two quick map wins and additionally, the team is impacted by a recent roster change. We haven’t witnessed Quan “diceyzx” Tran live with the team just yet, but still their lineup chance should prove to weaken them for the time being.

T1 are also not going to attend with their full roster. During the Pop Flash tournament, they will have to do without Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham. The player wants to take a step back from the esports stage to expand his agent pool in VALORANT. In the meantime, he is replaced by Daniel “eeiu” Vucenovic. For the T1 Academy player, this is a great chance to announce himself as a top player. But is he really ready for this? The results of his team don’t really point towards him being able to contest the individual talent of TSM or Sentinels. With Pujan “FNS” Mehta, Envy feature one of the most talented Counter-Strike IGLs in North America. Unfortunately, his team wasn’t really able to do a lot of damage just yet. At the FaZe Clan Invitational, they faltered against Gen.G in the Lower Bracket.

WHO WILL MAKE IT TO THE PLAYOFFS?

With all these roster chances, we almost want to hand the playoffs ticket to Sentinels already. But of course the teams in attendance boast more than enough individual talent to make this Group Stage a difficult affair for TSM and Sentinels. Should they both be able to make first place in their groups, we can expect some great playoffs matches, as the teams will be starting on opposite sides of the bracket. We hope to see a tense Grand Finals between TSM and Sentinels again and expect the rest of the squads to give them hell on their way there.