The Guard are the winners of Ludwig x Tarik Invitational

VALORANT’s first live tournament in 2023 is now history. The Ludwig x Tarik Invitational has ended and left a lot of emotions on the scene. While it may have been a Tier B tournament with only four teams, many VALORANT fans turned out for the weekend.

The Sentinels were the fan favorites to win this tournament, but The Guard pulled off a surprise by demonstrating a spectacular level of play. The team swept all the teams, winning the trophy and a juicy $30,000 prize.

Other VALORANT personalities attended the event

In addition to tournament organizers Ludwig Ahgren and Tarik Celik, many other players and personalities from the VALORANT scene were part of the event. Such as Josh “Sideshow” Wilkinson, Arten “Ballatw” Esa, Mimi “aEvilcat” Wermcrantz, Brennon “Bren” Hook and Sean “sgares” Gares. As you can see, a lot of experience is coming together for a tournament that came up lightning-fast just a few days ago.

First day of the tournament

The Guard began their remarkable feat on the first day, defeating T1, while Sentinels did the same against TSM. This allowed both teams to advance to the finals. However, at this point, Sentinels lost the match with a score of 16-14, sending them to the Lower Bracket. Meanwhile, TSM dispatched T1 to secure their ticket to the Lower Bracket finals.

Day two

On the second day of the competition, TSM faced Sentinels in the Lower Bracket final and did the unthinkable. They destroyed Sentinels by winning the first two maps to qualify for the tournament’s grand final.

After this great game and great level demonstrated by TSM, the exhibition match was played, or as we know it popularly, the show match. The teams were:

Offline TV

• Tarik
• Masayoshi
• Brodin
• Yvonnie
• QuarterJade

Mogul Moves

• Ludwig
• Michael “shroud” Grzesiek
• Aiden
• Envy
• Yingling

Another great surprise we saw in this match: Despite the back and forth, Offline TV took the victory with a score of 2-1.

Grand Final

The Guard arrived with spectacular confidence in the grand final match against TSM. Likewise, TSM managed to start the series winning in Pearl with a 14-12 in a heart-stopping match. Then, The Guard recovered spectacularly to take Ascent 13-11, and finally, in Haven, TSM was crushed with a score of 13-1.

With this win for The Guard at the Ludwig x Tarik Invitational, the VALORANT offseason is finally over. While non-VCT franchised teams like TSM and The Guard showed a better level than T1 and Sentinels, we can’t write these two off. There are still teams getting used to the changes in the off-season roster.

Header: The Guard | Ludwig x Tarik Invitational