The Guard thrash C9 to move one step closer to the Champions berth

The Guard clean swept Cloud9 to enter the Upper Bracket Finals of the NA VCT Last Chance Qualifiers. The brilliant showing from Jacob “valyn” Batio and Michael “neT” Bernet slimmed C9’s chances for the Worlds, dropping them to the lower bracket of the LCQ.

Match Summary

Opening the series on the offensive, The Guard dominated Cloud9 on their own picked map, Fracture. The team secured five rounds while only dropping one to establish an early advantage. Cloud9 recovered the loss with a 7:5 scoring line before the second half, halting the bloodbath with six straight victories. In the second half, however, Jacob “valyn” Batio’s performance on the frontline turned the tide for the Guard. Valyn and the team kept up the pace throughout the second half, hunting C9 for four straight rounds to finish off the map with a 13:9 victory.

The second of the series, Ascent kicked off with Cloud9 winning the opening two rounds, but Guards quickly overmatched them in the following rounds to neutralize the score. With the help of Sayaplayer’s phenomenal play on Jett, Guard picked up back-to-back rounds and swiftly took a 5:3 lead. Guard held the lead for the rest of the half despite losing a few rounds, entering the second half with a 7:5 lead.

Seeing themselves losing control of the game, C9 retaliated with full force, securing three more rounds to even the score 11:11. Guard won a crucial thrifty round, gaining them a substantial advantage and a match point. With no money left, Cloud9 appeared utterly helpless in the ensuing round and lost the series with a close 13:11 score. While Ha “Sayaplayer” Jung-woo Wang put up a stellar performance, posting a K/D/A of 20/16/21 with an average damage per round of 153, Michael “neT” Bernet supported him throughout the game, recording 20 kills and an average combat score of 238.

The Guard are back on track

After winning the NA VCT 2022: Stage 1 Challengers, Guard have been having a hard time becoming a consistent team, and at several VCT games, they even seemed entirely ineffectual. They placed 9th to 10th at the VCT Stage 2 Challengers with a 1-4 record while dropping both of their series at the playoffs of Masters Reykjavik. However, Guard’s performances have improved after the player break, as evidenced by their victories over Sentinels in the LCQ’s first round and C9 in the second. The team advanced to the upper finals with this victory, where they will face the winner of the 100 Thieves vs. FaZe showdown. The C9 team, on the other hand, dropped to the loser bracket and will face the winner of EG vs NRG in a knockout match.

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