VALORANT Challengers 2 EU: G2 and Liquid are Back!

European VALORANT does not have a definitive top team. At the most recent Challengers weekend, Guild and FPX were successful, whereas Acend and Heretics already dropped out in their first matches. Now, Heretics haven’t even made it through the Qualifier, but G2 and Liquid are finally back and the top level.

Challengers 1 has already given out two spots for the Challengers Finals. The coming tournament will decide who gets the last two tickets, after which the rosters will enter the fray against Turkish and CIS opposition. Only when they manage to overcome this challenge will they actually be allowed to travel to Masters Reykjavík.

FPX FINALLY STAND VICTORIOUS

Kirill “ANGE1” Karasiow and his men have waited long enough to step out of the shadows of the other European top teams. At Challengers 1, it was finally enough for a solid tournament victory, which they secured in decisive fashion.

Acend and Heretics, the Masters finalists, both exited after their initial matches. At least they delivered a somewhat solid fight. Acend managed to win the first map versus the Ninjas in Pyjamas, but admitted defeat quickly after. The same happened to Ruben “RUBINO” Villaroel and his troops, who only managed to scrape together 15 rounds on their last two maps.

Vitality expectedly failed to survive in the fight against FunPlus Phoenix. Alliance gave away a quick 0-2 against Guild Esports. Later in the tournament, Guild and FPX made their way to the Grand Finals. There, it quickly became obvious that ANGE1 and and his team were just far better. On three entire maps, Guild barely managed to collect 18 rounds, before FunPlus Phoenix raced to a dominant first-place finish.

Both teams are heading to the Challengers Finals. They won’t have to worry about Challengers 2 anymore, but Acend, NiP, Vitality, and Opportunists are back in the fight. This time around, we can welcome back a few old faces, who hadn’t delivered for quite some time.

G2, LIQUID BACK AT IT AGAIN AT CHALLENGERS 2

Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom and the Liquid boys had missed the three most recent Challengers events. Ever since their early exit at First Strike Europe, they have only put up a disappointing show.  Even the signing of Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen didn’t do anything to remedy the situation, but finally the team has made it through an Open Qualifier. It’s a great sign that they have already won over Alliance and the Ninjas in Pyjamas.

G2 Esports have achieved even more. In the Open Qualifier, they have already taken down Heretics, who won’t even be able to travel to Masters now. Afterwards, they even beat Vitality, which means that there are only a few high-profile opponents left. Oscar “ozzy” Scott apparently does his IGL job well. The Brit will replace Aleksander “zeek” Zygmunt temporarily, even though a successful run at Challengers could mean that he gets the spot on a permanent basis.

WHO HAS GOT THE BIGGEST SHOT?

With their new IGL, G2 are riding on a wave of success. However, this wave could quickly break as soon one of the enemy teams sees through their tactics or their hastily-built system fails them. In this case, G2 will have to fall back on their individual talent, but the other teams have got more than enough of that as well.

There are no second chances in this Single Eliminaton bracket. G2 will have to survive against Fnatic, Liquid will get a free pass in the form of CE Calling, which they absolutely have to make use of. Acend have a shot against Vitality, but they would have to face G2 Esports later on. Opportunists don’t really stand a chance aganst NiP, but the Ninjas will have to face Liquid if they’re successful. Even though NiP lost to them in the Qualifier, they may have taken something from the match and made some necessary adjustments. There is no guarantee that Liquid will win an encounter like this for the second time.