First Strike Turkey winners BBL Esports miss out on Challengers Playoffs

First Strike Turkey champions BBL Esports have been eliminated from VALORANT Champions Tour Stage 3 Challengers 2.

BBL Esports were the first team eliminated from the Stage 3 Challengers 2 tournament for Turkey by Fire Flux Esports. Fire Flux was the team to eliminate them from Challengers 1 when the two teams met in the second round of the lower bracket. This time the teams faced off in the first round, with BBL Esports coming away as the losers.

Alongside Oxygen Esports and Futbolist, BBL has been in the conversation for the best team in Turkey. However, their recent performance at the last Challengers event put them at a disadvantage in qualifying for Challengers Playoffs. With only one spot left for Turkey, and a team like Futbolist still in the running, BBL Esports would have had to play perfectly to make it through. That perfect play wasn’t present in the two opening matches of Challengers 2, however, and was the reasoning for BBL’s downfall.

BBL gets shut out by Beşiktaş and Fire Flux

BBL’s first matchup was against Beşiktaş Esports, a team that has been gaining speed in the Turkish scene. The team had previously not done well at closed qualifiers until they hit Stage 3 for Challengers 2. They finished top eight to qualify for the open qualifier of Challengers 2 and then finished top two to officially make it to Challengers 2. They were BBL’s opponent in the opening match of the tournament. In a convincing 2-0 victory, Beşiktaş took down the First Strike champions 13-7 on Bind and 13-6 on Haven.

neler yapıyorsun? @kindabrasco🔥 pic.twitter.com/qaKkqLxFuI

— Fire Flux Esports (@firefluxesports) July 27, 2021

With the 2-0 loss to Beşiktaş, BBL fell to the lower bracket to face Fire Flux Esports, who had eliminated them from the previous tournament. Fire Flux had a hard-fought match against Digital Athletics but eventually moved to the lower bracket after a 2-1 loss. It would be here that they would scrape by with the win on Breeze against BBL 13-10. Map 2 on Bind went into overtime but went the way of BBL to keep them in the game. It was on Ascent that the match was decided in favor of Fire Flux, who took the game 13-7.