Sunday’s second 2022 VALORANT Champions Tour Masters 1 group stage match saw Team Liquid – a squad who only qualified because FunPlus Phoenix were unable to attend the event – sweep the Latin American representatives KRÜ Esports 2-0.
A 🔥 match 2 ends in a @TeamLiquid victory! #VALORANTMasters pic.twitter.com/tDDubRX4mr
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) April 10, 2022
KRÜ Esports fail to take revenge against Team Liquid
The last time these teams met was at the VCT Champions tournament group stage in December of 2021. Though KRÜ ultimately got further in the tournament than TL did, the latter won in their initial group stage match. KRÜ Esports were looking to pay TL back for that loss, but they weren’t able to make it happen.
First up in the series was Fracture. Team Liquid made an impression off the bat by choosing a composition that included both Chamber and VALORANT’s newest agent, Neon. This was the latter’s debut on the international stage, and TL managed to leverage that into a 13-5 win over KRÜ.
Next up was Ascent. KRÜ looked significantly better on this map, playing cleanly and trading rounds with TL pretty evenly. It all came down to a triple overtime that Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom forced with an incredible Ace. Though it was a slugfest, Team Liquid finally managed to take the two consecutive rounds they needed to win the map and match.
UNBELIEVABLE!!! @Nivera__ | #VALORANTMasters pic.twitter.com/NH03FvCJbH
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) April 10, 2022
Though they didn’t initially qualify for this event, Team Liquid now seem laser focused and ready to take on every team in their way.
“We were in a slump recently, but I think we can beat everyone in this tournament,” said Adil “screaM” Benrlitom in a post-match interview. “We showed it in the past and today we showed up with really good gameplay. I’m really proud of the guys.”
Team Liquid will continue in the group stage’s main bracket to face the victor of Sunday’s match between OpTic Gaming and Xerxia Esports. KRÜ, meanwhile, now drop to the lower bracket where they await that game’s loser in a fight to keep their Masters 1 run alive.
