The internet reacts to Team Liquid's Neon pick for Day 1 of VCT Masters 1
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VCT Masters 1 Neon
Neon, the speedy duelist in VALORANT. | Provided by Riot Games.

The internet reacts to Team Liquid’s Neon pick for Day 1 of VCT Masters 1

A new agent made their debut on day one of Masters 1

For the first time in the VALORANT Champions Tour, Neon made her debut in international VCT play when Team Liquid picked her against KRÜ Esports on Day 1 of Masters 1. In their first map of Fracture, Team Liquid stuck to their creative team comps by bringing Neon to Masters 1.

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Neon makes it to the international VCT stage

With 2022’s Masters 1 in Reykjavík, this is the first international competition with Neon available in the hero pool. It’s been available for each region beforehand, but her playstyle has only allowed the creative or desperate teams to try her out. Before the travel issues that led Team Liquid to make it to Masters 1, they made a name off running Neon on Bind and Haven. It wasn’t perfect, but the way they ran it led them to a 60% win rate on Haven and a 50% win rate on Bind in Challengers 1. Along with OpTic Gaming in North America, they were one of the few teams that ran Neon consistently and with some success.

But on the first day of Masters 1, on Fracture, a map that Team Liquid had yet to play on for VCT 2022, they put Dom “soulcas” Sulcas on Neon. This sparked a lot of conversations about how this would work when it mattered most.

Vitor “kon4n” Hugo, player for TBK Esports

TBK Esports’ kon4n was excited to see the agent finally at LAN, simply tweeting her name with a wide-eyed gif.

Scott Robertson, writer for Dot Esports

Scott Robertson was surprised at the confidence that Team Liquid had to pull this pick out. He tweeted “NEON ON FRACTURE. LIQUID YOU MANIACS”.

The official Team Liquid Twitter account

Even with moments that looked uncoordinated, Team Liquid started the half up 7-5 with their Neon composition. They tweeted that news, with the line “it doesn’t have to be pretty when it works”. That quote held up as Team Liquid won the map 13-5.

Blake Van Poucke, writer for Esports.gg

As the first map ended with a strong defense for Team Liquid, the Neon looked strong. Blake Van Poucke tweeted out the stats, mentioning that TL won on KRÃœ Esports’ map pick, didn’t lose a map on defense and was impressed with both the Breach and Neon picks.

Author
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Michael Czar
Polish-Canadian game enthusiast. I've been entrenched in gaming for as long as I can remember, with my first game being Pokemon Yellow and my most played games being Borderlands 2 and Overwatch. I have a degree in Film Studies, but writing about esports just makes my job all the better.