The seventh day of VALORANT Champions marks the end of the group stage. Now fans from around the globe finally know which two teams will make it to the quarterfinals from each group and which teams will be packing their bags early. For the EMEA fans, they already have all four teams secured as the first seeds, but for the rest of the regions, their fates were still on the chopping block.
VALORANT Champions group stage: Cloud9 versus Vision Strikers
What was originally dubbed the ‘group of death’ lived up to its name as the remaining teams duked it out for a spot in the quarterfinals. South Korea’s only seed, Vision Strikers, were matched up against one of the few remaining hopes for North America, Cloud9.
In typical C9 fashion, they could not simply allow the game to be over with a decisive 2-0 and had to drag the match out to three maps. Cloud9 took the first map on Ascent despite a valiant comeback attempt from Vision Strikers; the Korean team was down 1-11 in the first half. Vision Strikers were able to take Split though in the next map after a much more successful first half than on Ascent. It all came down to Breeze where Vision Strikers once again came close to bringing the game to overtime, but failed to win a round when Cloud9 was on a half buy.
Match MVP: Nathan “leaf” Orf. The main duelist for Cloud9 was the shining star for the team during this series by dropping 64 kills across the three maps. He finishes the series with a 1.28 KD overall after going positive 14.
Team Secret versus Team Vikings
A battle between Southeast Asia and Brazil wasn’t as hyped as fans may have hoped. After Team Vikings went toe to toe with Gambit Esports earlier in the tournament, fans had them favored overall to win the matchup against the SEA counterparts. However, Team Secret showed up when it mattered to make it into the quarterfinals at Champions.
Team Vikings lost handily on Haven, which had been picked by Team Secret, after going down 3-9 at the half. There was no elusive 9-3 curse to bring them back from their shallow grave; Team Secret ended things swiftly with a 13-6 victory. Icebox was a similar story to Haven, with Team Vikings lagging behind early in the series. Despite their best efforts at a comeback, it was in vain. Team Secret finished off the Brazilians 13-7 to win the series 2-0.
Match MVP: Jayvee “DubsteP” Paguirigan showed up big time for his team on Jett. He dropped 45 kills across the two series with an impressive 26 deaths. This score line puts him at a staggering 1.73 KD overall which was exactly what the team needed to beat Vikings.
Envy versus X10 CRIT
The last hope for a second NA seed at the quarterfinals rode on Envy, but X10 weren’t going to let them through without a fight. All three maps in the series were close with one team edging the other out to take the win. Envy struck first on Icebox with a carefully planned out 13-10 victor, despite going down to 4-8 at the half. But X10 fought back on Split by claiming a clean 13-8 win on Envy’s map pick.
Haven would be the final map of the series. Things started out in favor of Envy who slowly began losing their lead to X10 as the rounds dragged on. Neither team was ready to call it quits until X10 finally got to 12 rounds off the back of an unbelievable three-piece from Thanamethk “Crws” Mahatthananuyut, which Envy answered back to, bringing the game to overtime. In overtime X10 finally claimed the win 14-12 with another three-piece.
WE DID IT!!!
WE MAKE SEA PROUD 👊🏻❤️🔥#X10Crit #VALORANTChampions #VCT #SEA pic.twitter.com/wf3S2L2BUI— h3nsem (@h3nsemAF) December 7, 2021
Match MVP: Panyawat “sushiboys” Subsiriroj brought x10 over the edge during their matchup against Envy by dropping a 1.24 KD after earning 61 kills, 49 deaths and seventeen assists.
