VCT Masters 2, Day 2: Version1 and Sentinels put North America on top
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VCT Masters 2, Day 2: Version1 and Sentinels put North America on top

North America trounced Europe in their first meeting in VALORANT.
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North America left the stage victorious on Day 2 of VALORANT Champions Tour Masters 2: Reykjavík. Version1 and Sentinels took down their European counterparts, Team Liquid and Fnatic respectively on the second day of VCT Masters 2. Team Vikings also pulled out a win against South East Asia’s X10 Esports.

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The day was full of exciting matches as most games went to over 20 rounds before the victor was crowned. But, the prevailing narrative of Day 2 is North America’s victories over their supposed betters across the Atlantic.

VCT Masters 2 continues May 26 with X10 Esports vs. Crazy Raccoon as the first game and ends with Sentinels vs. Team Vikings.

Team Vikings scrape by X10

X10 were not a hyped squad coming into VCT Masters 2. Patiphan “Patiphan” Chaiwong is the team’s star player and was the only bright spot according to most analysts. But in the two game series, Nutchaphon “sScary” Matarat and Itthirit “foxz” Ngamsaard put together noteworthy performances. Despite their loss to Vikings, X10’s three core players put up over 30 kills each, with Patiphan leading them at 40.

Vikings swept the series, but just barely. They took Icebox 13-11 and survived overtime on Ascent 14-12. The Brazilians seemed off-put by the pace of X10 as multiple rounds devolved into a team deathmatch-like fire fight around the bomb sites, or sometimes just the middle of the map. Vikings matched that aggression, but also played their defensive sides with more patience. Their retakes were more polished than X10 and their holds were more passive as they let the South East Asian team come to them.

Vikings continue on in the upper bracket to play Sentinels and X10 move to the lower one to play Crazy Raccoon on Wednesday.

Version1 take down top European team Team Liquid

Just days after calling out a certain publication’s power rankings putting Liquid above Sentinels, Anthony “vanity” Malaspina and Version1 take down the European giants 2-1 in a tight series. Liquid took the first map, Split, 16-14 after forcing overtime in the waning rounds. But, the Europeans did not look to be in top form as their star sniper Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen finished the map with only 14 kills and 24 deaths. He also had an abysmal entry ratio with six first kills to 10 first deaths. The highlight player from the map was Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom, who topped the server with 30 kills on Sage.

On the second map, Ascent, Version1 finished out the game in relegation, 13-11, but had to deal with Jamppi taking the spotlight this time. This map the sniper put up over 30 kills as ScreaM dropped down the leaderboard. Version1 kept the pace high on the map and played many post-plant positions flawlessly with their Viper pick.

In the deciding map, Haven, Version1 took control of the series and closed it out 13-4. Liquid looked slow to start and seemed demoralized, especially after Dom “soulcas” Sulcas’ failed backstab in the early rounds.

Version1 will face NUTURN Thursday as Liquid wait in the lower bracket for the winner of Shraks Esports and KRÜ Esports to play on the same day.

Sentinels take the baton from Version1 and decimate Fnatic at VCT Masters 2

Sentinels continued the North American win streak by sweeping Fnatic 2-0. After an easy match against KRÃœ Esports on Day 1, Fnatic faced a real challenge. The series started on Icebox as Sentinels kept their usual double Duelist composition, Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan on Jett and Tyson “TenZ” Ngo on Reyna. This was the first Reyna pick of the tournament to this point.

Fnatic kept the game close as they used their Sova and Viper utility to stall and cause chaos in post-plant positions. But Sentinels overwhelmed them in attack and held them six rounds on defense. Fnatic’s star Jett player Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev was held down most of the map as he finished with only 17 kills and a negative Kill/Death/Assist ratio. Sentinels took the map in a close 13-11 match.

On Haven, Sentinels pulled out another close win at 13-10. Derke played much better across Haven’s multiple lanes, but Sentinels looked more comfortable on their most-played map.

Sentinels will play on Wednesday against the Brazilians as Fnatic fall to the lower bracket to face the winner of the Crazy Raccoon and X10 on Thursday.

Author
Image of Declan McLaughlin
Declan McLaughlin
Declan is an esports journalist and part-time editor for Upcomer. He is an avid gamer and League of Legends player. You can find him at the bottom of the leaderboard in most games or on Twitter.