Total Shorty Kills
Event Rundown: EMEA Stage 1 Challengers Week 4
Sinan Koyuncu
03/08/2022
After a one-week break, VCT 2022 EMEA Stage 1 Challengers action has returned with week 4. In the week that featured only three series due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, BBL Esports grabbed the win in the Turkish derby and made SuperMassive Blaze continue its no-win streak. Let’s dive into the competition.
Team Liquid is getting in shape after the sloppy start to the event. Losing versus Gambit Esports in the opening series of the event, Europe’s no.3 team struggled against its powerful opponent and showed vulnerability. However, the Liquid side managed to improve its performance on a weekly basis, taking over Natus Vincere first and now surpassing LDN UTD.
Although there is still a long way ahead to perfection for Liquid, beating two hot rivals proved that the roster is on the right track. Besides the results, the European powerhouse succeeded in putting a better team appearance and making its agent compositions work in an optimal way. It looks like Liquid made good use of the one-week break in competition.
Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen was the driving force for Team Liquid against LDN UTD. With the new look of the roster, the Finnish star started to deliver more frags alongside providing utility for his team. Finishing the series with 242 ACS and 144 ADR, Jamppi generated 40 kills in total. In addition, the roster’s superstar, Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom, helped his teammate with 236 ACS and 1.48 KD with his new role.
Acend has been performing below expectations this season. Even though it got two victories in three series, those triumphs were far from convincing. The winners of VALORANT Champions 2021 have been suffering due to poor individual performances, except for one name: Mehmet Yağız “cNed” İpek.
The Turkish star has been continuing his great performance from last year. Consistently leading his team kill-wise in VCT 2022 EMEA Stage 1 Challengers, cNed remains as a key player in Acend’s victories. He ended with 60 kills, including 14 Operator kills, and 12 first blood against G2 Esports, bringing home the dub.
If everything goes according to plan, week 5 of the event will feature six matchups as usual. In the week that most teams’ fates will become clear, participants won’t have the luxury of making mistakes. Here are my selections for the upcoming week:
Week 5 of EMEA Stage 1 Challengers will take place on March 11 and last until March 13.
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