Total Shorty Kills
VCT NA Challengers 1 Main Event: Upper Final, Lower Round 3, and Lower Final Results
Brandon "Mothman" Moore
02/07/2021
The VCT NA Challengers 1 Main Event continues to roll on as it approaches the Grand Final. The teams are set for Sunday afternoon. It started with 128 teams in the open qualifier. Now, in the Main Event, it is down to two. The Upper Final took place, as well as the Lower Round 3 series and the Lower Final.
Read on as Run It Back delivers the results for the lead up to the Grand Final.
VCT NA Challengers 1 Main Event
Upper Final
Immortals 2:1 Luminosity Gaming
The first map was played on Bind. It went just under 33 minutes as Immortals wasted no time bringing the pressure to Luminosity. LG started off with some promise. The first two rounds were all theirs. Five straight rounds were successfully defended by IMT and then another was won by LG. Four more defensive victories were in IMT’s favor before the half. The teams switched sides and that would be the end of it. Four rounds into the second half and Immortals took the map 13:3. They held four out of five Luminosity players to under 10 kills.
Ascent was Luminosity Gaming’s time to turn things around. Alex “aproto” Protopapas went wild as Cypher with 27 kills. In fact, he was the only player to top 20 kills on either team. Immortals took control at the beginning of the map. Four straight attacking rounds eventually meant very little as LG defended successfully for six consecutive rounds. The final two of the half were split. IMT started the second half off well with two round wins. LG got aggressive, though, and ended Ascent with six more consecutive rounds. Map three was forced with a 13:7 victory.
Icebox would come down to the wire, being one round away from an overtime scenario. The likes of Amgalan “Genghsta” Nemekhbayar and Noah “jcStani” Smith took charge for Immortals rather than their normal top fraggers. The first half went in Luminosity Gaming’s favor 8:4. It appears that Icebox is an attacker friendly location. Immortals completely shredded through the LG defense. Three scattered defensive rounds was all they could get. Immortals advanced to the Grand Final at 13:11. This means Luminosity Gaming would play in the VCT NA Challengers 1 Main Event Lower Final.
Lower Round 3
Sentinels 2:0 XSET
After fighting their way through the lower bracket after losses in the Quarterfinals, only one team between XSET and Sentinels could stay in the tournament. The series began on Haven. It looked like either team would pull ahead at any time. It was a back and forth of two rounds for XSET, two rounds for SEN, four rounds for XSET, and four rounds for SEN. That sent the match to the second half all tied up. Sentinels would then bring the pain as the attackers. Jay “sinatraa” Won popped off with 27 kills and 13 assists. XSET was held to only four defensive rounds as Sentinels closed things out in a close 13:10 map one.
Split started with some defensive promise from XSET after a quick first round win by Sentinels. That would change quickly as Sentinels continued to win rounds by eliminating the opposition. XSET was then able to at least put together a couple more rounds before halftime. The second half started with two rounds won by Sentinels. XSET followed that up with three rounds of their own. Sentinels refused to lose any more after that. A solid 13:8 victory opened the door for the Sentinels squad to enter the Lower Final.
Lower Final
Sentinels 2:1 Luminosity Gaming
Meeting once again is Sentinels and Luminosity Gaming. The last two contests saw LG best Sentinels. The second time around was in the Quarterfinals of the event and the first was in the Grand Final of the Nerd Street Gamers Winter Championship. The first map was Split and it looked like Sentinels would end it extremely quickly. While Hunter “SicK” Mims ended the map with 29 kills, it should have been much less. Sentinels failed to close things out at 12:2. LG would claw their way back to a 12:10 deficit. The 23rd round of Split saw Sentinels finally finish it off and win 13:10.
Ascent was the complete opposite. Things would be much more even a lot quicker. Sentinels would take four. LG then got two. SEN got two more and LG got their four rounds. That sent the teams to halftime with a tied 6:6. A dominant two rounds to open the second half looked as through Sentinels was on their way toward the Grand Final. Luminosity had other plans, however, pulling themselves together and taking the lead. Sentinels would not stay down, tying it back up. If this was a race, it would have been a photo finish as LG showed their cohesion as a unit and won 13:11.
At this point, it seems like a third map was inevitable. In the Quarterfinals, these two teams met on Icebox and it went to overtime. Diondre “YaBoiDre” Bond and sinatraa both came to play for their respective teams in the first half, creating frag opportunities left and right. The effort of the latter is what gave Sentinels a solid 8:4 lead at halftime. It continued to be the sinatraa show, as he proved that Sentinels may have the most diverse lineup in all of Valorant. The third time against LG was the charm as Sentinels advance to the Grand Final against Immortals with a 13:9 victory to end an incredible series.
Stay tuned to Run It Back for coverage of the Grand Final and the remainder of the Valorant Champions Tour!
