Total Shorty Kills
VCT NA Challengers 2 Main Event: Upper Final, Lower Round 3, and Lower Final Results
Brandon "Mothman" Moore
02/23/2021
The first four teams headed to the North American Stage 1 Masters event have already been decided. Now, they will finish the VCT NA Challengers 2 Main Event for a hefty prize pool and seeding. The third day of competition delivers an Upper Bracket battle along with two from the Lower Bracket.
The likes of Luminosity Gaming, FaZe Clan, Gen.G Esports, and 100 Thieves will all have to try and qualifier for Masters once more. Team Envy, Immortals, XSET, and Sentinels have planted their flag in the Masters event, but they are always hungry for victory.
VCT NA Challengers 2 Main Event
Upper Final
Team Envy 2:1 Immortals
The last time Team Envy and Immortals faced, the latter handed out a stellar beating in the Challengers 1 Qualifier Grand Final. It was a 3-1 victory for IMT with a total round count of 50-32. Envy was obviously prepared for a rematch, coming out swinging on Bind. Nearly every round could have gone either way, but Envy made sure more of them went in their favor. Starting on attack, they were able to take as many rounds as they lost. The sides switched and Immortals just couldn’t get it going on their turn as the attackers. Some incredible plays by Austin “crashies” Roberts and Victor “food” Wong pushed Team Envy to a solid 13:8 map win.
The aggression from both teams persisted into map two, Ascent. Immortals put the meaning in the word attack as they began the map with the Spike. A speedy three rounds saw only four deaths for Immortals. The pace slowed and that played into Team Envy’s hand, allowing them their first round. The momentum shifted as food continued to dominate and pull his team ahead. While his performance continued, Immortals was able to force a tie at the half. Immortals refused to give on defense whatsoever. Amgalan “Genghsta” Nemekhbayar, yet again, took the top frag spot for his team, helping them force a third map 13:7.
Icebox would be the decider of the series. While Immortals seemed to methodically pick their agents, Team Envy appeared to have a plan in place, selecting their agents almost immediately. It was the food and crashies show once again as Team Envy attacked with reckless abandon. Envy were just walking onto the sites and shutting down any retake opportunities. It was honestly a brutal showing by Envy. 10 rounds were taken before Immortals got their first. They would push as hard as they could to turn the game around, but the deficit was just too large. Team Envy moves onto the Grand Final with a 13:4 round count. Immortals would then have to face the winner of XSET versus Sentinels.
Lower Round 3
Sentinels 2:0 XSET
Both teams were looking to make a run through the Lower Bracket, much like they were when they faced off in the Challengers 1 Main Event Lower Round 3. Sentinels took that series and surely intended to do so in this rematch. Hunter “SicK” Mims wasted no time in proving his superstardom. That helped Sentinels defend rather well to start Haven. A well rounded effort from SEN sent them to halftime with a nice lead of 9:3. The second half saw more of the same from the Sentinels squad. Each member even purchased an Odin at one point, proving how confident they were with their lead. That round went to XSET, but it wasn’t long before the map was over 13:4.
The second map of the contest was Split. Sentinels attacked first and stole the first two rounds with XSET taking the third. Any sort of round trading ended immediately as Jay “sinatraa” Won utterly disrespected XSET. Some of the players were just plain maniacal. Sentinels kept up their devastating offense throughout the first half, switching sides with an 8:4 lead. Brendan “BcJ” Jensen refused to give up, helping his team stay alive as their attacking turn unfolded. That boost in confidence only lasted a short while as Sentinels went back to their winning ways. Split ended 13:6, advancing Sentinels to a tough match against Immortals.
Lower Final
Sentinels 2:0 Immortals
This is a bit of a rubber match as Immortals defeated Sentinels in the Challengers 1 Qualifier Semifinals. Sentinels then got revenge in the Challengers 1 Main Event Grand Final. The winner goes on to face Team Envy in the Grand Final of the VCT NA Challengers 2 Main Event. On Split, the rounds went back and forth with SEN on the attack. Both teams were able to seize some wild opportunities that came there way, keeping things even. Sentinels decided that was enough of that and pulled out some crazy plays to take the lead before halftime 7:5. Andrew “ShoT_UP” Orlowski finally played a Duelist once again, doing some serious damage. It was Michael “dapr” Gulino that stepped up for SEN as the map progressed, though, helping his team to a 13:7 map one.
Map two took the series to the floating villa in the sky, Ascent. The trend of tied rounds continued early on in this one. Sentinels decided that was a habit they wanted to break. Shahzeeb “ShahZaM” Khan dominated Immortals with his operator, but ShoT_UP and his familiarity with Reyna kept the lead from growing too large. Naturally, the half ended tied even with the great start Sentinels had. Great Ultimate use by Immortals kept them in the game. Immortals started the second half with some forceful victories, but Sentinels turned things around. dapr, again, started fragging out again as Ascent came to a close. The Grand Final will be Sentinels versus Team Envy as they end the series against Immortals 13:9.
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