Total Shorty Kills
VCT NA Challengers 3 Main Event: Day 1 Results
Brandon "Mothman" Moore
03/05/2021
The VCT NA Challengers 3 Main Event is underway. Four teams have already qualified for the Stage 1 Masters tournament. Four more from this tournament will join them. Day 1 saw six total matches, with maps being blow outs, coming down to the wire, and plenty of overtime scenarios. The Upper Quarterfinals and first round of the Lower Bracket has commenced. Two teams have been eliminated from the entire tournament, while the remainder look to either stay winning or claw their way through the Lower Rounds.
Read ahead as Run It Back goes over the results of the VCT NA Challengers 3 Main Event Day 1.
VCT NA Challengers 3 Main Event
Upper Quarterfinals
Luminosity Gaming 2:0 Kooky Koalas
This contest went exactly how many assumed it would. Formerly known as DaHoonkaBhanKoloos, Kooky Koalas had a mountain of a challenge ahead of them. It would have been incredibly exciting to see them put a game together here, but it just didn’t happen. The first map was Bind with Luminosity Gaming on defense. Finally officially signed to LG, Diondre “YaBoiDre” Bond dominated on Raze. Kyle “ScrewFace” Jensen had quite the game for KK, but LG was too solid. Six straight rounds went to LG, but KK pushed back with four. Two more finished the first half for Luminosity. KK showed promise on their defensive half, but LG’s attack was good enough to finish the map 13:7.
Map two would find the teams on Icebox. It was all Luminosity Gaming once again. This time, Brady “thief” Dever and Alex “aproto” Protopapas took charge in decimating the newly named Kooky Koalas. KK actually took the first two rounds, defending sites from the LG offense. That same LG exploded immediately after. The final 10 rounds before halftime were all elimination victories for the attacking Luminosity. The second half may have proved that Icebox is attacker sided, but LG’s lead was too much. KK was able to get four rounds in sets of two, but LG only needed three successful defenses to advance and send KK to Lower Bracket 13:6.
TSM 2:0 Gen.G Esports
TSM proved they hadn’t let a step against Gen.G Esports here. After struggling to qualify in the first Challengers events, this could very well be TSM’s time to shine. Bind went in their favor as Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik utterly popped off with 28 kills. The first half was fairly even. Gen.G actually took the lead early, but TSM bounced back by trading sets of rounds. TSM would finish strong and take a two round lead at the half. Gen.G then pushed they way to the front of the pack with three successful defenses. That is when TSM kicked it into gear. Six straight rounds on attack were enough to end the map 13:8.
Ascent was the Matthew “Wardell” Yu show. 25 kills were next to his name on the scoreboard as TSM shut down Gen.G. This map seemed like it would be closer than it truly was as Gen.G began with three straight solid victories. TSM retaliated with three of their own, however. While Gen.G then took two rounds, the streak for TSM increased rather than decreased. They snagged four in a row before halftime. After the half, Gen.G started strong once again. TSM, naturally, bounced back once again. After the first two rounds of the half, Gen.G would only found two more scattered throughout. TSM successfully defended six times in order to advance 13:9 in the VCT NA Challengers 3 Main Event.
NRG 2:1 100 Thieves
Both 100 Thieves and NRG came out swinging on Haven. They took their attacking side and ran with it. The round counts for each half were identical. NRG took eight as the attacker and 100 Thieves did exactly the same. Only two players, from NRG, finished Haven with less than 20 kills. The aggression took the map to an incredible quadruple overtime. Neither team wanted to give up. Despite Sam “s0m” Oh dropping 34 kills, 100T worked together and pulled through with the veteran experience of Joshua “steel” Nissan, Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella, and Spencer “Hiko” Martin on full display. Haven would be win in 100T’s column with a 17:15 round count.
Ryan “Shanks” Ngo and Daniel “eeiu” Vucenovic were not going to let the close overtime loss bring them down. They joined the server on Bind with a vengeance. Even with some ridiculous plays from 100 Thieves, including an insane Ace by Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk, to stay alive, NRG persevered. Several rounds would be won in scattered fashion by both teams in the first half. NRG would finish with the lead. Switching sides saw NRG hold nothing back. Eight second half rounds were played with two being won by 100 Thieves. NRG tied the series with a 13:7 Bind victory.
The series would come down to Ascent, a map in which 100T have performed well on. NRG did not care about previous performance on the map. They only cared about the moment at hand. Bradley “ANDROID” Fodor hogged the kill feed, finishing the map with 21. Nine attacking rounds went to NRG in the first half as 100 Thieves gained a very spread out three. The second half would see the finish of what some would call a whooping. 100T took two quick rounds on attack, but nothing after that. NRG had no problem ending Ascent and defeating 100T 13:5.
FaZe Clan 2:0 T1
Icebox is where FaZe Clan versus T1 began. The first half was literally split down the middle by the two teams. FaZe successfully defended for six straight, followed by T1 successfully attacking for six of their own. After halftime, FaZe Clan had enough of the even battle. Corey “corey” Nigra, Andrej “babybay” Francisty, and Shane “Rawkus” Flaherty all put up 19 kills for FaZe on Icebox. Attacking in the second half is where they shined. T1 got the first round and a second a while after, but seven well earned rounds gave FaZe Clan the 13:8 victory.
Haven would be a much closer map, but saw babybay lead FaZe Clan to an overtime victory. Both sides of the Spike were identical for FaZe and T1. Sets of rounds were traded back and forth as each half saw the attacking team score seven. That forced a singular overtime setting where T1 could have tied the series. FaZe Clan had other ideas, however. Two quick full eliminations on offense and defense gave FaZe Clan the 14:12 win. That sent T1 down to the Lower Round of the VCT NA Challengers 3 Main Event to face 100 Thieves.
Lower Round 1
Gen.G Esports 2:0 Kooky Koalas
The first series of Lower Round 1 saw Gen.G take on the former DaHoonkaBhanKoloos team now known as Kooky Koalas. This match up was incredibly close on Haven. Shawn “Shawn” O’Riley take the top frag spot with 20 kills and 280 ACS. Gen.G took seven rounds on attack, but KK showed a lot of promise in the rounds they pulled out. Switching sides saw KK take four straight offensive rounds. Gen.G responded with two and KK shot back with two more. Unfortunately for KK, Gen.G found their defensive groove, winning four final rounds to take Haven 13:11.
Ascent would be much more one-sided with Shawn continuing his top fragging ways. He ended the second map in the series with 23 on Reyna. KK looked very strong in the first half. By the time they had six rounds, Gen.G only had two. Again, though, Gen.G found their groove on defense to end the first half at a 6:6 tie. Switching to the attacker side, Gen.G had no intention of looking back. Two rounds were forcibly taken before KK got a defensive victory. That was all they’d see as Gen.G won five straight eliminations. The Cinderella Story of Kooky Koalas was unable to make it past the ball as Gen.G won Ascent 13:7.
100 Thieves 2:1 T1
100 Thieves and T1 find themselves in an expected contest, but on the wrong side of the bracket. This Lower Round contest kept one team’s hopes alive and kept one out of the first Masters event completely. It started with 100T’s map pick, Haven. Big brain plays were the story for the North American First Strike Champions here. Asuna fragged out and steel matched him with 21 kills due to his incredibly smart moves. 100T started with a solid four rounds only for T1 to match them. Three more would go to 100T with the final round of the half being T1’s. In the second half, 100 Thieves showed their defensive prowess. T1 managed to take three rounds in between 100T’s final six. 100 Thieves won their map pick 13:8.
Icebox was the map pick of T1 and it showed. On attack, T1 wasted no time in expressing their aggression. Round after round went in their favor with Rahul “curry” Nemani even going 8-0 to start the map. Six quick rounds went by before 100 Thieves got their first. That round came off of a strong swing by Hiko to deny a plant and let the time run out. Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham brought the boom with Raze. He made sure that was the only round 100 Thieves would get, ending the first half 11:1 and finishing Icebox off completely with a 13:1 decimation.
Ascent would be the deciding map in this exciting series. The first tcouple of rounds saw some wild action between the two teams. On the backs of Asuna and Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella, 100 Thieves infiltrated T1’s defense and pushed ahead. Hiko joined the party with perfect Shock Darts to prevent T1 from even attempting retakes. T1 were finally able to win a second round and hoped to change their fortune. It did just that. Timothy “autimatic” Ta played a huge part in closing the gap as much as T1 could before halftime. T1 tried to battle back after halftime with Sam “DaZeD” Marine making play after play. 100 Thieves refused to fall, though, keeping their Lower Round dreams alive 13:8.
Stay tuned to Run It Back for further coverage of the Valorant Champions Tour!
