Total Shorty Kills
VCT NA Challengers 3 Qualifier: Quarterfinals Day 2 Results
Brandon "Mothman" Moore
03/01/2021
Day 1 of the VCT NA Challengers 3 Qualifier completed with some expected victories. Day 2 was anything but what Valorant fans expected. Two teams took their place in the Challengers 3 Main Event and two more teams needed to join them. The Main Event bracket puzzle was finally pieced together. T1 versus Cloud9 Blue and beastcoast versus DaHoonkaBhanKoloos did not disappoint one bit.
Read ahead as Run It Back provides results for the second day of the Quarterfinals.
VCT NA Challengers 3 Qualifier: Quarterfinals Day 2
T1 2:0 Cloud9 Blue
Icebox
Icebox went exactly how Icebox usually goes. T1 started as the attacking team. A solid first round went in their favor, but C9B retaliated with two great defenses. The rounds then went a bit back and forth. Even with Nathan “leaf” Orf and Mitch “mitch” Semago dominating, T1 kept scratching and clawing. Every time C9B would successfully defend, T1 had an answer. Despite the showing from Cloud9, T1 ended their attacking half with the same amount of rounds.
Icebox is typically attacker-sided. C9B was expected to take the ball and run with in the second half. T1 proved those expectations to be just a bit lofty. The likes of Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham and Ha “Spyder” Jung-woo stepped up big. Spyder ended the map with 28 kills, gaining quite a few of them on the defensive side of the Spike. Anytime that C9B would take a round, T1 would respond much like in the first half. This time, though, they’d take two for themselves. That pattern was enough to get to the finish line, winning Icebox 13:10.
Ascent
Ascent was just as close as Icebox. T1 came to play, though. On defense, they shut down C9B for three straight rounds. Finally, Cloud9 Blue were able to pull it together. That was shoved lived, however. T1 took two more rounds, proving they had a concrete defensive strategy for the floating villa in the sky. C9B did not want them to pull too far ahead, however. Once again, leaf did all he could to help his team with some backup from Skyler “Relyks” Weaver. That closed the gap as well as it could, leaving the first half behind with a score of 7:5 in T1’s favor.
C9B started their defensive side with two rounds to tie things up. Rahul “curry” Nemani and, of course, Spyder turned things up a notch after those two rounds. T1 grabbed an impressive eighth round to take the lead before C9 answered with two further rounds. All signs pointed to a third map with C9B taking Ascent. T1 had other ideas. They pushed back for three rounds before C9B could find another. One more round was the be all end all for T1, advancing them to the VCT NA Challengers 3 Main Event. The score was a familiar 13:10.
DaHoonkaBhanKoloos 2:1 beastcoast
Ascent
There are not many people who expected these teams to be fighting for a VCT NA Challengers 3 Main Event spot. Regardless of that, this match up delivered. DHBK started on attack and immediately showed everyone that they are for real. Only a few rounds went by before we saw an Ace by “d1msumboi.” Beastcoast clearly wasn’t happy about that, responding with four straight rounds. One of those rounds included a massive 4K Odin spree from Tanner “TiGG” Spanu. DHBK put a stop to the bleeding with four rounds of their own, leading at halftime 7:5.
DHBK picked up right where they left off in the second half. The first two rounds saw them completely shut down beastcoast’s offense. It didn’t stop there. DaHoonkaBhanKoloos were on a mission to take Ascent by force. Nick “Harmon” Harmon went wild with the Odin and Kyle “ScrewFace” Jensen kept flexing on BC with the Bucky. Yannick “KOLER” Blanchette was on point with the Sheriff, but that was not enough to bring BC back into it. DHBK delivered an impressive 12:5 victory over beastcoast.
Icebox
The momentum from Ascent flowed right into Icebox for DaHoonkaBhanKoloos. Three intense rounds went their way, capped by a 3K from Harmon and a .49 defuse. The first round for beastcoast came on the back of a Brandon Michael “bdog” Sanders 3K. Screwface and Jamal “jammyz” Bangash both pulled out the Operator for their respective teams. The follow up on the former’s kills were executed much better, which saw DHBK continue to dominate. DHBK started to stumble, however. More and more rounds went to beastcoast. jammyz became a crazed killer, pushing the round count to a tie before halftime with 17 kills.
The second half started out with a DHBK pistol round victory. BC should have taken the next round, winning some awkward engagements, but Harmon dropped three and secured it for DHBK. Harmon continued showing off with the Bulldog, but beastcoast managed to squeeze out a round to keep their deficit from expanding. A quick 3K by jammyz allowed BC to tie the score. Screwface kept up the pressure for DHBK, refusing to let BC take the lead. Adam “Ange” Milian was a bit quiet during the series, but hogged the feed in Icebox’s second half. A 4K took things to series point.
In regulation, jammyz put up 27 kills, forcing his team to rally behind him. Somehow, some way, beastcoast managed to take Icebox to overtime. The first round of OT saw DHBK defend. A quick push by BC was stopped initially. As the round slowed down, BC managed to take the site, plant the Spike, and go up by one. In a miraculous turn of events, DHBK ran out of time with one player left. Unable to plant the Spike, the round ended along with the map. BC won 14:12.
Bind
Bind started with more DHBK domination. Andy “Andersin” Collins was the only member remaining against three from BC. He got the Spike down, rotated through B Elbow, and managed to win the 3v1 post-plant. A third map could have been seen as unlikely or inevitable. This contest was always going to be a toss up. Andersin kept the pace with six kills and zero deaths in two rounds. Beastcoast managed to make up some ground with each team member playing their part. DHBK kept their lead, though, ending the half 7:5.
bdog took down three DHBK players to start the second half, but it wasn’t enough to take the pistol round. bdog came up big again, finally gaining a round for beastcoast on their attacking side. Ange refused to let BC ride that momentum, shutting them down with a 3K and a close Spike defusal. Screwface got a 4K and was greedy for the Ace, but flew right into a Boom Bot that took him out. The team got the last kill for him, making it 11:6. DHBK made it to match point. That saw Screwface bust out another 4K and DHBK handled business. Bind ended 13:6, sending DaHoonkaBhanKoloos to the VCT NA Challengers 3 Main Event.
Stay tuned to Run It Back for coverage of the VCT NA Challengers 3 Main Event once it begins!
