New year, new mode – that applies to the Challengers tournament in Valorant. The event of the EMEA region, in which the European teams play, acts as the region’s new top league.
In their first game, Fnatic esports players celebrated a prestige success and defeated G2 Esports with a 2-1 victory (13:8; 11:13; 13:8). “It was a good match,” said Fnatic player James “Mistic” Orfila after the success of the tournament’s live stream. “You played well.”
Instead of the previous double-elimination format, the participating teams must first prove themselves in a group phase. Only after five match days does a playoff round follow in the well-known mode.
The five best teams in both groups qualify for this, with the group winners automatically being seeded for the second playoff round. At the VCT Promotion, the bottom of the table compete against the winners of the new regional championships, including “DACH: Evolution” for the German-speaking region, to stay up in the league.
The Valorant players from Gambit Esports have also taken a first step towards the playoffs. In what was supposed to be the top game of the first match day of the Challengers league, the vice world champion from Russia secured a 2-0 win (13:9; 13:8) against Team Liquid at the start of Group A.