eSport legends including Tyson “Tenz” Ngo and Spencer “Hiko” Martin faced off in one of the first Valorant professional tournaments in December. Valorant is the new first person tactical shooter released by Riot Games. With Riot Games’ exceptional success in the competitive scene for their smash hit game, League of Legends, it isn’t a surprise that their new game would have a promising future in professional competition.
Regional qualifiers to compete in this tournament, called First Strike, began in mid-October. Players compete in this tournament in teams of five, often with a few alternates. Riot announced that any player over the age of 16 and above the rank of Immortal 1 is eligible to compete, but there are players that everyone expected to see play. Among these players are Victor “food” Wong, Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk, Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik, along with the aforementioned Spencer “Hiko” Martin and Tyson “Tenz” Ngo. Although most of these players first came to the professional scene through the popular Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, a super popular first person shooter developed by Valve and Hidden Path, they continue to dominate in Valorant.
Only 16 out of the many teams that entered for a chance to play were entered into the closed Qualifiers. They were split into four groups with four teams each. Only two teams from each group would advance into the Quarterfinals. Group A consisted of Cloud9 Blue, 100 Thieves, Luminosity Gaming, and XSet. Group B had Gen.G, Complexity, T1, and Equinox eSports. Group C had Team Envy, Sentinels, Spot Up, and Dignitas. The final group, Group D, had TSM, The Slimy Boogermen, Renegades, and Built By Gamers.
The skillful eight that advanced to the quarterfinals who won in a best of three match were Cloud9 Blue, Renegades, Complexity, Envy, T1, Sentinels, TSM, and 100 Thieves. In a shocking turn of events, Cloud9 Blue, for which the elite Tenz plays for, lost to Renegades in the first match of the quarterfinals. Envy conquered Complexity, Sentinels won against T1, and 100 Thieves prevailed against TSM.
The four teams that triumphed qualified for First Strike, which began in December.
However, the semi finals were just as surprising as the quarterfinals. These matches, similar to the quarterfinals, were best of three. 100 Thieves beat Sentinels in a close game, which they won 2-1. Envy won against Renegades in another close 2-1 match. 100 Thieves has both Asuna and Hiko, so they were a big threat to begin with, however the Sentinels were widely regarded to be the best North American team. The two teams that lost will have a chance for redemption in First Strike, which will likely be just as intense as the qualifiers.
The two teams facing off in the finals were 100 Thieves and Envy. Unlike the previous matches, the finals were best out of five. The first match was played on Bind, in which Envy won 13-2. The second was played on Split, a very defense oriented map; Envy won again in a much closer 13-9 game. The next map was Ascent, and Envy prevailed once again in a 13-5 victory. Envy won the finals, 3-0.
Some have surmised that 100 Thieves weren’t playing to the best of their abilities, to save some of their strategies and plays for the actual tournament, which has a $100,000 prize pool. Despite their loss, they’ll have the chance to earn redemption next month in the actual tournament, alongside the other teams that had lost.