by in
The first two promotion series of VALORANT Champions 2024 took place in Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday, with Team Heretics defeating Gen.G and DRX upsetting Fnatic in the Group A and B winner’s matches.
In a rematch from VALORANT Champions Tour Masters Shanghai, Team Heretics got their revenge over their Korean opponent, as they claimed a tough 2-1 (11-13, 13-11, 13-10) series win to open the second week of competition.
Los Niños win the Masters Shanghai Finals rematch and move on to the Playoffs Stage! #VALORANTChampions #VamosHeretics pic.twitter.com/MmfaK1cjkS
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) August 6, 2024
Abyss was Team Heretics’s pick and a new addition to the VALORANT map pool.
Gen.G, who typically bans Abyss, showed resilience with a Breeze-like composition.
The match saw a closely contested first half, with Gen.G leading 7-5.
Off the back of a strong performance from Kim “Meteor” Tae-o (28 kills on Yoru), Gen.G narrowly secured the map after effective timeout strategies by their coaches.
Lotus, Gen.G’s pick, seemed to favour them initially, leading 10-5.
However, Team Heretics made a remarkable comeback, winning eight of the last nine rounds to claim the map.
Gen.G’s inability to convert 5v4 situations, despite having 15 first bloods, was critical.
Benjy “Benjyfishy” David Fish highlighted their aggressive post-plant strategies as a key factor in their turnaround.
The decider map, Bind, saw Heretics employing a flash-heavy composition, aiding their attacking and defensive strategies.
They led 8-4 at half-time, with effective use of flashes and coordinated attacks.
Despite a late surge from Gen.G, Team Heretics closed out the map at 13-10 and took the series from the hometown favourite.
Kim “t3xture” Na-ra’s underperformance, with zero operator kills, was notable, and external factors like smoke machines were cited by Gen.G as distractions.
Meteor led Gen.G with 76 kills across the series, while Dominykas “MiniBoo” Lukaševičius from Team Heretics highlighted the mental strain of the match, calling it the hardest of his career.
DRX gets the clean series win to advance to the Playoffs Stage! #VALORANTChampions #DRXWIN pic.twitter.com/wNPY4c7OD7
VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) August 6, 2024
DRX secured a playoff spot with a clean 2-0 (13-11, 13-6) victory over Fnatic.
On Abyss, DRX turned a small lead into a 7-5 halftime advantage, eventually winning their map pick by the same margin, thanks to key plays from Yu “BuZz” Byung-chul and defensive strength.
Lotus saw DRX take a slender lead into halftime before running away with the map by winning six of the seven rounds in the second half and claiming the series.
Despite Emir “Alfajer” Ali Beder’s (1.40 rating) standout performance for Fnatic, DRX’s consistency and home-soil advantage proved decisive.
DRX’s victory marked a significant step towards their goal, showcasing their ability to perform under pressure and signalling their potential to go far in the tournament.
Wednesday’s VALORANT Champions matches
- Leviatan (-909.09) vs Trace Esports (+500) @ 5pm KST
- EDward Gaming (+175) vs G2 Esports (-250) @ 8pm KST
