After a long and arduous journey, Cloud9 Blue emerged victorious from the grand finale of VCT NA Last Chance Qualifier to secure their spot in VALORANT Champions. 16 teams from all around the globe will compete in the annual Riot-sponsored event, to be crowned the global Champions of VALORANT.
Cloud9 Blue had a rocky start to the tournament but rewrote their destiny after fighting it in the lower brackets. To win is brilliant, but to do that by defeating a team that bested you earlier is a classic feat of heroism! Their 3-0 victory in the grand finale of the North American LCQ will go down in VALORANT Esports history.
Rise failed to live up to their name, even though they knocked down giants like FaZe Clan, 100 Thieves and Cloud9 Blue to the lower brackets. Their journey in the NA LCQ was brilliant until the grand finale, where Cloud9 Blue completed dominated Rise throughout the three matches.
Before we jump into the results, make sure to check out all the teams that have qualified for VALORANT Champions. The new Agent Chamber will arrive on 16th November, and he is about to change the competitive meta in Episode 3 Act 3.
VALORANT: Cloud9 Blue Wins 3-0 Over Rise
Rise won the upper finals and had the advantage to veto a map, and they banned Icebox. Cloud9 started with the map pick and chose Breeze, they selected the same map against Rise in the upper semi-finals. Cloud9 lost Breeze 13-9 in the upper-semis and were looking to make the score even in the grand finale.
Map 1 - Breeze
C9 -
- KAY/O (Xeppaa)
- Sova (xeta),
- Cypher (Mitch)
- Viper (vanity)
- Jett (leaf)
Rise -
- Skye (neptune)
- Sova (Derrek)
- Viper (supamen)
- Jett (Shanks)
- Killjoy (Poised)
Cloud9 came out map swinging, winning the first five rounds with relative ease. This forced a technical timeout from Rise timeout as their economy started to crumble. Rise won five out of the next six rounds to bring the scoreline to a defendable position. One of the iconic moments included a 1v2 clutch by Phat "supamen" Le that helped Rise secure the round. The first half ended with a 7-5 scoreline in favour of Cloud9 Blue.
Cloud9 did not waste any time and started aggressively on the pistol round. They won the first two rounds, and this pushed Rise to come up with a response. Rise was able to the next few rounds, but Nathan leaf" Orf had different plans. He gave Cloud9 a 10-7 lead and kept dominating the match from that point. He finished the first map with a total of 23 kills, which helped Cloud9 Blue secure the first map with a scoreline of 13-8.
Map 2 - Split
C9 -
- Raze (Xeppaa)
- Breach (xeta),
- Killjoy (Mitch)
- Astra (vanity)
- Skye (leaf)
Rise -
- Skye (neptune)
- Cypher (Derrek)
- Viper (supamen)
- Jett (Shanks)
- Asta (Poised)
Next up was Split, and Cloud9 was ready to get things in motion. This was Rise' map pick, although they avoided the map throughout the LCQ. Cloud9 decided to experiment with things and had Son "xeta" Seon-ho playing Breach, a selection that caught Rise off-guard and gave them a 13-0 clean sweep against the unprepared opponents.
The idea of having a Breach and Skye in the team allowed Cloud9 to flash for information, and during site entrances. It completely changed the complexion of the match as opposed to a Sova-Skye combination. In the post-match interview, Ryan "Shanks" Ngo said, "I think what caught us off-guard was the Split game when they had a completely new setup. We haven't seen Breach on Split in like a year.” Cloud9 wrapped up the second map 13-0 in the best-of-five grand finale.
Map 3 - Bind
C9 -
- Raze (Xeppaa)
- Sova (xeta),
- Mitch (Mitch)
- Astra (vanity)
- Skye (leaf)
Rise -
- Raze (neptune)
- Sova (Derrek)
- Viper (supamen)
- Jett (Shanks)
- Asta (Poised)
Despite the pitiless failure on Split, Rise started the third map with a good pistol round win. However, Cloud9 Blue forced a buy in the second round and won two rounds consecutively with better weapons.
Rise retaliated in the fifth round, and the match went back-and-forth until the first half ended with a 6-6 scoreline. Rise started the second half by winning the first two rounds, but Cloud9 Blue was not ready to let this match slip. They controlled the tempo of the match from round 15 and went out to close the map 13-11 in their favour.
Cloud9 will now represent North America alongside Sentinels and Envy in VALORANT Champions 2021!
Read More - VALORANT: How To Hide Account Level?
Explore new topics and discover content that's right for you!