Michael Shroud Grzesiek, one of the most popular gamers of all time, recently took part in the open qualifiers for VCT Challengers 2 Stage 3.
Shroud's Valorant team made it past the round of 128 and was eliminated by ez5 in the round of 64. His journey may have ended for this Open Qualifiers, but there is no telling if he would try again next time.
Regardless, Shroud mentioned several times earlier that it was not about winning or losing, he just wanted to play with his friends for fun.
Fans loved every bit of the action as they finally got to see Shroud compete with the best in North America.
What's Going On
Shroud teamed up with Skyler "Relyks" Weaver, Timmy "iiTzTimmy" An, ShawnBM, and Leonardo "Laski" Arroyo. Together they formed their team in a matter of weeks and named it What's Going On.
Needless to say, they put up a show for fans to enjoy. Relyks, who was previously with Cloud 9 is currently a free agent. He was undoubtedly the top performer from What's Going On.
Relyks played Sova, Phoenix, Skye and Reyna across four maps and did brilliant work for the team. Meanwhile, Timmy played Jett consistently in both matches and made sure his team got the entry they needed.
On the other hand, veteran ShawnBM was showing off some of his Radiant aiming skills along with Shroud. Shawn played Omen and Cypher in their first match and got a total of 40 kills in two maps.
Shroud played Sage and KAY/O in their first match against DILF and managed to put 23 kills on the scoreboard. Even though he suffered through packet loss and server lags, Shroud hit some of the finest one-taps in the Open Qualifiers.
Shroud and his team took part in the open qualifiers for fun, but it highlighted how the competition in North America is at a whole other level.
Round of 128
In the round of 128, What's Going On faced DILF (Damn I Love Fwogs). Shroud's team won the match 2-0 across Haven and Bind.
ShawnBM was undoubtedly the man of the match as he capped 40 kills in two games. Laski followed in his footsteps and got 32 kills himself, while Relyks put up 29 in the first match.
Even though Shroud got the least kills in the first round, What's Going On progressed to the next round quite easily.
Round of 64
This is where things started to get cumbersome for What's Going On. Their team came into this tournament without any practice or scrims which was visible on the field.
Shroud mentioned after the match that compared to other regions the open qualifiers are much more competitive in North America. He also highlighted how CS:GO was tough, but competitive Valorant is a whole different ball game.
Regardless, they went into the match with ez5 and ended up losing both maps. The final scoreline was 2-0 in ez5's favour, and it just shows how well coordinated a team can be even though they are not signed to any organization.
Relyks and Timmy led the line as Duelists. Shroud took the role of a controller on both maps, and ShawnBM provided support to the team as a Sentinel.
In the end, ez5 took the match along with the highest kills for Dcop with 35 frags across both maps.
Is North America the most competitive region in Valorant?
After the match, Shroud was casually chatting with his fans on Bnans stream and he revealed several details about North America's Valorant circuit.
Shroud mentioned that their team was just looking to have fun in the open qualifiers, but the other teams mean serious business.
He followed up by highlighting how the competition is cutthroat in the region, and teams cannot make it through to the Challengers without proper practice and strategies.
Despite their defeat, Shroud loved playing in the open qualifiers and is open to the idea of doing it again sometime.
Fans can only hope that it happens sooner than later as it's always a pleasure watching Shroud compete in competitive tournaments.
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