The European VALORANT Champions Tour Stage 2 Challengers 1 Grand Finalists will be FPX vs Guild Esports tomorrow, April 9. The two teams will battle to decide who get the larger share of the $41,350 prize pool. FPX went through Team Vitality and Opportunists in their journey to the finals. Guild had to battle Masters 1 champions Acend and the tactically sound Ninjas in Pajamas.
Both teams have also qualified to Challengers Finals for the chance to make it to Masters 2 in Iceland.
.@guildesports is your first EU team to qualify to the EMEA Challengers Playoffs. #VCT pic.twitter.com/rbUavzFAxA
— VALORANT Champions Tour EMEA (@valesports_eu) April 8, 2021
FPX Challengers 1 run
FPX came into this tournament as one of the favorites. The team is a regular top finisher in VCT and previous events. FPX went to the semi finals of Masters 1 and First Strike while not dropping a single match in Challengers events over Stage 1.
They easily made their way to the semi final stage in this event, only dropping one map in the seeding portion. To start the tournament, FPX went up against Team Vitality. The team swept the young core of Vitality 2-0, ending the series 13-1 on Haven.
DAMN! This is one of the fastest aces we've seen! pic.twitter.com/XZRGL9HU3j
— VALORANT Champions Tour EMEA (@valesports_eu) April 8, 2021
Their semi finals matchup today was a tad tougher to overcome. FPX went down early against Opportunists on Haven. The French squad went up 8-4 at the half and close out the map 13-9 against FPX. But Swedish Duelist Pontus “Zyppaan” Eek helped the team regain its confidence as he put up 25 kills on Split to win the map 13-7. They kept the momentum going into the third map and methodically knocked Opportunists out of the tournament with a 13-4 win on Bind.
“We were nervous on Haven, a bit at the start, but everything panned out good,” said FPX support Tobias “ShadoW” Flodström after the match.
Guild Esports’ path to the finals
Guild Esports came into the tournament as a wild card for most fans. The Swedish squad did make a deep run to the Masters 1 Semi Finals, but had mixed results before. But, the team made it through two tough opponents to make it the the Challengers 1 Grand Finals. First, the team took on Alliance to start the tournament.
They went through Alliance with relative ease as Yacine “Yacine” Laghmari on Raze decimated the opposition on Raze. On Split, he put up 23 kills and an Average Combat Score over 400. Guild then had to take on tournament favorites Ninjas in Pajamas. The NiP squad, led by Kévin “Ex6TenZ” Droolans, took Guild to three maps as the two squads took close maps against each other.
Amazing battle with my family today, I’m so happy for our patience and mental strength. We really did it this time. Thank you everyone for your support. We win 2-1 versus @NIPGaming. Qualified to the regional finals! #VCT pic.twitter.com/UmibLW5CPI
— Guild Sayf (@DSajoof) April 8, 2021
NiP struck first with a 13-6 win on Haven but Guild responded with a 13-5 win on Bind. The series culminated in a Split matchup that was a back-and-forth affaire until round 20. The score was 9-10 as Guild was trailing. But after a round 20 win, thanks to a William “draken” Sundin triple kill, they close out the map and series with a 13-10 win.
The Stage 2 Challengers 1 Grand Finals of FPX vs Guild Esports will be played tomorrow, April 8, as both teams fight for a top finish. After the matchup, the VCT will continue with Challengers 2 with open qualifiers on April 10.
