KRÜ Esports defeated Fnatic in order to make it into the semifinals of VALORANT Champions on Thursday. This will be the first semi-finals qualification for the Latin American team. On their way, they had to defeat the previous VALORANT Masters 3 winners and runner-ups in Sentinels and Fnatic.
KRÜ Esports are in the semifinals of VALORANT Champions
KRÜ Esports took the Masters 3 runner-ups to all three games in their semi-finals VALORANT Champions match. The first game was a nail-biter that went into overtime. Fnatic had the early lead in the first half, going into halftime 8-4. However, KRÜ Esports came back with a vengeance in the second half. They took one of the tournament favorites to overtime and eventually clinched it 15-13 in a history-making victory for the boys from Latin America. Angelo “keznit” Mori had a great map, ending with a scoreline of 16/19/9.
Fnatic then dominated KRÜ Esports in the second map Icebox, winning 13-6. Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev was once again popping off on his signature Jett, and ended with a scoreline of 23/15/12. The final game was played on Split, and this would be the end of the line for Fnatic. KRÜ Esports sealed their fate with a 13-8 map win. The LATAM squad have now made it to the semi-finals of the single-elimination bracket. With this loss, Fnatic were eliminated from the competition despite being one of the favorites coming into the playoff round.
In the post-game interview, caster Doug “EsportsDoug” Cortez asked keznit how much further he believes this team can this team go.
“He said he’s not quite done,” EsportsDoug translated. “He feels like it’s possible, it’s within reach, they’re prepared to become world champions.”
With the celebrations for KRÜ Esports comes a disappointing end for Fnatic in this tournament. Despite making it out of a tough group with Vision Strikes, Cloud9, and FULL SENSE, they were unable to replicate the same success in the playoff rounds. KRÜ Esports will now face Gambit Esports at 3 p.m. EST on Saturday.
