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Declan McLaughlin
by Declan McLaughlin
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The first day of the VALORANT Challengers Finals has concluded, as Andbox and XSET miss out while the Sentinels progress. Both losing teams earn 20 circuit points towards Champions in December, but lose out on a chance at the first international LAN in the VALORANT Champions Tour. Neither team will make the trip to Iceland, as Sentinels and the other winners of the day move on. The rest of the Challengers Finals field will continue in the tournament on April 30, with the event concluding on May 2 as the two Masters 2 qualified teams battle for a top seed.

Andbox and Blank lose out at Challengers Finals

Andbox fell 2-0 in Challengers Finals to 100 Thieves, after a promising run at Challengers 2. The squad was the last team to make the cut, qualifying through the loser’s bracket in the fourth slot. The series was relatively close, as 100 Thieves took Ascent 13-9 and Icebox 13-10. Andbox played two back-and-forth games, especially on Icebox, but couldn’t close out the final rounds. Spencer “Hiko” Martin also had a fantastic game on Icebox, which stopped any momentum Andbox had from the close first game.

In the loser’s bracket against Version1, Andbox put up a closer fight, going down in three games. Andbox secured Ascent 13-10 in game two, their sole map win of the tournament. XSET had a similar fate, swept in the first match with a tight series in the lower bracket. One of the top teams in the region, XSET were upset by NRG in the first round 15-13 on Ascent and 13-6 on Bind. NRG made a come back in the final rounds of Ascent to force overtime though, and kept that momentum into Bind.

In the loser’s bracket, XSET faced off against fellow top team Envy. Cloud9 Blue upset Envy in their first match, forcing a rematch of the Challengers 1 losers finals in the first day of games. XSET played three close games against Envy, all ending in 22 rounds. Envy took the first and final map as XSET earned their sole win on Bind.

The Challengers 1 finalists almost made a comeback in the final rounds of the last map, but Envy stopped their round streak at four to earn the match point. Fans can see Andbox and XSET compete after Masters 2 in the third stage of the VCT, starting after May 30.

Sentinels continue in winner’s bracket

After winning Challengers 2 to qualify for the tournament, Sentinels continued their top form in the first match. They looked slow out of the gate as they lost the first map, Ascent, 4-13 to Version1. Anthony “vanity” Malaspina led the server in kills with 20 and also clocked the least deaths at seven. The Version1 in-game leader called the game while on Astra, smoking out areas for his team while fragging.

On the next map, Haven, Sentinels turned it on as they took the game in 19 rounds. Hunter “SicK” Mims and Michael “dapr” Gulino topped the server with 23 and 19 kills respectively. SicK led the team with his entry play as dapr held down sites as Cypher. The Sentinel player also had a one vs. three clutch to complete the moment swing in Sentinels favor.

They closed out the series soon after on Split 13-3. Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan brought the team over the finish line with 22 kills on Jett, his only map piloting the duelist. The Masters 1 champions move on to face 100 Thieves in the next stage, on April 30. The tournament will conclude on May 2 with two representatives chosen to compete at Masters 2.

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