Team Liquid and Fnatic have won their Challengers Playoffs semifinal matchups and now qualify for Masters 2 in Iceland on May 1. The two teams will compete for seeding on May 2 and start international competition on May 24. Team Liquid took down Oxygen Esports 2-0 while Fnatic did the same to Gambit Esports. The two European squads will represent the EMEA region after defeating the best of Europe, Turkey and the CIS regions.
LETS FUCKING GOOOOOO! WE QUALIFIED FOR ICELAND!!!! NO WORDS MAN! THAT COMEBACK! THE BOYS ARE SICKKKKK! HOW HAVE WE DONE THIS. WORDS?!??!?! I CAN'T SPEAK!
ALSO I HAD THIS MEME PREPARED JUST IN CASE US AND @LiquidValorant MADE IT LOL.#GETYOURBOASTEES#ALWAYSFNATIC pic.twitter.com/M2Vmvotqqq
— FNATIC Boaster (@OfficialBoaster) May 1, 2021
Team Liquid and Fnatic qualified for Challengers Playoffs through the VALORANT Champions Tour’s Stage 2 Challengers 2 tournament. They beat out top squads like Ninjas in Pyjamas and G2 Esports for the chance at Masters 2 qualification. The finals matchup will be the third time that the two teams will go head to head. Their current record against one another is 1-1.
Fanatic and Team Liquid take down Turkey and CIS regions
Fnatic made it through Challengers Playoffs by starting in the group stage. They battled through to qualify out of the winners bracket, defeating Oxygen Esports and Guild Esports in the process. In the playoff stage, Fnatic went up against the top CIS team, Gambit. The best-of-three series started on Icebox as both teams went with standard compositions — except for a Cypher pick from Gambit. Ayaz “nAts” Akhmetshin played Cypher well, doubling his closest teammate in kills. However, it was not enough as Fnatic steamrolled Gambit 13-6. Fnatic took the first half 9-3 and closed out the map shortly after.
The second game was closer on Bind. Fnatic pulled out the win 13-11, thanks to Domagoj “doma” Fancev’s return to Raze, who was on Sage in the previous map. He topped the server with 25 kills with the help of Nikita “Derke ” Sirmitev on Sova, who also put up decent stats with a 39% headshot rate.
Did someone say Headshot Machine? @ScreaM_ pic.twitter.com/MpgMmgFYhE
— VALORANT Champions Tour EMEA (@valesports_emea) May 1, 2021
Team Liquid had an easier path to Masters 2 qualification with two dominant wins over Oxygen. The Turkish side only managed three total round wins over two maps as Team Liquid took Haven 13-0 and Ascent 13-3. Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom was the obvious standout in both games. He had over 400 for an Average Combat Score on the first map on Sage and he put together a respectable 14/8 K/D on Ascent.
Fnatic and Team Liquid will continue their Stage 2 journeys on May 24 in Iceland. Oxygen and Gambit will return to regional competition with 45 circuit points towards Champions in the winter.
