Although the event is still ongoing, the breakout team from VALORANT Champions 2021 was X10 CRIT. The team from Thailand were the biggest surprise in terms of where they were rated going into the event. In spite of X10 CRIT’s incredible performance, making it to the quarterfinals, their future is already in question with players considering leaving the team.
Patiphan “Patiphan” Chaiwong is expected to make a return to the Overwatch League in 2022, leaving X10 CRIT without their star player.
“That wrapped this year and also my last official match ggs 1-2 @GambitEsports,” Patiphan tweeted after their quarterfinal match with Gambit. “Good luck further and [wave emoji].”
That wrapped this year and also my last official match ggs 1-2 @GambitEsports 💆🏻♀️ good luck further and 👋
— Patiphan (@itsPatiphan) December 9, 2021
In the press conference after their loss to Gambit Esports and subsequent elimination, Thanamethk “Crws” Mahatthananuyut addressed what was next for the team. He said that he was contemplating retirement.
“To be honest, I’m not so sure,” Crws said about the team’s plans for the future. “We don’t know what we’re going to do in the next few months. We were just here to play our hearts out. We’ll think about everything else later.”
During the group stages of Champions, X10 were immediately knocked down to the lower bracket of Group A after a 2-0 loss to Envy. Two upset wins over Vivo Keyd and Envy, the latter a rematch of their earlier bout, saw the Thai team advancing to the playoffs with the second seed.
Their match against Gambit was a back and forth affair. Fracture went 13-7 for Gambit and Ascent went 13-7 for X10 CRIT. The final map was Breeze, which ended in yet another 13-7, this time for Gambit. Although the result went in the favor of the team from the Commonwealth of Independent States, X10 CRIT gave the Masters 3 Berlin winners a close match.
“When I’m standing here right now, it feels like we could have done better,” Crws said. “We could’ve gone for semis or finals even.”
Crws feels that the scales were tipped in Gambit’s favor because of the amount they scrimmaged against the CIS team. He said that X10 revealed many of their Fracture strategies, which led to Gambit counter-stratting them in Map 1.
“That’s the only reason we lost today,” Crws said. “Because we scrimmed them too much and they know too much about us compared to every other team we played.”
Despite falling short, X10 CRIT — alongside Team Secret — proved that Southeast Asia as a region can be competitive with major regions like North America and Europe, Middle East and Africa.
“I hope that us making it to the quarterfinals will make the [SEA] scene bigger,” Crws said. “I just hope that we are a path for them to follow. That we can do it, and they can do it as well.”
