On the final week of the 2022 VCT NA Challengers Stage 1 group stage, Cloud9 (C9) Blue have yet again shown why they are arguably the best VALORANT team in the region right now. C9 has put up an undefeated record, 5-0, throughout the group stage, capping off their performance with an emphatic 2-1 series victory over The Guard, the other top team in their group. Both teams now qualify for the VCT Challengers playoffs stage, and fans will be excited to see how C9 fares in the brackets.
Cloud9 continue strong performance in VCT
Last year, Cloud9 had a rollercoaster of a season as a top team with star player Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, but his departure to fellow NA squad Sentinels (SEN) left the men in blue in a bit of a pickle. Still, C9 managed to pull off a lower bracket run through the Last Chance Qualifiers to book their spot at the international VALORANT Champions event. The NA teams were quite unfortunately outclassed by their EMEA counterparts, with top guns SEN and Envy crashing out during the group stage.
C9 was NA's last hope in that tournament, and they seem to have carried that momentum with them to this year's VCT Challengers stage. They received a direct invite to the main event and came out guns blazing. Cloud9 took care of business the past five weeks, starting off with a 2-0 victory over 100 Thieves. Though they dropped maps to XSET and Evil Geniuses, the squad still pulled through with the series win.
The Guard also handled their competition with ease, similarly going 4-0 in their first four matchups. That perfectly led to an exciting final week matchup between Cloud9 and The Guard, as both teams were still unbeaten in VCT Challengers. In terms of round difference, The Guard had the advantage (+42 vs +39 coming into the match), but C9 had the opportunity to snatch the top spot in the group.
Cloud9 and The Guard go head-to-head for undefeated groups record
And so they did: even though The Guard struck first on Bind, winning the map 13-7, Cloud9 bounced back with a vengeance, smashing their opponents 13-4 and then 13-2 on Ascent and Haven. Across the series, C9 Duelist Nathan “leaf” Orf racked up an ACS of 328 — even putting up a 30-kill 504-ACS performance on Jett on the last map. Mitch “mitch” Semago also showed yet again why he's a great anchor on the team with his Killjoy setups in both C9 map wins.
Taking the series win and the group, Cloud9 have more than secured their playoffs spot, preserving their spotless record. Granted, they have yet to face Sentinels, OpTic (formerly Envy), and Group B's top team Version1. They'll be able to test their metal when the next stage of the VCT Challengers tourney kicks off on March 17, 2022. C9 are likely to face OpTic, Knights, or Rise — if Rise beat NRG and manage a higher round difference than the loser of the OpTic-Knights matchup.
Meanwhile, despite ending on a loss, The Guard will be happy with their groups performance as they have qualified for VCT Challengers playoffs. Their second seed finish also means that they would avoid facing top team Version1. Even if Sentinels win their matchup against V1, TenZ and co won't be able to make up for the huge gap in round difference (+41 vs +5, as of writing).
To check out the rest of the results in VCT Challengers Stage 1, visit our match results and standings tracker here.