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North America's Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) Last Chance Qualifiers (LCQ) has witnessed some tumultuous days. After multiple delays, the competition eventually shifted to online play instead of LAN. When the Grand Finals finally arrived, Cloud9 (C9) Blue capped of their lower bracket LCQ run with a 3-0 demolition of Rise. They have now punched a ticket to the first-ever VCT Champions in Berlin.
The LCQ serves as the regional qualifier to determine the last NA team at Champions, with top two seeds Sentinels and Team Envy already qualifying from VCT points earned through Masters events. For the third and final spot, eight teams competed in a double elimination bracket.
Cloud9 Blue started off their LCQ run well, with a comfortable 2-0 win over Version. In the next round, however, they fell to Rise in a close series, 1-2, to drop into the lower bracket. But there's just something about C9 and lower bracket runs, coming in clutch on the brink of elimination.
C9's Valorant roster avenged their League of Legends counterparts, who had surrendered to Korea's Gen.G at the 2021 Worlds quarterfinals, by eliminating Gen.G's Valorant squad in the lower brackets, 2-1. The team went on to face XSET, crushing them 2-0, then handily took down 100 Thieves in the LB finals.
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The rampage didn't stop there. Cloud9 Blue now made it to the LCQ Grand Finals, and a rematch with Rise was on the table. The squad exacted revenge, smashing Rise in 3-0 fashion.
In the first map, Breeze, C9 took care of business with a 13-8 scoreline, with Erick “Xeppaa” Bach claiming 22 frags on Raze. The second map on Split showcased utter domination, with C9 never dropping a single round on the way to a 13-0 victory and going up 2-0 in the series. Xeppaa again emerged as the top fragger with 21 kills, complemented by well-placed Skye flashes and Astra Gravity wells from Nathan “leaf” Orf and and IGL Antony “vanity” Malaspina, respectively.
In the final map, Split, Son “xeta” Seon-ho had a great showing on Sova, landing key headshots. Meanwhile, leaf again played well on Skye, even grabbing a 4k. But the game turned out to be more back-and-forth, with the sides going 6-6 in the first half. As Rise switched to the attackers side, they got ahead a bit 9-7, before C9 put together a string of rounds to go 11-9. Their opponents did not go down without a fight, though, tying it up at 11-11.
Cloud9 Blue managed to hold off Rise, winning the map 13-11 to take the LCQ series. After a long season of ups and downs and roster changes—even losing star TenZ to Sentinels—Cloud9 Blue secured a well-earned Champions berth and have a chance to make a name for themselves on the global stage.
