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Valorant Challengers League Open Qualifiers started in North America on January 10. It is the region's first tournament of the Valorant Champions Tour 2023. It started with 256 teams fighting it out in a single elimination bracket, where 32 teams made it into the double elimination mode.
The teams finishing in the top four positions in the Open Qualifiers will get a spot in the main event, the Regular Season, of the League. They will join the six invited teams and two more teams qualifying from the Last Chance Qualifiers.
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Some teams have been performing as expected, but as with every tournament, there have been upsets and surprises. This article lists the five biggest upsets in the North American Valorant Challengers League Open Qualifiers.
Results in the NA Valorant Challengers League Qualifiers that have fans seething
1) riribunobsumi (RIRI) vs Version1 (V1) - Open Qualifier RO64
Both teams are constituted of some of the top players from the 2022 Valorant Champions Tour Game Changers season from teams like Cloud9, XSET Purple, Immortals, and so on, each having two players from the celebrated Cloud9 White team. As a result, expectations from both squads were high.
The match ended 2-1 in favor of V1, knocking RIRI out of the tournament. RIRI started strong, taking the first map Ascent 13-5 thanks to a stellar performance from James "Aiko" Sandberg on Killjoy. The second map, Icebox, went 13-5 to V1, where fluorescent Noia and sarahcat dominated the RIRI team, which Bob tried her best to carry on her back.
It all came down to Pearl, where the teams seemed pretty even to start, each winning six rounds during the first half. RIRI took the first five rounds of attack before conceding six rounds to V1. RIRI won the 24th round to bring the game to Overtime, where they lost the game and the match 13-15.
2) Version1 (V1) vs Rat Attack (RAT) - Lower Round 1
Version 1 soared through the single elimination bracket, but they faced their first loss as soon as they entered the double elimination bracket, getting knocked down to the lower bracket by NSIC. In the lower bracket, they faced a team called Rat Attack, who everyone thought they'd be able to roll over.
These expectations changed during the first map of Haven, where RAT took 13-8. V1 fund some stability back in Icebox, taking maps 13-8 on the back of florescent's Reyna and sarahcat's Sova.
It came down to Ascent, where the V1 squad did not seem to have a solid answer to RAT's Neon pick, who dominated the kill feed, opening up rounds with seven first bloods. Although they tried to push back, V1 fell short, losing the map 7-13, ending their Regular Season dreams for the moment.
3) YFP Gaming vs 99 Strength (99S) - Lower Round 1
YFP gaming also had a similar run as Version1 in the single elimination bracket losing only one map, but when it came to double elimination, they could only manage to win one. They lost 0-2 to Mochi Fanclub in the upper bracket and were knocked out by 99 Strength. With well-known Valorant pros like HUYNH and pho in the squad, the community had higher expectations from them.
In their game against 99S, YFP dominated their opponent's map pick, Haven winning it 13-3. HUYNH's Breach looked fantastic going 18-7-8.
Things were looking bright for them, but 99S switched things up in Breeze, with YFP only managing to get one attacking round against 99S' Viper, who ended the half with an ACS of 384. YFP brought the game back to some extent in their defense, but with a tiny buffer, they conceded the map 7-13.
Although Ascent was slightly more head-to-head, the 99s came out on top, winning the map 13-10 and knocking out YFP of the competition. HUYNH's Cypher seemed to be the weak link on the map regarding stats going -9 in K/D.
4) Soniqs (SQ) vs 99 Strength (99S)- Lower Round 2
Soniqs also met their demise at the hands of 99S. All three games in the match-up were pretty tight, with the first and third games going into Overtime.
SQ wiggled their way to victory in Haven, winning the map 14-12. Although 99S's tdawgg couldn't put up as significant a number as he did against YFP on Breeze, the rest of the team pulled together to win the map 13-11 taking the match to Ascent.
The game on Ascent lasted 30 rounds. After the 18th round, Soniqs gave up six match and series point opportunities to take the map to Overtime, where they lost the map 14-16, ending their lower bracket run.
5) Moon Raccoons (MR) vs Happy2bHere (HAP) - Lower Round 3
Moon Raccoons has been one of North America's foremost tier-2 teams in Valorant competitions. They have played at the top levels of Valorant Challengers Tournaments in almost all seasons. It is, therefore, a matter of surprise that they fell out to the Lower Bracket so early.
Their match against Happy2bHere was a hard fight but ended in them losing the series 1-2, pausing their Challengers League Regular Season dreams for now. MR lost their first game on Icebox 10-13 despite having a better overall team performance. They won Haven 13-9 on the back of Rebo, who went 25-11-13 on Astra to take them over the line.
The final map came to Overtime, but this time even Rebo's performance couldn't save them. They managed to bring a 4-8 deficit to Overtime but fell short in the final two rounds.
With three more days of competitive Valorant to be played in the tournament, fans are sure to experience a few more of these as underdog teams come to the forefront to take on tournament favorites.
Things are just starting to heat up in the Valorant Challengers League Qualifiers. It will be exciting to see which teams join the invited teams from this Qualifier and who qualifies for Ascension.
