The Open Qualifiers for the Valorant Champions Tour NA Challengers League has ended, and 10 out of 12 teams for the main event have been finalized.
Of the 12 teams that will play in the main event, or Split 1 of the NA Challengers League, six have been invited by the tournament organizers, Knights Arena. Four teams have qualified through the Open Qualifiers from among the 256 Valorant teams that played in it. Two more will join through the Last Chance Qualifiers that will be played from January 18-23.
The teams that made it through the Open Qualifiers that finished earlier today are BreakThru, Disguised, Oxygen Esports, and Dark Ratio.
10 Valorant teams have been finalized for Split 1 of the VCT NA Challengers League 2023
The Open Qualifiers for the NA Challengers League started on January 10, 2023. 256 teams first fought it out in a single elimination bracket, and 32 teams were shortlisted to play it out in a double elimination bracket.
BreakThru, Disguised, Oxygen Esports, and Dark Ratio have made it out of the qualifiers stage to get one step further in their Valorant Champions Tour's Ascension Tournament journey.
BreakThru and Disguised had undefeated runs in the North American Valorant tournament and were the first teams to secure the main event spots. The former beat the star-studded team of The Nation in the Upper Semifinals 2-1 in a three-map series.
They lost the first map, Fracture, 1-13 but managed to keep their mental game together, bringing the rest of the series back, winning 13-9 on Haven and 13-10 on Ascent.
On the other hand, Disguised had a dominating 2-0 win over Oxygen Esports in their Upper Semifinals game. They won 13-4 on their opponent's map pick, Pearl, thanks to a superb show by Joseph "clear" Allen on Viper.
Ascent had a close scoreline, but Disguised had the game in control with Damion "XXiF" Cook going 18-11-6 on Killjoy.
Oxygen Esports got knocked down to the lower bracket by Disguised. They faced off against The Silk Road, a team that had an excellent run in the tournament. OXG beat TSR 14-12 on Ascent, the latter's map pick, with Andrew "Verno" Maust dropping 34 kills on Sova.
It was a pretty even map and could have gone either way if not for Verno's stellar performance. He continued to dominate in Breeze as well, where Oxygen beat The Silk Road 13-1 to finalize their main event spot.
In a Fnatic-like Lower Bracket run, Dark Ratio made it to the main event by beating one of the favorites in the qualifiers, The Nation. The Lower Round six match between them went on for all three maps.
The first map Icebox went DR's way in a 14-12 overtime victory. TN brought the series to 1-1, winning Bind 13-11 and taking it to the third map, Fracture. DR overcame a four-round deficit in the second half, taking the match 13-10. William "Will" Cheng and Anthony "ZexRow" Colandro outclassed everyone else on the team, dropping 69 and 71 kills, respectively.
The four teams will be joining TSM, FaZe, G2, The Guard, Shopify Rebellion, and M80 in the main event of the Valorant Champions Tour NA Challengers League 2023 that will take place from February 2 to March 15, 2023.