Guild qualify to a Valorant Masters event

The Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) scene of Valorant esports has often been one of the highest levels of competition, and has consistently shown up big at international events. Gambit Esports were the winners of Valorant Champions Tour 2021: Stage 3 Masters - Berlin while Acend lifted the Valorant Champions trophy in Berlin in an all-European final with Gambit.

A blip on the radar occurred for EMEA at the 2022 Valorant Champions Tour: Stage 1 Masters - Reykjavik, with no team making the top four. The region couldn't send FunPlus Phoenix, their best representative and Valorant Champions Tour: EMEA Stage 1 Champions, due to visa issues, but it was still an underwhelming showing as the event saw the rise of the Japanese and the Brazilians, both of whom have large Valorant esports fanbases.

The region is undeniably the most consistent in international Valorant tournaments and has produced world-class talent such as Acend's Mehmet Yağız "cNed" İpek, Gambit's Timofey "Chronicle" Khromov and Ayaz "nAts" Akhmetshin, Fnatic's Nikita "Derke" Sirmitev, and many more.

There has, however, been one constant in the EMEA Valorant scene - the British organization Guild Esports and not being able to make an international Valorant tournament.

Since its inception, Guild has been a consistent team at the top of the region but they could never quite make the final push to glory and consistently fell short in crucial matches. The closest they got to making an international Valorant tournament was during the 2021 EMEA Last Chance Qualifier, where they lost in the finals to Team Liquid and thus couldn't book a spot at the 2021 Valorant Champions.

Changes were imminent for the roster as they released Yacine "Yacine" Laghmari, Malkolm "bonkar" Rench and William "draken" Fant Sundin.

The team bid farewell to their all Swedish team and went international for 2022 (Image via Fragster)

The team went the international route heading into the 2022 Valorant season and added former G2 in-game leader Jose "koldamenta" Luis Aranguren Herrero, Russel "Russ" Mendes and Nikita "trexx" Cherednichenko, while retaining their Swedish core of Leo "Leo" Jannesson and Saif "Sayf" Jibraeel.

The team was expected to be a big upgrade over the 2021 version. They showed signs of their true potential during Valorant Champions Tour Stage 1 Challengers of the 2022 EMEA season, but once again fell short in the playoffs. However, the team showed up big in the next Stage and finished first in their group. All they needed was a single series win and Guild would finally break their curse.

Guild managed to make it to an international event for the first time in the organization's history (Image via Guild Esports on Twitter)

On June 18, the curse was officially lifted as Guild defeated M3C Champions in a commanding 2-0 victory (Gambit Esports was competing under a neutral tag due to the Russia-Ukraine war) and booked their tickets to Copenhagen. The way in which they won the series was particularly impressive as there were many who doubted Guild heading into the match since M3C had dispatched the red-hot Acend just a day earlier.

This will instill confidence in the international roster to do serious damage in Copenhagen, and perhaps even have a chance at being title contenders. So here are five reasons why you need to your keep your eyes on Guild Esports during Valorant Masters 2 - Copenhagen.

1. Leo is one of the best Valorant players in the world right now

The main reason why any team has to respect Guild during the event is due to the very presence of Leo. Arguably the best Sova player in EMEA and consistently in contention for the best Sova in the world, Leo has been an absolute terror in the EMEA scene for a while now. He has been widely praised as one of the most consistent and best players the EMEA Valorant scene has to offer.

Leo is one of the best young talents in the Valorant esports scene currently (Image via Guild Esports on Youtube)

Leo put up ridiculous numbers during Stage 2 and was the highest rated initiator player. He was also the third-highest rated player in the entire event with a 1.34 rating in the group stages. To no one's surprise, Sova was his most picked agent, followed by Breach and KAY/O, with a singular game of Reyna on Icebox vs Natus Vincere. Leo also had the third highest KAST%, coming in at 78%. Leo also added Fade to his agent pool during their games vs Fnatic and FunPlus Phoenix.

KAST signifies whether a player got a kill, assist, survived the round, or was traded by a teammate. Leo is the undisputed star player on the Guild roster and viewers across the world should be hyped up to see his Sova gameplay in particular at Copenhagen.

The only worry regarding Leo is the fact that he has never played at a LAN tournament. We have seen time and time again how teams and players are affected by the big stage and having to adjust to various circumstances such as white noise and lighting.

These factors often take time for brand new players on the stage to adapt to. A good example is The Guard at this year's Reykjavik Masters. They were a dominant force during the NA Challengers, which were held online, but crumbled on the big stage and failed to show up during the event. Only time will tell if Leo can show up just as well on stage as he does online, or whether the stage pressure affect his phenomenal gameplay.

2. Their lethal eco rounds can shift the momentum of a game

No round is a given for the team facing against Guild Esports. They have proven this by being a fearsome and scrappy team when they are in eco rounds.

Eco rounds in Valorant refers to a state where a team doesn't have the economy to buy hard-hitting rifles and deadly snipers. Instead, it opts to save its existing money by buying pistols and some abilities in order to ensure that it has money to buy rifles for the next round and have an equal footing with the enemy team. Hence, eco rounds are often considered a free round for the enemy team to win due to having vastly superior firepower.

However, as seen in the clip above, Guild have a knack at finding openings during eco rounds and stealing crucial rounds on the board. The above clip showcases the excellent teamwork and individual prowess of Guild. Russ and Leo often show up during eco rounds with their crisp Sheriff aim and Sayf usually finds value with his Tour de Force ultimate on Chamber and Bladestorm ultimate on Jett.

On the same map, Guild managed to pull off another fantastic eco round despite M3C using four rifles and having a 5v4 post plant versus three Sheriffs and one late Vandal from Trexx. The great utility usage of Koldamenta paired with heroics from Trexx saw them win another round they had no business winning.

Guild has won a total of 20 out of 41 eco rounds (including pistol rounds) rounding out to a 48.7% win rate which is very impressive and also dangerous for teams facing them. It is quite evident that the squad plays excellent Valorant during eco rounds and teams will always have to bring their A game during their anti-ecos or they will be in for a rude awakening.

3. They have highly flexible players

Another important reason why Guild are a really strong team in EMEA is due to the flexibility of the players. Sayf has played five different agents spanning across Duelists, Sentinels and Controllers. He has played five games on Chamber, four on Jett and Killjoy, and singular games on Cypher and Viper. Here is a game where Sayf shows off his agent flexibility against one of the top teams in the EMEA Valorant scene, Team Liquid:

But their most flexible player has to be Trexx, with six different agents spanning Duelists, Sentinels, and Controllers. Trexx has five games on Jett and Raze. His Raze in particular is highly rated and is often considered one of the best Raze players in EMEA. He also has two games on Killjoy and singular games on Cypher, Sova and Neon.

Leo and Russ have also showcased their agent pool as they are both proficient enough to pilot KAY/O on specific maps. Russ has been their primary Sage player on maps such as Icebox and Fracture, while Leo is usually the primary initiator player.

The players of Guild have showcased excellent agent flexibility across various roles (Image via WallpaperSafari)

Russ often slots in as the secondary initiator player and provides excellent support to enable Leo, Trexx and Sayf to frag out, which makes it comfortable for Guild to run double initiator compositions. All of these factors allows Guild to experiment with their team compositions on different maps and surprise their opposition. This could be a key factor in catching teams off-guard and could allow them to show up big during the event.

4. They showcased an impressive map pool during Stage 2 Challengers

Speaking about team compositions in specific maps, Guild has also showcased a great map pool, making them a hard team to prepare against during the map selection phase.

For instance, during their group stage clash vs M3C, Guild banned out Breeze but during their rematch in playoffs, Guild defeated M3C on Breeze, which has often been touted as the best map for M3C. It speaks volumes about Guild's map pool, considering how good of a team M3C is on multiple maps.

Guild have been extremely proficient across various maps in Stage 2 (Image via TheGlobalGaming)

Guild has shown to be very versatile in their map selection. They are not hesitant to play on any map, and this allows them to ban the best maps of their opposition who might not be as strong on other maps. This will definitely be something to look out for, and will have a big impact in their matches.

Icebox is the map on which they have the lowest winrate but it is also one of their most flexible maps, with three different agent compositions. They also like to switch up their duelist pick on Fracture, with Trexx usually piloting the Raze but also being able to pick Neon.

Ascent, Bind and Breeze have been the best maps for Guild so far, and teams should not underestimate them on any other map as well. Their winrate in most of the maps took a dip after failing to win a single map versus Fnatic and FunPlus Phoenix, with a particularly disappointing showing versus the latter.

This shouldn't discredit what Guild has achieved; they had a competitive showing versus the undefeated Fnatic. Guild should not be underestimated at Copenhagen, where they can easily make it to the playoffs with their sheer talent, given the seeding of the groups. It all starts in Copenhagen on July 10.