Day 4 of the Skyesports Valorant League 2021 featured the first game of week 2 of the tournament between Chennai Crusher and Kolkata Tridents.
Having lost their previous Valorant series 3-0 to Delhi Dragons, Kolkata Tridents hoped to return to the Valorant tournament from their early slump. At the end of week 1 of Skyesports Valorant League 2021, Delhi Dragons lead the group stages with 4.5 points, with Hyderabad Nawabs following them in their footsteps with 4 points of their own.
Both Kolkata Tridents and Chennai Crushers went into matches with their usual Valorant roster and gave their all. From the ashes of the battlefield, Kolkata came out on top and clinched victory in a banger 3-0 series, securing 2.5 points. The first two games of the series were an absolute stomp, while Chennai finally fought their best in the third game. Despite their best efforts, Kolkata Tridents took over the game and won in the end.
Skyesports Valorant League 2021 Day 3 matches
Chennai Crushers vs. Kolkata Tridents
Before getting into this series, both the teams were at a disadvantage due to losing their respective series on days 1 and 2. Going into this series, both of them were determined to win it all. The three maps chosen by the two teams for the series in order are,
- Ascent
- Bind
- Icebox
Map 1: Ascent
The first half of this first Valorant match on day 4 started with a war of attrition between both teams. Neither of them showed any weaknesses for a long time in the pistol round. At one minute mark, Chennai Crushers started rushing into the A bombsite and got shut down by Kolkata Tridents with only one casualty. Building on that momentum, Kolkata quickly went on to win another round, just to get shut down in the third. The score was stuck at 2-1 when Kolkata unleashed its wrath upon Chennai. Swiftly winning seven consecutive rounds to push Chennai further down to the depths and finally ending the first half with a 10-2 scoreline.
Chennai Crushers started off the second half in their favor, winning the pistol round. However, the joy was short-lived as Kolkata answered with a thrifty round of their own and put the score to 11-3. Chennai tried their best to hold them off in the last round, but, haiVaan with an amazing clutch play in a post-plant situation against two players, secured the match for Kolkata Tridents.
Both the duelists from Kolkata Tridents gave it their best, racking up 21 and 19 kills, and with haiVaan’s support, they secured the match in a stomp.
Map 2: Bind
The second match started off well for Chennai, as they clinched the early pistol round. Going into the second round, Kolkata did an eco to buy guns in the upcoming third round. But to their utter disdain, Chennai won two consecutive rounds and crippled Kolkata’s economy sitting in a scoreline of 3-0. Chennai built bigger on their momentum and secured yet another round before Kolkata retaliated and took back Chennai’s momentum. Winning five consecutive rounds, Kolkata finally took back control and set the scoreline to 4-5. After that, the game went balanced as both the teams kept equalizing the scoreline and ended the half in a 6-6 stalemate.
Kolkata started the second half in an absolute stomp, winning six consecutive rounds and putting the team to match point. In the final hours of the battle, Chennai snatched one round away from the clutches of Kolkata. Kolkata won the next round and sealed the fate of the match with 13-7.
Map 3: Icebox
Unlike every other map, Icebox is the only map that appeared only once before this series. The map was chosen by the home side. The map also started with both teams playing it out carefully until Deathmaker breaks the ice with a headshot and falling back to cover.
To the crowd’s surprise, going up against two players, TheBabySeal defused the bomb and clutched the round for Kolkata Tridents while sitting in the poison cloud of Viper. Kolkata won three consecutive rounds after that just to be halted by Chennai in the 5th round leading the scoreline to 4-1 in favor of Kolkata Tridents.
Chennai's Valorant roster were swift about their punishment and really needed to win this Valorant match. With that newfound confidence, they secured the scoreline to 4-3. Both teams played out their absolute best and ended the first half in a stalemate of 6-6.
Going into the second half, Kolkata started strong by winning the all-important pistol round. But Chennai were quick enough to answer and take another round. The game kept going back and forth, and neither failed to show their prowess when needed. Chennai were up for match point with a scoreline of 11-12 when a late push from haiVaan secured three kills. Swiftly, Kolkata took back control of the round and pushed the Valorant match to overtime.
In overtime, both teams took one round of their own, locking the scoreline yet again in a 13-13 draw. But Kolkata's Valorant roster was not ready to give up any maps, and they finally bore their fangs and took away two consecutive rounds to win the third match, too, with a scoreline of 15-13.
With Kolkata’s in-game leader Deathmaker in the driving seat securing 32 kills along with his operator skills and support from their entire Valorant roster, Kolkata Tridents style on Chennai Crushers to win the Valorant series 3-0.
With this Valorant series done and dusted, Kolkata has been pushed to third position in the Skyesports Valorant League 2021.