Valorant Champions 2024 is the final official event of this season. A total of 16 teams are competing in the Group Stage to secure their Playoffs spots. All of the matches at the event will be conducted in a double-elimination bracket, meaning every team will get to play a minimum of two matches.
Day 7 opened with a match between China's number two seed, FunPlus Phoenix, and the Americas' number four seed, Sentinels. The best-of-three (Bo3) was expected to be somewhat close but was over rather quickly as Sentinels swiftly won both maps and got the scoreline of 2-0.
In the post-match conference, Sportskeeda Esports got the opportunity to talk to FunPlus Phoenix's Autumn during which he said:
"We have a lot of things we can improve upon"
FunPlus Phoenix's Autumn talks about the biggest takeaways from Valorant Champions 2024 and his first year in franchising
FunPlus Phoenix has been among the more consistent teams in the Chinese region. They were able to finish in the top two at every regional event and were also able to secure their first international win in VCT Masters Shanghai. Naturally, many people had expectations from the Chinese squad to perform at Valorant Champions 2024.
Unfortunately, FunPlus Phoenix could not fully deliver. Their first match against Team Heretics was their best showing as they almost eliminated the EMEA team from the event. The second match against Sentinels saw them start off with a huge lead but they were not able to maintain it. This cost them the map and eventually the Bo3 series.
During the post-match conference, Sportskeeda Esports approached FunPlus Phoenix's Autumn to ask him about what his biggest takeaways were from this champions event and the first year of competing in franchising. Here's what he said:
"Takeaway from the event I think is we have some working room. We have a lot of things we can improve upon. I mean It's been great for our team. I think we qualified to every event. In our region, we also made finals every time. I think we have done pretty well as a team. But for the internationals, we still have some room to work on whether that's team play or it could be like today where we had some gaps in our composition. So maybe just back to the drawing board after this."
Due to this defeat, FunPlus Phoenix was eliminated from the champions event. Meanwhile, Sentinels will progress ahead in the Group Stage's lower bracket and find themselves with a rematch against Gen.G.
Check out these exclusives from the event:
- Trace Esports' LuoK1ng on facing EMEA and Americas teams at Valorant Champions 2024
- Sentinels' TenZ after their win against FunPlus Phoenix in Valorant Champions 2024
- Leviatán's C0M after their defeat against Trace Esports in Valorant Champions 2024