It all comes down to the final matchday of the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) NA Stage-1 Challengers Playoffs as OpTic Gaming and The Guard will face each other in a best-of-three series tonight to take the throne home.
OpTic Gaming and The Guard are two of the most consistent teams from North America. Both have already confirmed their tickets to Iceland and are ready to represent their region in the upcoming VCT Stage-1 Masters Reykjavik starting April 10, 2022. However, both are looking forward to traveling to Iceland as the best team in their region and for that, they have to tonight's clash at any cost.
Dissecting who will be the Champions of the VCT 2022 NA Stage-1 Challengers
OpTic Gaming faced The Guard in the Upper-Finals of the VCT 2022 NA Stage-1 Challengers and the former got the better of their opposition at the time and reached the Grand-Finals.
However, The Guard took a longer route and reached the Grand-Finals by defeating Cloud9 in the Lower-Finals. This is another opportunity for The Guard to take revenge for its earlier defeat.
Prediction
The current form and results are completely in favor of OpTic Gaming and hence is the favorite to win the series tonight. OpTic Gaming has outperformed all its opponents, dominating performances throughout the competition.
The amount of experience this team has in their squad is proving fruitful in every game. They will surely try to finish the event in the same style.
Meanwhile, The Guard has surprised everyone with their extraordinary performances throughout the tournament. Though the side has already lost against OpTic Gaming earlier in the competition, the team will be looking to seek revenge tonight. Despite being the underdog, The Guard has the potential to pull off a miracle tonight as well.
Head-to-head
The two teams have faced each other only once in the past and in this tournament only. OpTic Gaming has secured a flawless victory that time.
Recent results
OpTic Gaming has had better results recently than The Guard. The former has won four of their last five games, while the latter has won three.
Potential Lineup
OpTic Gaming
- Austin "crashies" Roberts
- Victor Wong
- Jimmy "Marved" Nguyen
- Jaccob "Yay" Whiteaker
- Pujan "FNS" Mehta
The Guard
- Michael "neT" Bernet
- Jacob "valyn" Batio
- Jonah "JonahP" Pulice
- Ha "Sayaplayer" Jung-woo
- Trent "trent" Cairns
When and where to watch
Fans can enjoy the VCT NA Stage-1 Challengers Grand Finals between OpTic Gaming and The Guard live on Valorant Champions Tour YouTube and Twitch channel from 1:30 AM IST onwards on March 28.