The four teams from each group that will advance undefeated have now been determined. After winning their respective matches in Groups B and A,
Team Vitality and
100 Thieves have secured their places in the top eight of the
VALORANT Champions by qualifying for the playoffs. They join
Paper Rex and
NRG, who secured their spots yesterday, and all four teams will discover their opponents following the decisive matches taking place this weekend.
Team Vitality had to battle their way through to secure their place, but the EMEA fourth seed ultimately overcame LOUD to qualify. After winning the first map on Ascent in convincing fashion, Vitality went on to Summit for the closest game of the competition so far. The two teams traded blows throughout the map, eventually forcing the game into overtime, where Vitality finally prevailed 19-17.
LOUD relied heavily on individual plays from Lucca "lukxo" Travaioli and Enzo "tkzin" Zimiani, but it was not enough to overcome a Vitality side in which every player managed to make an impact at different stages of the series. In fact, all of Vitality's players finished with the same number of kills (42), with the exception of Elias "Jamppi" Olkkonen, who ended the series with 43.
100 Thieves between technical pauses
In the second match of the day, following a first map that took considerable time to get underway due to technical pauses disrupting the rhythm of the game, 100 Thieves came out as comfortable winners against FUT Esports. Led by a strong performance from Timothée "Timotino" Lavigne Dupont on Neon, the Americas' first seed gave their opponents very little room to respond.
Despite FUT Esports putting up more resistance on Lotus and dominating the first half, 100 Thieves managed to recover and turn the tide, eventually securing a 13-10 victory. The EMEA third seed lacked their usual ability to create openings through individual plays against a team that offered very few opportunities.
Despite these defeats, both teams will still have an opportunity to reach the playoffs by winning their next match. They will learn their opponents following Friday's matches, with the winner of the series between Global Esports and EDward Gaming set to face LOUD, while the winner of JD Gaming and T1 will take on FUT. Before that, the elimination matches for the teams that lost during the first week will begin on Thursday, with TYLOO facing Team Liquid and Xi Lai Gaming taking on Nongshim RedForce.
