The penultimate week of the
VALORANT Champions began on Wednesday with the opening playoff matches. Defending champions
NRG once again demonstrated their consistency throughout the competition, defeating
T1 to advance to the next round. They will face
LOUD, who pulled off a major upset by overcoming
Paper Rex. Both Pacific-region teams have consequently dropped into the lower bracket.
NRG first prevailed in what appeared to be the least evenly matched series of the draw. T1 nevertheless showed on Lotus that they had not reached the playoffs by chance. Taking control of the game early on, T1 eventually gave way to NRG's individual talent, narrowly falling 13-11.
On NRG's own pick of Summit, the team was initially put under pressure but managed to handle its attacking side effectively, relying on a composition it has perfectly mastered, featuring Ethan "Ethan" Arnold's KAY/O and Georgio "keiko" Sanassy's Brimstone. NRG eventually secured a 13-7 victory, closing out the map by winning the final six rounds in succession.
LOUD Assert Themselves
The Americas region once again confirmed its dominance throughout the competition by sending a second team into the next round of the upper bracket. After securing their playoff spot against Global Esports a few days earlier, LOUD defeated Paper Rex 2-0, first taking Split, a map the Singaporean side had already conceded to G2 Esports a few days prior.
The 2022 world champions relied heavily on their duo of Roberto "erde" Lobos and Lucca "lukxo" Travaioli to control the series. The Brazilian was particularly impressive, recording 52 kills across the series and securing nine first kills. Paper Rex nevertheless responded strongly on Sunset, even taking a 9-3 lead after the first half, but LOUD once again recovered to force overtime and eventually win 15-13.
The two victorious teams will meet in the next round on Saturday for their first encounter since the VCT Americas Stage 2 lower-bracket final. LOUD won that series in São Paulo after five maps. Meanwhile, T1 and Paper Rex will face each other in the lower bracket on Friday, with the loser becoming one of the first teams to be eliminated from the playoffs.
