Gambit Esports routed Team Envy in the grand final showdown to claim the title at the VALORANT Champions Tour 2021: Stage 3 Masters in Berlin held last September 10-19, 2021.
The all-Russian team Gambit had a 3-0 victory with scores of 15-13 on Bind, 13-11 on Haven and 13-9 on Split. They won $225,000 for topping the field, and a berth at the VALORANT Champions 2021 event, the culminating tournament of the year.
The top player for Gambit was Timofey “Chronicle” Khromov who had 73 kills total and a plus-28 kills-deaths ratio. The USA Team Envy was led by Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker who had 57 kills. He was also the only player on the team with a positive kill ratio of plus-2.
The Stage 3 Masters had fifteen teams competing for a share of the $700,000 total prize. Bren Esports, however, was disqualified and not allowed to join the tournament due to travel visa issues. Eight of the fifteen teams advanced to the single-elimination playoff round.
Gambit won in the quarterfinals over Vision Strikers with a score of 2-1 Friday, and in the semis, they swept G2 Esports 2-0.
Team Envy swept their quarterfinals and semis against Sentinels and 100 Thieves, respectively. Second place was worth $125,000 and 375 circuit points for the team.
Teams G2 and 100 Thieves shared third and fourth place and received $85,000 and 325 points apiece.
The games were streamed on different social media platforms, principally Twitch and YouTube, with some also streamed over Facebook and Streetcafe. The average viewership was 389,883 viewers, with a peak of 811,370, and the total hours watched was 33,302,439.
Top 16 Teams Going to the 2021 Valorant Championships
The lineup for the first ever Valorant Championship is complete. The recently concluded Last Chance Qualifier tournament results had the last four teams to qualify for the December championship.
This is the first ever Valorant Championship and it will be held in Berlin over two weeks starting on December 1. It is a 16-team event with an $850,000 prize pool.
Valorant Championship Bracket
Valorant Champions 2021 Stage 3 Winners: Gambit Esports (Eng)
The championship will be using the best of three quarterfinals, semifinals and finals format. It uses single elimination bracket, which means teams are out after losing one match.
The Valorant Championship is open to all teams playing in the 2021 season, which means any teams that did not qualify for the 2020 World Championships will still have a chance to win this championship.
16 Participating Teams
The qualifying teams are Sentinels, Team Envy and Cloud9 Blue from North America; Gambit Esports, Acend, Fnatic, and Team Liquid from Europe; Team Vikings, Vivo Keyd and FURIA Esports from Brazil; X10 Esports, Team Secret, and Full Senses from Southeast Asia; Vision Strikers is the sole team from South Korea; Latin America’s KRU Esports; and Crazy Raccoon from Japan. Well-known esports gamers lead the teams and they are expected to show more of their stuff in the upcoming Championships.
The format of the Valorant Championships is single elimination matches where all matches are played in a best of three, excluding the grand final which is played as a best of five.
First round matchups are randomly drawn. The quarter finals matchups are not pre-determined, but they will be composed of the four highest seeds (1v4; 2v3) and the four lowest seeds (5v8; 6v7). The winners of those matchups will then compete in two semi-finals, where the highest ranked team will face either the lowest seeded quarter final winner or the second lowest seed. However, they cannot play each other. The highest ranked team must therefore face either fifth or eighth place, while the second highest ranked team must face either fourth or seventh place. The winner of the top bracket plays the lowest seeded quarter final winner, while the loser of the top bracket plays the winners of the bottom bracket.
The event will be held in Berlin over the course of two weeks starting on December 1.
Valorant was first released in 2020 and since then has created a large following, especially among esports players. The road to the finals has seen plenty of interest among players worldwide. Even though it is a relatively new game, it has created a loyal following and huge interest. Participation was larger than expected. This has led to some big competitions for more prizes.
