VCT Wrap up Kick Off Week 2 | Who is still left in Kick Off?

With so many regions and timezones, its pretty hard to catch all of VCT Live, so here’s our VCT Wrap up for Week 2. This would be a pretty brutal week as many teams bit the dust, being sent home with a “See you in Stage 1”.

Americas sends home a champion 0-2

The most fun region continues to live up to its moniker. Some big names and big voices always have you forced to keep your eyes on Americas, and some big games would ultimately be sending a bunch of teams home this week.

2Game, as expected, went out 0-4. They were the only team to do so, as the teams that dropped 0-2 out of Upper Bracket Finals barring 2Game all cleaned up in the lower bracket, knocking out the teams that got escorted there from the Upper Bracket Quarterfinals. As a result, a team caught up in the trend would be 100 Thieves, who we covered in week 1 as the match of the week and did not disappoint (as far as fun ass VALORANT goes) against NRG. NRG showed that their offseason was more of what we should expect from the team. Losing 14-12 on Lotus to pull it back 13-9 on Pearl and Bind to send ex Champions winner Boostio and the 100T core home.

1. If there’s one match in 1 region you need to see, it’s 100T vs NRG. We got to see ACES and near ACES throughout as these 2 went blow for blow.
2. Cloud9 vs MIBR looked like we’d be sending another champion on a fligth home after the first map, but it ended up being a great showcase for Americas.

With Leviatan still chilling on the Winner’s side, it’ll take a while before Demon1 gets the chance to face off against fellow GOATs Aspas and yay. However, the latter two will be going head to head in a must watch match in the Lower Bracket Round 2.

EDG Wins Kick Off China as Expected

This one was never really up for debate, with China already ahead of the rest of the different regions, they were able to wrap up their region and send 2 teams to Masters Bangkok. Being a region that was always expecting to send EDG there as the 1st seed, this region was competing for 2nd place. The bracket would have some surprises however as EDG would be sent to clean up the Lower Bracket by Trace Esports in the Upper Bracket Semifinals.

EDward Gaming were definitely asleep at the wheel and were slow to wake up into the match, but Trace played hot as well. Giving credit where credit is due. Taking their free rider into the Upper Bracket Final, they took on BiliBili Gaming in a relatively confident 2-1 to qualify for the Grand Finals where they would get their run back vs EDG who were now fully awake. As the region finished out I want to highlight 4 matches this week for China.

1. Trace Esports vs EDG (Upper Bracket Semis). If you like an upset, it’s a match to watch.
2. XLG vs EDG (Lower Bracket Quarters). Again, very close to being an upset… until EDG woke up and began what would go onto be a 32 round winning streak that would continue on into their match against Dragon Ranger Gaming.
3. Bilibili Gaming vs Trace Esports (Upper Bracket Finals) for a proper look at Trace vs a competent Chinese team.
4. Grand Finals of any region is worth watching to see how the Bangkok bound teams look compared to each other.

No teams in EMEA go home winless

A good sign for what’s to come in the region, every single team in the EMEA Kick Off managed to pick up a win by the time they bowed out in Lower Bracket Round 1. Games would largely go as planned though, with upsets being few and far between. Karmine Corp would continue their 2-1 streak, winning and losing pretty comfortably on their map picks and falling 17-15 on Abyss to Team Vitality in the Upper Bracket Quarterfinals.

Unfortunately, they would still be bowing out in Lower Bracket Round 1 due to the bracket lineup, dropping to Giant X in one of the few upsets to a pretty good looking GIANTX roster. Apeks also showed signs of life in their match against Team Liquid, now with their full roster, with batujnax in the country. They need to get this guy on a duelist though as both losing maps saw little value out of his SOVA. His Yoru though on Pearl was frying on Defense side. The team definitely made their map pick win a lot harder than it needed to be and Liquid took them to task on the final map of Haven, but the Pearl game shows that the team has lots to work on and lots of potential. This region’s best matches from the week are:

1. Fnatic vs NaVi as Fnatic barely avoid going out in 2.
2. Karmine Corp vs GIANTX To see how one of my personal picks to make Top 4 were sent on their flight home in round 1.

Neither of the picks this week are from the Upper Bracket, but if you missed out on Week 1’s VCT wrap up, we can easily recommend the BBL vs Fnatic and Vitality vs KC matches, as these were easily the most contested and bracket defining matches of the region.

More upsets in Asia

It wasn’t just EDG that bottled it as the number 1 seed of a top heavy region. Consistently inconsistent powerhouse of pacific, Paper Rex (PRX) would be squeaked out by T1 in the Upper Bracket Quarterfinals, risking 0-2 elimination vs Zeta Division. Easily the match of the week, this also was the only upset of the week, as the rest of the region’s on paper favorites got their expected series wins, albeit while dropping a map.

The first 2 teams sent home would be ZETA Division and Boom Esports, dropping to an unexpected PRX confrontation and a strong Nongshim Redforce team respectively. Nongshim looked good in both their series, consistent performances form Francis and Ivy on a range of agents may not have been able to keep them in the Upper Bracket, but they still remain from now.

It was a rough time for the top seeds though, Gen.G Esports made their way, battered and bruised to the Upper bracket Semifinals, closing out their series vs RRQ in map 3’s Overtime. Unlike EMEA, our cmatch recommenndations were to keep your Winner’s bracket dreams alive:

1. Paper Rex vs T1
2. Gen.G Esports vs Rex Regum Qeon