Cloud9 Blue win NA LCQ, become final team to qualify for VALORANT Champions

The final team to attend VALORANT Champions is Cloud9 Blue after a rematch with Rise that resulted in a 3-0 win for C9.

Cloud9 Blue recently got a boon to their team with the addition of Anthony “vanity” Malaspina after leaving Version1. He’s now going to be leading his team into Champions as the last North American team to qualify for the event. All 16 teams are now set for the event which takes place in December.

The first map was Cloud9’s pick, Breeze. C9 stepped out of the gate strong, taking the first five rounds in a row before Rise finally answered them. Going into the half, it didn’t look good for Rise, but it wasn’t anything they couldn’t come back from with a 7-5 score. Rise’s efforts weren’t enough though, and C9 took Breeze, 13-8.

Many Rise fans were hopeful going into Split, which was their map pick. However, just about everyone was surprised when C9 didn’t even let them take a round. The stats on the side of Rise were abysmal. The highest scoring ACS was Phat “supamen” Le’s 210. He had a 7/13/4 K/D/A. Because the score was 13-0, every single Rise member had 13 deaths on their counter, but the player with the highest kill count was Ryan “Shanks” Ngo with eight. IGL Kevin “poised” Ngo didn’t even manage one kill.

The biggest thing that threw Rise off on Split was the Breach pick by C9’s Son “xeta” Seon-ho.

“I think they played really good and they had a bunch of good setups. I think that the only thing that caught us off-guard was Split when they had a completely new setup. We haven’t seen Breach on Split in like a year,” Shanks said in a postmatch press conference.

“I was the person that chose that comp.” Nathan “leaf” Orf said. “I'm like, ‘I think it'll completely destroy them,’ which it did obviously. But I just knew that xeta really wanted to play Breach … they kind of just fell into every single trap that we did and we kind of knew exactly what they were doing every single round. I feel like we were never out of control of the round except for the one that Shanks flanked spawn and 2K’d, but we still somehow won that round.”

When time came for C9’s second map pick, Bind, it seemed like Rise finally turned their monitors on as they led the majority of the map. However, the score at the half was 6-6, and it was anyone’s map at that point.

In the second half of Bind, Rise and C9 traded a few rounds back and forth, keeping the score pretty tight. It wasn’t until round 17 that C9 really started to take a good lead. Rise kept them on their toes and made the score close at the very end, but C9 were able to take it, ending the map, 13-11.

Rise had an amazing run in the Last Chance Qualifier and surprised many teams on their way to the final, staying in the upper bracket the entire tournament. Although they lost the final, the team is still in pretty good spirits about the tournament as a whole.

“We started off a little slow ... but we heated up,” poised said. “I mean, the biggest thing I think was they got both of the pistol [rounds, it] really determined the momentum for them and then they started getting very confident”

Now, C9 will join Envy and Sentinels as the three teams to represent NA at Champions. After the match, C9 took an early stab at how the three NA teams might fare at the international major.

“I think it's kind of hard to say top three given the brackets that are gonna happen, you know,” vanity said. “Like somehow there's four NA teams in the [same side of the] bracket again, but I don't know, it'd be cool for sure. But I mean, I think it's probably not expected given how … all these regions are getting really, really good. So I mean, yeah, it would be really cool to have the three North American representatives in the top four, but I think at least one of us will make the grand final, and that's really a good goal, I guess.”

Beginning Dec. 1, 16 teams will compete on LAN in Berlin, Germany, to see who will raise the Champions trophy and declare themselves the best VALORANT team in the world.

Lead photo credit: Cloud9