Underdogs no longer, Acend become first VALORANT world champions

The VCT season is officially over, and Acend have been crowned the champions and can now call themselves the best VALORANT team in the world.

In a tournament in which almost every analyst said that a North American team would end up in the final, two EMEA teams made their way to the end. Acend and Gambit Esports were the teams that faced off, and although it was a tight and well-fought match, Acend took the win in the end.

This is a sweet victory in the history of Acend’s VALORANT team, considering they were an underdog from the very start of the VCT season. They relied on a strong mentality through that first EU Masters tournament, which they also won unexpectedly. Safe to say they are not the underdogs now, and they still are playing sans pressure.

Sign up for the Frag VALORANT Major in Philadelphia or Fullerton!

Santeri “BONECOLD” Sassi commented on the difference between the two tournaments in terms of pressure, but really, there wasn’t much of a difference.

“There were a lot of people that didn't really believe us winning.” BONECOLD said in a postmatch interview. “And we came from groups to quarters, even to semis you know, like a massive, massive underdog that really helped us knowing we've already made semis. It’s our personal best LAN event run.”

Photo credit: Riot Games

Acend’s run was not an easy one, and their tournament experience looked quite different from the rest of the teams that made it into the bracket.

This is because early in the tournament, there was a competitive ruling issued in the group stage involving a match between Acend and Vivo Keyd. It was determined that Vivo Keyd used an exploit for six rounds. At first, Riot gave Acend those six rounds, plus a round for economy. It was then determined that Acend would move to the winner’s match instead of Vivo Keyd, who were set to play Envy.

Afterward, Riot decided that they would replay the map, with Acend up 7-0. Although it cannot be confirmed, many fans suspect that this was in response to the fervent response to the original ruling by Brazilian fans, and the critique issued by the rest of the community.

Acend almost didn’t win the rematch against Vivo Keyd, but they did end up moving on. It still didn’t look great for them, considering Envy were their next opponents. Many expected Envy to win that matchup, although that can be said for most of the matches they played afterward as well.

Photo credit: Riot Games

The playoff bracket saw Acend face off against Team Secret first, and the Southeast Asian team were no match for them. Acend won 2-0 in dominant fashion. They were heavy underdogs in their semifinal match against Team Liquid, especially because TL had ousted the other two North American teams, Cloud9 Blue and Sentinels, and were on a 13-match unbeaten streak.

Not only did Acend beat TL, they smoked them. They won 2-0 and Acend didn’t even let TL win more than six rounds in either map. They then moved on to the final against Gambit Esports.

The first map in the final was absolutely wild. Acend started off with a 9-1 lead until Gambit took the last two rounds, ending the half with the infamous 9-3 score. Adding more evidence for the believers in the 9-3 curse, Gambit came back in the second half and made quick work of Acend, only allowing them two rounds in the second half. Gambit ended up winning Breeze 13-11.

In the second map, Acend won 13-7, tying up the match. The third map was a stomp at the hands of Gambit, who won 13-3, which would have been crushing for the mental attitudes of many teams, but not for Acend.

“We took the Fracture loss just as nothing. We were laughing in the middle of the match, and we just said, ‘what can you do? It's over already,’ and we are just cracking jokes, and having a lot of fun on stage,” Aleksander “zeek” Zygmunt said.

Map 4 on Icebox was harder fought than any of the maps before it. The teams were tied 10-10, and traded rounds up until Gambit was ahead 12-11. Acend took another round and then two straight in overtime to clinch the win on Icebox.

The series score was tied 2-2, and the last map would determine the winner of the VCT Champions tournament. Split was the tiebreaker map, and it started off with Acend leading at the half 7-5. After a great second-half performance from Acend, they finished up the map with a 13-8 score.

Looking back on their 2021 season, Acend started as the underdogs in every tournament they entered. Now going into 2022, they’ll be the team to beat.

Lead photo credit: Riot Games