Team Liquid prove brother buff is real in victory over Cloud9 Blue

It was a good effort for North American VALORANT teams, but the region’s time in the biggest event of the 2021 VALORANT Champions Tour season is over after Cloud9 lost their quarterfinal match against Team Liquid.

Cloud9 Blue were the last hope for North American teams after both Sentinels and Envy exited the tournament earlier than most people expected them to. Neither team even made it out of their group, and neither lost to a team that analysts considered a high-ranked team.

Sentinels were ousted first at the hands of Latin America’s KRÜ Esports, and then Envy were sent packing by Southeast Asian team X10 CRIT. Neither team was expected to exit the tournament in the group stage, so NA fans turned their attention and their hope toward Cloud9 Blue.

Coming into the match, C9 and Team Liquid were two very highly ranked teams by analysts. Cloud9 made an impressive run to qualify for Champions in the NA Last Chance Qualifier and were riding that momentum through one of the hardest groups in the tournament.

Sign up for the Frag VALORANT Majors in Philadelphia and Fullerton!

Team Liquid, who recently acquired Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom’s brother, Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom, were one of the toughest teams C9 could have pulled for the opening match of the playoff bracket. They have now won 13 straight matches since Nivera joined the team.

ScreaM said that having his brother makes all the difference for him when playing tougher teams like C9 or Gambit.

“It's amazing man, honestly, like, it's great to be in this position in my career to be able to play with my brother, you know, it's great, man. It gives me some extra motivation. And I think to my brother as well, and I hope to the whole team,” ScreaM said in a postmatch interview.

The battle of the first map of the match between C9 and TL was really a battle between TL’s ScreaM and C9’s Nathan “leaf” Orf. The pair were the only two players on their respective teams to break an ACS of over 300, and they both had impressive K/Ds. ScreaM’s had a K/D of 26/18 and leaf went 28/18.

Photo credit: Riot Games

The map was tight the whole time, and both teams took turns taking clusters of rounds, but Team Liquid were the ones to take more in the end, and the map ended 13-10 in their favor.

On Ascent, ScreaM and his brother Nivera led the charge, with 24/15 and 20/13 K/Ds, respectively, and Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen wasn’t too far behind. The score was pretty tight throughout the map, and C9 looked like they might pull ahead and take the map from them when they took three straight rounds when TL was on match point, but once TL committed to a full buy, the match was over and Team Liquid moved on.

TL was glad that they didn’t go to a third map. This match was their first on the stage after Nivera tested positive for COVID-19, so securing the win in the first two maps was essential for them.

“We tried to stay very strong mentally, [C9] had a lot of clutches, they had a lot of crazy rounds, especially leaf,” ScreaM said. “But we really try to keep our heads up, and focus on every next [kill] all the time. So it was a really, really tired, tired game and I'm really glad we made it 2-0 because the third map would have been really tough mentally.”

Next, Team Liquid will play Acend, another EMEA team. All four EMEA teams that entered Champions have made it out of their groups and into the playoff bracket. Acend won their first playoff match against Team Secret earlier in the day, and there is a good possibility that all four EMEA teams will make it to the semifinals.

C9’s Erick “Xeppaa” Bach thinks the team most likely to win Champions is on the other side of the bracket.

“I think Fnatic was definitely a [tough team] out of all the teams we played, and I think Gambit was probably the best,” Xeppaa said in a postmatch interview. “I personally think Gambit is going to take it all, after scrimming them. … Either Gambit or Fnatic for sure.”

If Team Liquid can beat Acend and move on to the grand final, there is one team that ScreaM wants to face, but at the same time, doesn’t want to face.

“Now that I have my brother, it would be nice to beat Fnatic you know. We beat them in the [Red Bull Home Ground] tournament, but it's totally different here. They look stronger than they ever did, you know, so would be great to have a final against Fnatic, but at the same time, it's the like the team that I want to play the least as well because they seem so good

The winners of the matches Thursday will determine the last two teams that qualify for the semifinals. The semifinals will be played on Saturday, and the grand final will take place Sunday.

Lead photo credit: Riot Games