VALORANT Champions semis: Team Liquid still undefeated, KRÜ aiming for another upset

We’re down to four teams vying to be crowned the 2021 VALORANT world champion. Three of the four semifinalists hail from the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, and one is representing Latin America. It looked like all four EMEA teams might make it to the semis but Latin American darling KRÜ Esports beat Fnatic to add a little extra intrigue to the semis. Can KRÜ continue their cinderella run by beating Gambit Esports next? Will Team Liquid continue their undefeated run? Read on to find out a little more about each of the semifinals, which begin Saturday at 12 p.m. ET.

Team Liquid vs. Acend

It’s a rematch of the recent Red Bull Home Ground grand final. Team Liquid won that matchup 3-1 with two 13-11 wins and a 15-13 OT win. Acend’s lone map win was 17-15 on Bind, their best map by far. Although Team Liquid look dominant heading into this semifinal, those razor-thin margins in that previous matchup indicate this one might be closer than people expect.

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TL are currently riding a 13-match winning streak ever since Nabil "Nivera" Benrlitom joined his brother Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom on this team. They won the EMEA Last Chance Qualifier to make it to Champions and have kept that moment going as one of the favorites to win this tournament. They beat KRÜ in their opening matchup and then a tight 2-1 series against Sentinels. In the quarterfinals they took down another NA team, Cloud9 Blue, to advance to the semis.

Photo credit: Riot Games

Acend had an unusual start to Champions. They lost their opening matchup to Vivo Keyd but then the result was overturned when Riot Games ruled that a player on Vivo Keyd had used an illegal Cypher cam on the deciding Map 3. Then Riot reversed course and further reviewed the result, which led to Acend and Vivo Keyd replaying Map 3 with Acend holding a 7-0 advantage. Acend closed out the map and the series and then beat Envy 2-0 to reach the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals they beat Team Secret 2-0 and appear to be back on track after what was surely a stressful first few days of the tournament with the team drawing the ire of Brazilian fans.

Mehmet Yağız "cNed" İpek gets a lot of the attention for Acend and the team appeared to be a one-man show at Masters: Berlin. However, that hasn’t been the case at Champions. Aleksander "zeek" Zygmunt has been as deadly as cNed at Champions with an ACS of 247.6, which is sixth-best and just below cNed, and a K/D of 1.35, which is second-best and just above cNed. Team Liquid will likely try to ban Bind, where they only have a 59% winning percentage and Acend have an 86% winning percentage. Both teams have a winning percentage of at least 75% on Ascent, and both are also nearly undefeated on Breeze.

Gambit Esports vs. KRÜ Esports

KRÜ Esports have continued to defy the odds. They were placed in the same group as Sentinels and Team Liquid, leading many to believe Sentinels and TL would easily move on. Instead, KRÜ flipped the narrative, beating Sentinels to join TL in the Champions playoffs. Then, they pulled off an even bigger upset when they beat Fnatic, the winner of the so-called group of death, in the quarterfinals. Can they beat Masters: Berlin winners Gambit Esports next?

Gambit have looked vulnerable at Champions. Yes, they haven’t lost a match, but they have dropped a map in each of their matches. Team Secret took Map 1 against them in their opening match. Team Vikings took Map 2 and had them on the ropes in Map 3 before Gambit came back to win it in overtime. X10 took Map 2 in the quarterfinals against them. Now, they’ll face the giant slayers KRÜ.

Photo credit: Riot Games

Angelo “keznit” Mori has led the way for KRÜ with a 245.6 ACS. He carried KRÜ in their match against Fnatic with an ACS of 304, while nobody else on the team was above 200. Gambit are not as top-heavy when it comes to firepower. Their most dangerous player at Champions has been Nikita “d3ffo” Sudakov, who has amassed a 246.7 ACS.

These two teams have never faced each other, so it should be an exciting first encounter. Looking at their map picks, both teams have winning percentages greater than 70% on Bind, Split and Ascent. Outside of Breeze and Fracture, which KRÜ have only played twice each, their weakest map is Haven, where they have a 63% winning percentage. Gambit’s weakest is also Haven, which they have won 67% of the time. There aren’t any obvious counterpicks for either side. The only one might be Fracture, where Gambit are 2-1 and KRÜ are 0-2.

Lead photo credit: Riot Games