Nerd Street’s VALORANT Summer Championships: Breaking down every bracket matchup as playoffs begin

August 20, 2021

by Mitch Reames

The group stage for Nerd Street’s VALORANT Summer Championships wrapped up on Thursday night. Over two days, the 32-team field has become 16 teams who will now move on to a single-elimination bracket taking place Friday through Sunday.

Here’s a quick recap of the event so far. Only two teams who qualified were unable to attend. Susquehanna Soniqs and Rise. Due to the sprained wrist of Rise’s IGL Kevin “Poised” Ngo, the team had to withdraw and was replaced by Last Round Save. The Soniqs were replaced by Squirtle Squad.

At groups, there were a few surprises. DarkZero Esports - formerly Kooky Koalas - ended up in a difficult group as EZ5 and Ghost Gaming moved on.

One of EZ5’s former players, Carlo “Dcop” Delsol, was signed to TSM Academy, but the main core of that roster was made up of the ex-Noble roster. This tournament was the first time we saw the squad compete as TSM’s Academy team. Unfortunately it wasn’t the start they would have hoped as the team went 0-2. SoaR and C9 Blue moved on from that group.

The last big surprise was Andbox. Formerly the home of Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker, now on Envy, Andbox had to fill three spots. The team is still looking for an identity post-El Diablo, but has enough talent to make it out of groups. Instead, they were upset by Teal Seam, another top unsigned squad.

With those three absences out of the way, let's look at who moved on matchup-by-matchup.

Team Basilisk vs. Squirtle Squad

Team Basilisk finished first in Group A while Squirtle Squad took second in Group B. For Team Basilisk, this is a great chance to make some real headway in the tournament. The top four teams are arguably the weakest cluster, so all four teams have a reasonable shot of making the semifinals.

Squirtle Squad is definitely a fan favorite as well. Featuring Peter “Governor” No, a popular content creator signed to Built By Gamers, Harrison “Psalm” Chang, a former Fortnite pro who finished second at the Fortnite World Cup, and Joseph “Ban” Seungmin Oh who was just benched by LG, Squirtle Squad have a strong roster with a lot of fans between them.

Serenity vs. SoaR

Team Serenity took first in Group E while SoaR finished second in Group F. Rise was supposed to be the team to beat in Group E but after their last minute withdrawal, Team Serenity’s group definitely got a bit easier.

SoaR didn’t have that luxury. Group F had arguably the best team in the tournament in C9 Blue, now featuring former V1 IGL Anthony “Vanity” Malaspina. It’s the teams first event together but the cumulative talent will make them a tough task for any team in this tournament. SoaR took a map off C9 Blue and was able to win the decider to move on.

Complexity vs. Ghost Gaming

Here are two orgs most esports fans will recognize. Ghost was one of my favorites going in but it was actually Complexity that looked to be the better team in groups. Ghost finished second in Group C while Complexity was first in Group D. To advance, Ghost beat DarkZero Esports twice but EZ5 looked to be clearly the better team in that matchup.

Complexity has struggled to get going in VALORANT but in groups had the biggest round differential of any team with a +32 over five maps. After two close maps with Built By Gamers, Complexity ran them over 13-0 in the deciding map to take first place in the group.

NRG vs. Teal Seam

Teal Seam has a real test in front of them now. After finishing second in Group G, Teal Seam had to beat Andbox as the final boss to move to the bracket. It won’t get any easier from there. A first round matchup with an NRG team that looked strong en route to a first place finish in Group H is their prize.

Once again we’ve got a top unsigned team against the struggling team of a major organization. Matchups like this will certainly impact how a team like NRG approaches the VCT offseason with roster moves in mind. For Teal Seam, it’s a great chance to get recognized as a team that deserves to be signed by an org.

Immortals vs. Renegades

For months, there was a meme that Renegades are unbeatable in NSG tournaments. They dominated the early weekly and monthly events for Summer Champs qualifiers. These days they seem a bit less... immortal.

In a relatively easy Group A, Renegades finished 2nd. Team Basilisk was the winner there. Immortals meanwhile didn’t have any close rounds as they walked to a first place finish in Group B. Immortals is playing with Emil “EmilShe1n” Mamedov, a talented Russian player who has been playing on 150 ping as he tries to go pro in NA. That ping will certainly pose a challenge but he’s got plenty of talent. If he can play well against teams like this on 150 ping, that’s going to go a long way in proving he can play with the best of the best in NA.

Cloud 9 Blue vs. OOKERS

There’s a true David v. Goliath story in this bracket. C9 may have dropped one map to SoaR but overall the team looked incredibly strong across the group stage. This is going to be their last big test before the VCT Last Chance Qualifier. With Rise dropping, they are the only team in this tournament that still has a shot at VALORANT Champions.

OOKERS have been a solid unsigned squad for a while now but definitely don’t have a win of the caliber of C9 Blue. If they can catch the team slacking, this would be a defining win for OOKERS. More likely, Vanity’s new team will continue steamrolling.

EZ5 vs. Built By Gamers

Buried at the bottom of the bracket are some really interesting matchups. EZ5, even after losing Dcop, is just such an impressive team worthy of an org. They had no trouble with Ghost Gaming at all in the winner’s matchup for Group C. Ghost is ranked 13th by VLR, higher than NRG, Immortals and Andbox. EZ5 is ranked 20th but should be higher.

Built By Gamers had some real success back in Stage 2 but the most recent stage of VCT saw them fall from grace. Some positive momentum would be nice for BBG especially after being beat up 13-0 by Complexity. The bottom four teams are most likely the strongest quadrant so whatever team comes out of here will have earned it.

Kansas City Pioneers vs. Evil Geniuses

Our final matchup of the day features two interesting teams. The Kansas City Pioneers were one of the breakout teams from VCT Stage 3. They had to upset multiple major teams to advance, including Version1 who were still playing with Vanity at the time.

The Pioneers qualified for Challengers 1 which also brought them to Challengers 2. No other team in this field competed in both Challengers events so KCP has had more top-level competition recently than any other team in Summer Champs.

EG, featuring a new roster, also looked great in groups. EG replaced longtime IGL Christine “Potter” Chi with Kelden “Boostio” Pupello. The addition gives EG some much needed fragging with Boostio playing a strong Jett in the group stage.

How to Watch Nerd Street’s VALORANT Summer Championship

The 16-team bracket will begin at 3 p.m. ET on Friday, August 20th. The first matchups will be at the top of the bracket with streams on twitch.tv/Nerdstreet and twitch.tv/nerdstreet2.

Saturday August 21st will see the quarterfinals and semifinals again beginning at 3 p.m. ET. Then Sunday will be the grand finals, a best of five starting at 3 p.m. ET. The winner at the end will take home the biggest prize of the total $20,000 tournament and some great momentum as VALORANT will soon head into its offseason.