North American VALORANT Challengers Playoffs Power Rankings

August 10, 2021

by Nerd Street

The first year of the VALORANT Champions Tour is getting closer and closer to the end. The game’s first international LAN in Iceland took regional rivalries and made them global. With an even larger international tournament coming up in Berlin, the battles between teams are taking on more weight as the season draws toward an end.

At NA Challengers Playoffs, eight teams will battle for three spots to represent North America in Berlin. With Sentinels already locked into a spot at VALORANT Champions, the true world championship at the end of the year, these North American teams are also looking to qualify for Berlin and grab NA’s second qualifying spot based on circuit points. In addition, the winner of Berlin will be an automatic qualifier.

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With a recent schedule change, VALORANT’s Challengers Playoffs will now have some of the most important matches happening Wednesday. That day will see two teams go from first round matchups to the winner’s bracket finals, locking up their spots in Berlin.

With old favorites and new upstarts, here are the teams ranked, in order of most likely to represent NA at Stage 3 Masters: Berlin.

8. Rise

With the brothers Kevin “poised” Ngo and Ryan “Shanks” Ngo driving the team, Rise did enough to qualify but were bounced from Challengers 2 fairly soon after. A win against FaZe Clan does show an ability to compete against the teams in Challengers Playoffs but a first-round matchup with Sentinels would require them to pull off an incredible upset. All things being equal, Rise’s most likely result is being bounced immediately. For a smaller org, just reaching Challengers Playoffs is already a success.

7. Luminosity Gaming

Led by Diondre “YaBoiDre” Bond and new IGL Will “dazzLe” Loafman, LG are back on the big stage. The team’s previous peak came during Nerd Street’s Winter Championship in January. LG won that event beating Sentinels (pre-TenZ) in the final. Throughout the VCT, they have never reached that same level. After bringing in CS veteran DazzLe as IGL, the team has reached new heights. At the same time, YaBoiDre has become one of the best duelists in North America. Kaleb “moose” Jayne is set to return from a broken wrist, according to an Upcomer report, but his stand-in Tanner “TiGG” Spanu is set to remain on the roster over Joseph “ban” Seungmin Oh.

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It has been a long road for LG back to the biggest stage in VALORANT, but they have a chance here. The first-round matchup with XSET won’t be easy, but it will be the battle of two new IGLs as both teams changed the leadership spot in late June/early July.

6. FaZe Clan

The runners-up from Stage 1 Masters struggled in Stage 2. It’s a team made up of a lot of Overwatch League veterans who are finally back vying for the biggest stage in VALORANT. In Stage 3 Challengers 2, they looked to be in peak form. They’ve proven they can finish top three against the best teams in NA before. Now they need to do it again.

The pressure is no issue for a team used to playing on big stages. Still, the road won’t be easy. The first matchup against 100 Thieves will have a lot riding on it. A first-round win over 100 Thieves puts them in a great spot in the circuit point standings. A loss means they will need a crazy lower bracket run. If FaZe qualify for Berlin and Envy don’t, they will take the lead in circuit points in the race for NA’s second spot at Champions.

5. TSM

It has been a long road for TSM through VCT. The team failed to qualify for Stage 1 Masters or Stage 2 Challengers Finals, and they weren’t even that close either. By adding Sean “Bang” Bezerra and Aleko “LeviathanAG” Gabuniya, TSM have injected new life into the roster. Matthew “Wardell” Yu is popping off recently with an insane first kill to first death ratio. So far, the team hasn’t even come close to reaching the lofty expectations for the org. Right now, even getting a spot in the NA Last Chance Qualifier isn’t a certainty, so Challengers Playoffs are truly do-or-die for TSM.

4. 100 Thieves

A team built for LAN, no one has as much experience as 100 Thieves. With Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk, one of the best players in VALORANT, and veteran leadership, 100T need to come through to show the real potential of their roster. Sitting in fifth place in the NA circuit point standings they need to qualify and hope Envy and FaZe do not. With a first-round matchup against FaZe, 100T can at least force them to make a lower bracket run out of the gate.

Along with TSM and Envy, the 100T and FaZe matchup will bring the highest stakes by far. The winner will need just one more win, in this case over the winner of XSET/LG, to go to Berlin. The loser will need to get three lower bracket wins to get a trip to Berlin.

3. Envy

Throughout all of VCT, Envy have been one of the most consistent teams but haven’t broken through to the top. By adding Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen (on loan from FaZe) and Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker (formerly with Andbox), the latter being one of NA’s best duelists, the revamped Envy roster will hopefully push them to the next level. For months, Envy refused to make any roster changes, but not anymore. These two new additions came at the perfect time. Yay has the nickname El Diablo from other players, which tells you everything you need to know about his talent.

With Version1 missing the tournament completely, Envy is in a fantastic spot in the circuit point standings. Qualifying for Berlin will put them in the most likely spot to receive NA’s second circuit point slot at VALORANT Champions. FaZe, XSET and 100 Thieves can all challenge for it as well, but each team is in the lower half of the bracket. One of them will almost certainly qualify for Berlin but one is guaranteed to miss. Still, Envy’s bracket forces them to go through Sentinels and TSM to qualify, one of the tougher stretches any team will be facing.

2. XSET

After beating Sentinels in Stage 3 Challengers 1, XSET proved the team is for real. With a new IGL in Rory “dephh” Jackson and a young gun in Zachary “zekken” Patrone, XSET are playing the org’s best VALORANT right now. It will be a tough task to qualify, but if they can beat Sentinels, they can beat anybody.

XSET were one of four teams to qualify for both Stage 1 Masters and Stage 2 Challengers Finals, but they exited both of those tournaments quickly. Now they are back on NA’s biggest stage, and the roster change will hopefully change their fortunes as well. With a first-round matchup against LG, XSET have one of the better draws. LG won’t be easy, but XSET’s path to Berlin seems to be one of the cleanest in a talent-packed bracket.

1. Sentinels

Even though Sentinels are in a unique spot as the only team locked into VALORANT Champions regardless of what happens in Stage 3, the team is still the best in the world until proven otherwise. If they bring their best game, there’s no question they will finish as a top-three team headed to their third straight VCT Masters.

The question is motivation. For every other team, this represents a back-against-the-wall scenario. None of them want to leave qualification up to the Last Chance Qualifier, which will be a brutal eight-team bracket with one winner. In addition to the automatic Berlin qualifier, any top-four finisher in Berlin will have a chance to qualify for VALORANT Champions if everything breaks right.