Gambit Esports and KRÜ Esports qualified for the semi-finals
The Valorant Champions quarter-finals are now over! After two eventful matches, Gambit Esports and KRÜ Esports join Acend and Team Liquid in the semi-finals of the Valorant World Championship.
Gambit Esports and KRÜ Esports beat X10 Esports and Fnatic. Yes, one of our European teams was unfortunately eliminated, but three of them are still in the running and determined to win the ultimate title!
Gambit Esports VS X10 Esports
The first match of the day was a head-to-head between Russia and Thailand and was played in three maps, starting on Fracture. Gambit Esports opened the scoring, with a Chronicle on fire, making a quadrakill in round 3. The first six rounds were fairly close between the two teams, until the Russian players decided it was time to get serious. By round 7, they were winning every round. At side change, the score was 9-3 in their favour, and their dominance was clearly visible in the statistics. Pati, one of the X10 players, was the only one with a positive KDA, while all his teammates were struggling.
After this half, the Thai team did not manage to get back on track. Although they won a few rounds, and even asked for a technical pause to talk to their coach, it was not enough and it was finally Gambit who won the first map on a score of 13-7. Special mention to Chronicle who did a great job on this match.
The second match was played on Ascent and this time, X10 Esports took the lead by winning the first two rounds, the first of which was on a foxz's clutch. The latter was a key element in his team's success in this first part of the game. Absolutely monstrous on Sova, he won many duels and made several clutches. The half-time arrived on a triple kill of Scary allowing the Thai team to lead 7 to 5.
Gambit fought hard in the second half of the game, but X10 only conceded two rounds. They forced a buying phase which, although surprising, allowed them to win almost all the following rounds. The map ended with a score of 13-7 13 to 7 in their favour. Despite this win, it was not an easy game for them, although foxz and Pati played a very good game throughout.
The third and final point was played on Breeze, a map that Gambit Esports is not used to losing. They started strong by winning the first three rounds, but X10 was determined to go for their place in the semi-finals, and won the next three rounds. Gambit went very dominant though, with the Thai players finding it very difficult to deal with Chronicle's Skye and Redgar's Sova. By half-time, the score was 7-5 in favour of the Russian team.
Like the two previous maps, Breeze ended with a score of 13-7. Gambit let X10 win the two rounds after side change and then did not concede any more. Chronicle again cleaned up the opposing lines, making several decisive triple kills. Despite a tactical time-out requested by X10 after round 16, the outcome of the match did not change and Gambit won the match, on a score of 2-1. The Thai team fought hard, they were not expected to go this far in the competition and they were able to create a surprise. They held off the team that won the Berlin Masters, which is no mean feat.
Gambit Esports will therefore play the semi-finals, which will take place on 11th December.
Fnatic VS KRÜ Esports
The final quarter-final of the first Valorant Champions was between Fnatic and KRü Esports. This was not the first time that the two teams met, they had already met at the Masters in Reykjavik and Fnatic had triumphed 2-0.
The match started on Haven, Derke opened the scoring with a triplekill and led this team to a 2-0 lead. Not that KRÜ Esports was impressed though, as they responded very well and won the next three rounds. Klaus scored a quadrakill on round 6, to which Derke responded by also taking out four of his opponents. Fnatic then took off and dominated the rest of the rounds until half time.
This dominance was cut short by the Latin American team thanks to some very aggressive gameplay from delz1k and Keznit, taking the score to 10-9. They then called for a tactical time-out which, rather than helping them to continue their momentum, gave Fnatic the opportunity to get back on track. The final rounds were therefore very close, with both teams alternating victories, pushing the match to the wire until it finally ended 15-13 in favour of KRÜ Esports. The performance of Klaus is to be commended on this map, managing to win several rounds on his own.
Icebox was the venue of this second round, one of Fnatic's favourite maps and one on that they excel at. Once again, Derke showed KRÜ Esports that they were determined to triumph, scoring a quadrakill in round 2. But the incredible action to remember at the start of the game was the Keznit's hexakill, the first of the competition. He eliminated all his opponents in a fraction of a second, including Derke twice, as the latter had just been resurrected by Doma. Despite this great show of strength, Fnatic dominated by far at half-time, with a score of 10-2.
During the second half of the map, keznit tried everything to save his team, making two Aces. Despite this great performance, Fnatic still won, not surprisingly, with a score of 13-6. Derke, the star player on this map, admitted that keznit has been very good and that he was surely one of the best duelists today.
I wasn't surprised, I knew he was a good player from the Berlin matches we watched. We played scrims versus them, he shoots very well. Overall I didn't underestimate him, I feel like it was a great battle between us two because I fought him a lot [...] I think he's one of the best duelists for sure.
Fnatic player – Derke
The last map of this match, and especially the last of these quarter-finals, was Split. KRÜ Esports quickly made their mark, winning five rounds to one for Fnatic. The Latin American team ended the first half of the map on top, leading 7-5.
The triple of keznit after side change set the tone for the LATAM players' intentions to qualify for the semi-finals. They won three rounds in a row, bringing the score to 10-5. Boaster and Klaus tried to catch up with their team, but without success. KRÜ Esports finally won the map on a score of 13-8, with a great performance from keznit and Mazino, who shone throughout the game.
After eliminating Sentinels in group stage, KRÜ Esports now eliminates Fnatic, two teams that were ranked among the favourites in the competition. They will now face Gambit Esports in the semi-finals and try to win once again against a Valorant behemoth.
The quarter-finals are over and Acend, Team Liquid, Gambit Esports and KRÜ Esports have qualified for the rest of the competition. The first semi-final will take place on 11th December at 6pm (CET) between Gambit Esports and KRÜ Esports. The second semi-final will take place on the same day at 9pm (CET) and this time, it will be Acend versus Team Liquid. Which teams will make it to the final match? Will we have a 100% European final? We'll find out very soon.
And to find all the results of the matches, we invite you to see our dedicated article.
EN 
FR