Alliance and Vitality, finalists of the Valorant Open Tour France

The quarter and semi-finals of the Final Tournament of the Valorant Open Tour France are now over. At the end of the first two days of competition, we have finally been able to determine the two grand finalists of the tournament: Alliance and Team Vitality !

Fast-paced quarter-finals

The competition started with the 4 quarter-finals. There were few surprises here, with the BO3s all being played in two maps.

The encounter between Last Dance and New World started with HyP and co. in the lead, with an attacking phase on Haven resulting in a 10-2. The New World mix was more convincing at side change, but this was not enough to make up for the deficit and the first point of this quarter-final was therefore won by Last Dance.

Things were then more balanced on Fracture, but only in the first half. The two teams were initially evenly matched, with the score at 6-all in round 13. When they switched to defense, Last Dance stood like an impenetrable wall and won in a row the 7 points they needed to win and qualify for the semi-finals. 

The second quarter-final match opposed Miracles at Alliance. Hostilities started on Icebox with a very successful attack phase for the Swedish team. Miracles then took their turn in attack but Alliance managed to grab the last 3 points and took a one point lead in the BO.

Once switched on Ascent, the game became radically different. First, Alliance totally annihilated their opponents' offensives and only had to look for 4 small points to secure their place in the semi-finals. LuckeRRR shone particularly brightly on this map, finishing with a KDA of 25/5/3!

The third match of the weekend was between Vitality and Stunned5, the only team to have achieved a clean sweep in the Swiss rounds of the Fall Tournament. The Bees played a tight game while allowing individual players like Lightning and Bramz express themselves. 

On Split, Vitality first protected their points via numerous defuses and were 4 points ahead of Stunned5 at half time. In defense, they struggled to contain Cender and his allies, conceding their map to Vitality. A similar scenario unfolded on Bind, except that the Bees started on attack and not on defense.

Saturday concluded with the meeting between BDS and BK ROG ! The first map, Haven, proved to be glorious for the Swiss organisation which finished their attack phase with 10 points against 2 for BK ROG. A wake-up call from the latter earned them a reprieve for 4 rounds but BDS finally managed to take the map.

On Ascent, BK ROG showed a different face and played a very good defensive phase with many retakes. A BDS remonstrance followed, countering 10 times the assaults of their opponents and snatching their qualification for the semi-finals with a 13-10 victory!

Alliance and Vitality played their cards right

While the quarter-finals all ended as quickly as possible, the semi-finals were far more competitive.

The first battle for a place in the final was between Last Dance and Alliance. The match started very badly for iDex and his teammates who were unable to outwit the Swedish team's strong defense on Haven. The map ended in less than 30 minutes with a clear 13-3 for Alliance. 

The latter then chose to play on Fracture. Here, Last Dance showed us a completely different face, more in line with what we usually know of them. By ensuring the essential in attack and by clearly asserting themselves in defense, the Last Dance team equalises in this semi-final.

Icebox was the most contested map in this BO. The first half allowed Last Dance to take a two point lead thanks to a triple kill from HyP in round 13. Unfortunately for them, Alliance's defense led by a very strong Zik got the better of them, and the organisation was then only one map away from the grand final.

This 3rd map undoubtedly threw a big chill on Last Dance, who ended this semi-final as they started it, i.e. with a big defeat. Once again, Alliance built an impregnable wall for Shin and his companions who only managed to get 3 points out of the whole game. Alliance win their 3rd point and became the first finalist team of the Valorant Open Tour France!

The weekend ended with a clash between the Team Vitality and Team BDS and it took them to the end of the BO5 to determine a winner. The 5 maps were hotly contested, with both organisations going head to head.

It all started on Fracture on the BDS choice. At haltf-time, the two teams were neck and neck, but the Bees were then able to find the breach in the Swiss organisation's defense and Vitality takes a precious first point in this BO5.

The exact opposite happened on Ascent ! This time, Team BDS did not flinch in their defensive phase and played their game plan. Despite this, the Bees managed to snatch 3 points, two of which were thanks to the explosion of the Spike, and it was clear that they were not going to let themselves be beaten so easily.

However, this win had launched BDS all too well in this match. On Bind, LogaN's Viper largely contributed to his team's dominance in defense, which only had to look for 4 offensive wins to regain the upper hand in this semi-final. The Hive then had its back to the wall and had no room for error in order to reach the final.

This situation was in fact perhaps what Vitality needed to get back into the game. On Split, we note good retakes in defense and an efficient duo Cender/Bramz in attack, winning even pistol rounds, where the team usually struggles to do so. Vitality snatched their second point of the match, and Icebox, the last map, decided the winner!

We finally arrive at the fateful moment. Who of Vitality or BDS would join Alliance in the VALOTF Grand Final? The viewers were kept on their toes throughout the game, as the two teams went toe to toe on several occasions. The craziest part of the match was undoubtedly the very last round, in which Vitality won! Indeed, Lightning managed to defuse the Spike thanks to a body-block from LogaN's Snake Bite which ended up on the ground, out of reach of Vitality's players!

The VALOTF Grand Final on Saturday 27th November

Finalists of the tournament, Alliance and Vitality will face each other in an explosive BO5 this Saturday 27th November at 7pm ! Which organisation will win the title of French Champion? To find out, we invite you to follow Mandatory on social networks and we'll see you next Saturday on the Twitch channel of Mandatory!