All the necessary details for the first main event of NA VCT Stage 3. North American VALORANT is bathed in sunlight. Eight teams have advanced to the main event of NA VCT Stage Three: Challengers One after a grueling, upset-filled open qualification. Over four days, these teams will compete in a double-elimination bracket, with the best four teams earning a berth in the NA Challengers playoffs in August. At Challengers One, a total of $50,000 will be on the line.
Surprises dominated the final two rounds of the open qualification. TSM, FaZe Clan, Cloud9 Blue, NRG, and Immortals were all eliminated in the round of 32 or round of 16 respectively. As a result, the Challengers pool, Rise, and the Kansas City Pioneers have a few new faces. Rise, which included numerous former Dignitas players, defeated C9 Blue 2-0 in the final qualification round because of supamen’s outstanding performance on Astra. Kansas City and VIRTUOSO played in the same qualifying round after each team defeated Immortals and NRG, with the Pioneers advancing barely a week after joining.
Aside from the two new faces and the top teams that were upset, the rest of the field is very recognizable to NA VALORANT watchers. Both Sentinels and V1 used their byes to qualify, however, Sentinels had to come back from a 1-0 disadvantage after losing Icebox to Soniqs—their first map loss since the NA Challengers Finals in Stage Two. They are not the only ones that had to put in a lot of effort to win. DarkZero, who had recently knocked FaZe out of the qualifier, was defeated by XSET in a hard-fought three-map series. After losing map one to T1, Envy had to come back from being in second place on map two. To go past a Noble squad who had just upset TSM, 100 Thieves had to work hard.
The qualifying revealed that the North American area has become more competitive and that the top teams must now fight even harder to maintain their positions. The teams that made it through the qualifying will now compete in the main event.
Participating Teams
- Sentinels
- XSET Gaming
- Team Envy
- 100 Thieves
- Version1
- Gen.G Esports
- Rise
- Kansas City PioneerS
Bracket and Schedule
Previews of the first round
July 8
- 4pm CT: Upper bracket quarterfinals
- Version1 vs 100 Thieves
- Team Envy vs Kansas City Pioneers
- 6:30pm CT: Upper bracket quarterfinals
- XSET vs Rise
- Sentinels vs Gen.G
- 9pm CT: Lower bracket round one
- V1/100T loser vs NV/KCP loser
- XSET/Rise loser vs Sen/Gen.G loser
July 9
- 4pm CT: Upper bracket semifinals
- V1/100T winner vs NV/KCP winner
- XSET/Rise winner vs Sen/Gen.G winner
- 6:30pm CT: Lower bracket round two
July 10
- 2pm CT: Upper bracket final
- 4:30pm CT: Lower bracket round three
- 7pm CT: Lower bracket final
July 11
- 2pm CT: Grand finals