Trovo Challenge: VALORANT Recap

This past weekend, we saw a somewhat major event organizer get involved in VALORANT for the first time, as GLL and a brand new streaming platform, Trovo Live, hosted Trovo Challenge: VALORANT. The event had North American and European arms, each with a $10,000 USD prize pool. Here’s a recap of all the action, brought to you by myself and Mostafeto!

North America

(Germanicus)

The North American quarterfinals were tight, with every series having a map go to double digits on both sides, but in the end, Oxygen Supremacy, Demon Time, Team Underrated, and Way 2 French emerged as the victors. The highlight was Team Underrated’s upset over notable amateur team Big Frames, with Poised putting up 53 kills in the series.

The semifinals got close. Oxygen Supremacy handily beat Demon Time, showing great performance ahead of more major events for the team, but Way 2 French won a tight match against Team Underrated. After the latter won Haven in overtime, the French Canadians battled back to win the successive maps, Bind and Ascent, each 13-8.

The first map of the finals was very exciting. Way 2 French pulled out to a massive 10-2 lead on offense on Ascent, off the back of some incredible Operator play from Michael “miLLe” St-Pierre. But Oxygen Supremacy seemed to favour offense too, and came back with their own 10-2 attacking half. It was down to overtime, but Oxygen Supremacy, heartbreakingly, couldn’t complete the comeback. The second map, Haven, began similarly for Way 2 French, but there was no comeback this time. Way 2 French won the map 13-4, and the series 2-0.

Final Standings for Trovo Challenge: VALORANT North America:

1. Way 2 French - $5,000 2. Oxygen Supremacy - $1,800 3-4. Team Underrated - $800 3-4. Demon Time - $800 5-8. Big Frames - $400 5-8. 303 Esports Orange - $400 5-8. Ascent - $400 5-8. i95 - $400

Europe

(Mostafeto)

The competition’s European counterpart featured some intense matchups for sure. The Trovo Challenge: VALORANT’s quarter-finals saw Team Jbzz, 5gg, nolpenki, and 2G4L progress to the semi-finals. The most interesting and close matchup of the night we saw on July 03, 2020 was between 5gg and esoteric, where both Haven and Bind ended with 13-10 scores in favor of the winner, and only Ascent going to esoteric with a 13-9 scoreline. 2G4L’s Finnish player Ville “rEplan” Ijäs finished the quarter-finals with 306 ACS, the highest in this stage of the tournament.

The semi-finals saw nolpenki go up against 2G4L, while Team Jbzz took on 5gg. The latter match went into all three maps, with 5gg taking the first map then Team Jbzz stepping it up to take Ascent and Haven to close out the series. As for nolpenki, they managed to convincingly shut down 2G4L and win two straight maps with 13-4 and 13-6 scorelines on Bind and Split respectively, not giving their opponents any chance for a comeback.

The final saw the two strongest teams in the European Trovo Challenge: VALORANT go head-to-head to determine the winner: nolpenki vs Team Jbzz. We witnessed an intense first map on Split, where we had to go to overtime and nolpenki snatched the win. On Bind, Team Jbzz picked up the pace and equalized the series to 1-1 after coming out victorious with a 13-8 scoreline. It all came down to Haven, with nolpenki’s Marius “l0udly” Žilinskas and Team Jbzz’s Gwendal “QZIAN” Pieds stepping up with huge performances. In the end, nolpenki won the tournament and were crowned the European winners of the Trovo Challenge: VALORANT.

Final Standings for Trovo Challenge: VALORANT Europe:

1. nolpenki - $5,000 2. Team Jbzz - $1,800 3-4. 2G4L - $800 3-4. 5gg - $800 5-8. Mattistack - $400 5-8. Worst Players - $400 5-8. lol - $400 5-8. esoteric - $400