VCT 2022 - Stage 1 - Masters Reykjavik: XERXIA

The Thai VALORANT team, XERXIA, have qualified for VCT 2022 - Stage 1 - Masters Reykjavík, and here is a summary of their regional first stage performance and everything you need to know about them!

VCT 2022 - Thailand - Stage 1 - Main Event

Even before qualifying for the Masters event, the Thai teams need to take a longer way and guaranteed themselves a spot at VCT 2022 - APAC Challengers. To qualify for the Asian event, XERXIA’s journey started regionally in Thailand. The first stop was VCT 2022 - Thailand - Stage 1 - Main Event, where they faced other Thai teams. XERXIA came up against Team JOBSO, MiTH, and Gelida Esports during the group stage and went undefeated to qualify for the playoffs.

The first playoff opponent happened to be XERXIA’s players’ previous organization, X10 Esports. After winning the first map, 19-17, X10 CRIT were disqualified after the second game as their coach had communicated with his players outside of permitted technical and tactical pauses. As a result, XERXIA moved on to the second round to face another important Thai esports organization, FULL SENSE. After two uncontested wins on Icebox and Fracture, XERXIA reached the grand finals. Finally, the team took down MiTH just like they did in the group stage to win the trophy and qualify for APAC Challengers.

VCT 2022 - APAC Challengers

As the tournament ruleset stated, the first two seeded teams, in other words, the finalists will earn a spot at VCT 2022 - Stage 1 - Masters Reykjavík to represent the Southeast Asia region. XERXIA’s miracle run started with their first win of the tournament which was over Onic Esports. Unfortunately, they had to forfeit their second game in the group due to an electrical issue but the players tweeted how eager they were to win. It was Onic Esports once again in the decider match of Group C and XERXIA didn’t even flick as they pulled out a sweep over their opponents to qualify for the playoffs stage.

The first opponent was the Indonesian BOOM Esports and XERXIA secured an important lead after winning BOOM’s map Bind with a score of 13-5 and Fracture ended in 26 rounds which put the Thai team to the next stage. The boss of Southeast Asia, Paper Rex, was next on the menu but XERXIA failed to show their strength and fell to the lower bracket. Despite facing a one-sided loss against PRX, they recuperated rapidly and swept Persija Esports to start. Secondly, it was BOOM Esports once again and the result didn’t change as XERXIA moved on to the lower bracket final to come up against BLEED Esports. With Jacob "pyth" Mourujärvi’s lead, Bleed eSports looked strong throughout the tournament and the series was fun to watch. In the end, XERXIA closed out the game with a 2-1 win to qualify for VCT 2022 - Stage 1 - Masters Reykjavík and face Paper Rex in the grand finals. Even though forcing five maps, it was still not enough to beat PRX and XERXIA secured the second spot of the region.

VCT 2022 - APAC Challengers

Paper Rex

3

X

2

XERXIA

Grand Final, Best of 5 - March 27, 2022 - 7:30AM

13

Fracture

4

8

Split

13

13

Icebox

5

11

Breeze

13

13

Haven

8

Paper Rex

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

f0rsakeN

1.27

276

99/78/20

+21

1.27

74.8%

171.1

23%

50%

23

23

d4v41

1.19

228

86/66/28

+20

1.30

82.9%

148.0

25%

53%

8

7

mindfreak

1.14

219

81/68/27

+13

1.19

75.5%

137.0

26%

60%

6

4

Jinggg

1.00

200

67/75/37

-8

0.89

75.6%

134.6

15%

50%

10

10

Benkai

0.86

164

57/69/37

-12

0.83

66.4%

119.9

17%

27%

3

8

XERXIA

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

Foxz

1.12

226

80/75/35

+5

1.07

77.8%

148.8

23%

52%

11

10

sScary

1.11

229

78/75/27

+3

1.04

78.6%

155.0

30%

64%

7

4

Surf

0.92

214

73/87/15

-14

0.84

65.9%

148.0

29%

50%

18

18

sushiboys

0.87

188

67/77/18

-10

0.87

65.1%

129.1

18%

58%

11

8

Crws

0.79

163

58/76/29

-18

0.76

73.9%

113.6

25%

33%

5

10

MAP PICKS

During their VCT 2022 run, XERXIA have picked Icebox five times which comes up as their most-picked map. However, they only picked two wins in five games and they played Icebox one more time as their opponent’s pick and lost that also. Secondly, we have seen XERXIA compete on Fracture three times as their second most-picked map of the season and they had a better score on the map, with two wins and a single loss. We might also see XERXIA on Ascent and Haven according to their strategies and opponents.

PLAYER TO WATCH

• Thanachart "Surf" Rungarphajaratsakul

As the duelist of the team, Surf gets all the spotlights on him when he is on Jett and Raze. The Thai player is holding a 1.09 rating and a solid 1.22 K/D for the past two months. He has played 36 maps and he picked Jett 34 times to help his team reach VCT 2022 - Stage 1 - Masters Reykjavík. Besides, Surf is sitting at a solid 14.3% 1vX clutch percentage to show off how cold-blooded he is. After Patiphan "patt" Chaiwong’s departure from the team, XERXIA found the right duelist to replace their star player.

XERXIA’s roster consists of:

Yuttanagorn "Zeus" Kaewkongyai (Coach) Jirawat "HeadHawk" Kalumpanun (Manager & Analyst)