X10 Esports secure Iceland berth for SEA

Unlike most of the other regions where there were 8 teams vying for a spot at VCT 2021 - Stage 2 - Masters Reykjavík, in Southeast Asia there were 10 different squads looking to make the trip to Iceland - the top 6 each had a bye to the second round. In the end, it would wind up being X10 Esports being the team that secured the spot to represent the SEA region in Iceland, where they will be taking on 9 other teams who qualify from across the world.

Quarterfinals

First up, there was heavy favorites Bren Esports going up against BOOM Esports. Behind the superb Sova play of Jessie "JessieVash" Cucyo, they were able to easily finish out the match with two 13-3 map wins on Haven & Bind.

Next up, FULL SENSE took on Paper Rex. As usual, Jason "f0rsakeN" Susanto stood out as arguably the best player. As the younger brother of one of the former best players Asia had ever seen in CSGO, he will look to make his own mark in Valorant.

In the third match of the tournament, 6045Pirates took on NXL Ligagame where they handedly won the series 2-0 with map victories of 13-9 and 13-10 on Ascent and Bind. As for the eventual winners of X10, they took on CBT Gaming. As only the second match that went to 3 maps, this was yet another close game, but in the end X10 was able to move on with map victories sandwiched around a 13-6 Bind loss.

Semifinals

When arguably the favorites to travel to Iceland bowed out against Paper Rex in the upper bracket, the rest of the event was wide open for a surprise team to secure a trip to Reykjavik. During the first semifinal match, F0rsaken would play 3 different agents in total, Sova, Killjoy and Phoenix. Finishing with an unprecedented 63 kills and an ACS of 292 he completely dominated the rest of the server. As for X10, they once again were taken to a 3 map series, this time by 6045 Pirates. Once again, Patiphan "patt" Chaiwong stood out as a man amongst boys. The former Overwatch prodigy had intentions to play in the OWL, however due to age restrictions he was unable to so instead took his talents to VALORANT.

Upper Bracket Final & Grand Final

This match on paper looked like it was going to be F0rsaken vs Patiphan, and that is exactly what happened. Across all 3 maps, Patiphan would finish with 61 kills, and F0rsaken would finish with 55 kills.

After losing in the first round and making a big run through the admittedly mostly best-of-1 lower bracket, Full Sense took on X10 to secure a trip to Iceland. As a Jett main, one would expected Patiphan to finish near the top of kills almost ever match, but having 84 kills across a 4 map series shows that he will be a force to be reckoned with as Southeast Asia's best player in Reykjavik.

Final standings for SEA Challengers Finals 1. X10 Esports - $15,000 + qualification for Masters Reykjavik 2. Full Sense - $10,000 + 60 VCT Points 3. Paper Rex - $6,000 + 50 VCT Points 4. NXL Ligagame - $5,000 + 40 VCT Points 5th-6th. Bren Esports - $3,250 + 30 VCT Points 5th-6th. 6045 Pirates - $3,250 + 30 VCT Points 7th-8th. CBT Gaming - $2,250 + 20 VCT Points 7th-8th. BOOM Esports - $2,250 + 20 VCT Points 9th-10th. CERBERUS - $1,500 + 10 VCT Points 9th-10th. FEARUS - $1,500 + 10 VCT Points