Empire Play North Africa VALORANT Invitational Recap

Riot Games revealed their VALORANT Ignition Series partnership program for tournament organizers to gain exposure and direct feedback on their work from the studio. Shortly after the announcement, three more Ignition Series competitions were revealed for the LATAM, MENA, and SEA regions. The Empire Play North Africa Invitational featured eight teams from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Quarterfinals

All eight teams participating went through a best-of-1 against their designated opponents. The event kicked off on June 26th, 2020 with Divine Vendetta taking on Tunisian esports organization, Eternity Esports. The latter lost to a brilliant performance from Divine Vendetta’s Bilal “Bazy” Z'bair on Haven, getting 21 kills and a 312 ACS and winning the game 13-3. Considering they already went into the tournament as favorites, this early convincing win wasn’t a surprise.

The second game of the night pitted Team Viboras up against Stade Tunisien Esports. Honestly, we can’t say it was close at all, because Team Viboras took the win with a perfect 13-0 score on VALORANT’s newly added map, Ascent. Seddik “zodgod” Diani put up a spectacular performance to say the least, with 463 ACS, 22 kills, and only 4 deaths.

Third game of the night had Exalted Esports vs Knights of Bizertin Rise. Exalted Esports won 13-6 on Bind, with a solid showing from the entire team. As for the final matchup, Simplicity Gaming won against WaVii Team with a 13-2 scoreline on Bind as well. Slacherj managed to get himself a 400 ACS game to secure the victory for his team.

Semifinals

Two exciting best-of-3 semi-final matches headlined Saturday’s June 27, 2020 stream, with Divine Vendetta taking on Exalted Esports and Team Viboras against Simplicity Gaming. Both of them ended in swift 2-0 wins for Divine Vendetta and Team Viboras. Seddik “zodgod” Diani stepped up again for Team Viboras, grabbing himself 40 kills and a 301 ACS rating across both Haven and Ascent

Finals

The Empire Play North Africa VALORANT Invitational finals took place on June 28, 2020. The tournament’s third and fourth place matchup between Exalted Esports and Simplicity Gaming was a great display. Both teams pushed each other to their best, but Algerian esports organization, Exalted Esports, shut down the game with a 13-6 and 13-8 score lines on Haven and Split respectively.

The final game witnessed Divine Vendetta defeat their Empire Play North Africa VALORANT Invitational title contenders, Team Viboras, in style with a 3-0 clean sweep. Haven and Bind were relatively close calls, with Team Viboras’ cactuzio and haks display of skill kept their teammates in the game till the last breath. Divine Vendetta won 13-11, 13-3, and 13-10 to be crowned the Empire Play North Africa VALORANT Invitational winners. The team definitely showed resilience and their players outstanding performances remained consistent throughout the tournament, with Bayram “bramz” Ben Redjeb grabbing 64 kills across all three games.

The Empire Play North Africa VALORANT Invitational tournament gave us a taste of the talent present in the MENA region, where players’ true potential is relatively capped due to ping and connectivity issues. Hopefully this won’t be the last Ignition Series competition we see from Riot Games for MENA and other regions, where we could discover hidden VALORANT esport gems. Stay tuned on THESPIKE.GG for all the news and professional event coverage!

Final Standings for Empire Play North Africa VALORANT Invitational:

1. Divine Vendetta
2. Team Viboras
3. Exalted Esports
4. Simplicity Gaming
5. Eternity Esports
6. Knights of Bizertin Rise
7. Stade Tunisien Esports
8. WaVii Team