VCT 2022 NA Stage 1 - Version1, XSET, The Guard & NRG qualify

The first of two open qualifiers in North America has come to an end with some thrilling matches and drama to go with it. Version1, XSET, The Guard & NRG are the first four qualified teams to make their way to the main event where they will meet invited teams; Sentinels, Envy, Cloud9 & 100 Thieves.

Version1 were favourites to qualify and they did so in emphatic fashion, taking out Kowareta, Complexity, Akrew and Rise without dropping a single map in the double elimination stage. The team collectively were the best overall team racking up a team ACS of 236.40 with Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro leading the charge with a mighty 1.55 rating, 253.50 ACS, 160.80 ADR and a 1.81 KD.

V1 made light work of Complexity in the upper bracket round of 16, match MVP Zellsis led his team to victory with a 13-7 & 13-2 map scores to advance to the next round where they took on Akrew. Many thought this would be a great battle and go all the way in the best of three series but V1 took their momentum from the get go and took them down 13-6 & 13-4, this time it was Alexander "Zander" Dituri turn to shine with 41 kills. The upper bracket semi final was the qualifier decider match where they faced an in-form Rise, again this was expected to be a close game but V1 took them in their stride and breezed past them. Zellsis once again was the man who took the MVP award but Erik "penny" Penny also made an impact in the match with his 36 kills.

Version1 have looked very impressive throughout January and look to take their form from the qualifier into the main event where they will look to cement themselves amongst the North American elites.

XSET also qualified through the upper bracket where they showed great team spirit and battled their way through some tough opponents. This was the first event that XSET had participated in since NSG 2022 Winter Championship - Online Open 7 back in the end of November 2021 and their first event with their latest signing, Matthew "Cryocells" Panganiban. Their path to qualification was not quite as straightforward as Version1’s, they started by taking out IlluZion in the upper bracket round of 32 with ease but faced an unlikely tough test against Radiance who took them to all three maps and would be XSET’s only map loss of the qualifier.

They progressed to the next round where they faced NRG, a matchup where XSET had the upper hand in the head to head with 3 victories and one loss against NRG and this match was no exception to that statistic as they closed out a close 2-0 win, 13-9 & 13-11. Zachary "zekken" Patrone was the game changer with his 1.14 rating, 234 ACS and 154.90 ADR, on the other hand Daniel "eeiu" Vucenovic made this as difficult for XSET with his 1.17 rating, 226 ACS and 1.37 KD.

Their final match which led to qualification was against The Guard, another in-form North American team which have recently acquired new and exciting players. XSET took the first map, Split, in a quick 13-3 score line with all 5 XSET players stepping up. Next map was Bind where XSET’s new boy, Cryocells, dominated the opposition with an incredible 1.84 rating, 391 ACS, 217.9 ADR and a whopping 2.45 KD which led to a 13-6 win and the qualification spot.

XSET are now on a 13 win streak, their last defeat coming against the mighty Cloud9 in the [event=https://www.thespike.gg/events/north-america-last-chance-qualifier/993] last year.