VRL - East: Surge - Stage 1 Recap
Last weekend the grand finale of the first season of VRL - Eastern Europe: Surge - Stage 1 - Main Event was held. In the most important match, two Polish teams faced each other, where Anonymo Esports defeated AWARIA and became the first Eastern European Regional League champions.
Group Stage
Briefly summing up the group phase, the most noteworthy is certainly NOM eSports (formerly l3wandowski), which did not lose a single game and advanced to the playoffs with a perfect record. What's more, they lost only 3 maps during the regular season. One of the brightest characters among all the players was Kamil "kamo" Frąckowiak, who often reached incredible stats.
That, on the other hand, we certainly can't say about KTRL, which failed to win even a single match. Surprisingly, the team decided to change the roster twice, which didn't help at all. The Romanian team won only one map against Team Finest and they were relegated from the league.
The rest of the teams played at a very similar level. A big sensation in the end was Team Finest not advancing to the playoffs. Winning only three games, the Israeli organization will have to fight in relegations to stay in the league. During the season, Jere "synsi" Virtanen left the team and was replaced by former FunPlus Phoenix’s player Dmitriy "dimasick" Matvienko. This had a very positive effect on Finest's gameplay.
Finally, Anonymo Esports, AWARIA and Anorthosis Famagusta Esports also advanced to the playoffs. Entropiq managed to stay in the league, while Gamerland Outlaws, like Finest, will fight in relegations. However, the future of the Hungarian roster is uncertain, as they announced disband last week.
Playoffs
The playoffs started right away with the semifinals, but with a double elimination bracket. This means that even if a team loses its first game, it is not eliminated from the playoffs because of the loser bracket. All matches were played as BO3 except for the grand finale, which was BO5.
In the first semi-final AWARIA faced Anonymo Esports, where the team led by Grzegorz "GRUBINHO" Ryczko presented itself much better. Without any major problems, the only team without organization in the entire league, defeated Anonymo 2:0. Then there was a great performance of Kacper "Katu" Twórz, who gave his rivals no doubt who was better that day.
In the second match, a bit unexpectedly NOM Esports had a huge trouble with Anonymo Esports. The first map which was Split, was completely dominated by the European team. The second map was Bind, where at one point NOM led 12-5, but that was not enough for Anonymo, who made a fantastic comeback and won 14-12. The last map of the match was Haven, which was very close. In the end, unexpectedly, it was an all-Polish team that proved to be better in this clash, thus advancing to the winner's bracket. This was the first defeat for NOM Esports this season.
In the upper final AWARIA again proved to be a much better team than its rival. The meeting ended with a fairly quick victory for AWA, thus advancing to the grand final of the first season of the Valorant Regional League East: Surge. Anonymo dropped to the losers' ladder after this defeat, where their rival was to be the winner of the match between NOM Esports and Anorthosis Famagusta.
This match unexpectedly started with complete domination on the part of Anorthosis. NOM didn't get off to a good start, losing Ascent 5:13, but on Icebox we had a much more even competition, which was eventually won by the team led by Martin "Hitch" Srp. However, the third arena belonged to Nathan "nataNk" Bocqueho. The Frenchman showed his phenomenal side as Chamber, getting as many as 29 eliminations. Thus, it was Anorthosis Famagusta that defeated NOM in this match. It was a huge sensation, as the best team of the regular season dropped first in the playoffs.
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In the lower final Anonymo Esports faced Anorthosis Famagusta, where the stakes were promotion to the grand final, where AWARIA were already waiting. That day, however, the Greek team was a completely different team than the day before. They were not able to establish a real fight with their rival, and Anonymo won the match quite confidently and stood a chance to get back at AWA for the two previous matches.
Grand Final
It's hard to dream of a better grand final than the one that just happened at VRL - Eastern Europe: Surge - Stage 1 - Main Event. We saw as many as five maps, of which only one was actually dominated by one of the teams. The decisive arena in this match was the Icebox, where Anonymo Esports players made a great start. They created a sizable lead for themselves, winning the first half by a score of 9-3. However, this was no time for a curse. After the change of sides Sebastian "snikk" Kamiński with the band won the pistol round and several minutes later they could celebrate the title of the champion.
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_1668175979438.png&w=96&q=75 "Anonymo Esports")
This is the first major accomplishment for this team, which may further motivate these players. The next step in their career will be VCT 2022 - EMEA Promotion Tournament, where they will face the winners of all the regional leagues and the relegated VCT 2022 - EMEA - Stage 1 - Challengers - Main Event, who are BIG and Papara SuperMassive. The VCT Promotion Tournament will kick off on April 1. The top two teams from this competition will advance to VCT 2022 - EMEA - Stage 2 - Challengers - Main Event
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