A Champion in the Making: NA Valorant Challengers League Split 1 Week 2, Day 1 Recap

Valorant

9 Feb

Foo Zen-Wen

For a team called The Guard, they’re really good at attacking…

The North American (NA) Challenger League 2023, is comprised of 12 teams competing over the course of 2 splits during the year. The first split, set to run from the 1st of Feb until the 17th of Mar, will culminate in attendance to the Mid-Season Invitational. The tournament in its entirety is organized by Knights Arena in conjunction with Riot Games.

The Guard remain undefeated in Week 2, tournament favorites Shopify have their first upset.

Here’s a complete cover of everything you might have missed from Week 2 of the 2023 Valorant NA Challengers League Split 1.

Current NA VCL Standing (Week 2)

NA VCL Group A Week 2 Standings. Screengrab Strafe Esports.

NA VCL Group B Week 2 Standings. Screengrab Strafe Esports.

Day One Match Results

Shopify Rebellion vs Oxygen Esports [1-2]

A surprise win for Oxygen Esports, who rallied after a tough first map loss to take down a dizzied Shopify Rebellion in the next two maps. Despite a convincing first map, the wind seemed to have fled Shopify’s sails as they were repeatedly run over by the efforts of Oxygen, who many pundits placed as clear underdogs in this series.

Especial props has to be give to Josh “pwny” VanGorder on the duelist role, who managed to take an astounding 14 First Kills across the series. The next highest was Shopify’s Adam “mada” Pampuch, who scored 11. However, a secondary shoutout has to go to Brandon “bdog” Sanders, who once again was the top performer on the server despite his team’s loss (51/36/28).

Strafe Player of the Series: OXG pwny

The Guard vs OREsports [2-0]

The Guard continue their undefeated streak with another 2-0 victory over OREsports. ORE managed to get a combined 7 rounds across the two maps played, thanks to the dominance of The Guard. Trent “trent” Cairns was clearly the best player this series, popping off on the Raze pick especially on Map 2. He went 21/9/4 on the map and was the highest performer on the server that series with a 34/16/11 scoreline.

A combination of clean reads and polished tactical proficiency from The Guard closed out any hopes OREsports had of securing even a third map.

Strafe Player of the Series: TGRD trent

Notable Stats for NA VCL Week 2

“valyn” overtook “bdog” to reclaim his top spot on the stats with a 249.5 ACS and 1.65 KD.
“mada” currently holds the NA Challengers League record for most agents played during the split, at four. Neon, Raze, Sage, and Skye have all be utilized by him during the five maps played so far.
“pwny” has overtaken “koalanoob” in First Kills secured, with 23 total. However, “koalanoob” still holds the record for differential, at +13, to “pwny’s” +5.

Today’s Matches

Disguised vs MAD Lions [1600 EST/2100 GMT]

M80 vs TSM [1900 EST/ 0000 GMT]