Curtain Call: Valorant North America Challengers Last Chance Qualifiers, Tournament Roundup

Valorant

23 Jan

Foo Zen-Wen

The North American Challengers Last Chance Qualifiers was held between 18th of Jan to the 23rd to determine the final two teams to qualify for the NA 2023 Challengers League. A total of 12 teams will compete in the league, with the first split set to run from the 1st of Feb to the 14th of Mar. It will culminate in a Mid-Season Invitational, inviting the teams who finished top eight in the league that split.

Qualification secured

The final two teams to join the other 10 in the North American Challengers League has been determined. With the conclusion of the Last Chance Qualifier, the final two spots have been filled. OREsports and Squirtle Squad are the last two teams to join the NA Challengers League. Here is a full list of the teams and the players on the two rosters:

Squirtle Squad

Peter “Governor” No
Jack “Add3r” Hayashi
Anthony “Okeanos” Nguyen
Matthew “WeDid” Suchan
Mohammed “Harmful” Choudhary

OREsports

Jonard “Jonaaa6” Penaflor
Dayton “Lear” Akau
Chase “nillyaz” Linder
Elijah “zeldris” Hawkins
Vincent “PureVNS” Nguyen

No further information on either roster has been made available, however, it is likely a larger organization may attempt to pick up Squirtle Squad. Led by one of NA’s better unsigned talents in “Governor”, the Squirtle Squad roster won the upper finals against fellow qualifier OREsports in convincing 2-0 fashion.

Summary of Day Four Matches

LB Ro6

[Nearest Airport vs 99 Strength] 2-1

[The Nation vs Soniqs] 2-0

LB Ro7

[Soniqs vs Nearest Airport] 2-1

Summary of Day Five Matches

UB Final (Qualification for Winner)

[Squirtle Squad vs OREsports] 2-0

Squirtle Squad QUALIFIED

Summary of Final Day

LB Final (Qualification for Winner)

[Soniqs vs OREsports] 1-2

OREsports QUALIFIED

Strafe Match of the Night

[Soniqs vs OREsports] 1-2

Both teams won their respective map picks, and the series went to a decider map. On Bind, Soniqs found themselves up 9-3 at the half, 4 rounds from qualification. Despite all that, OREsports rallied in the second half to bring back the score to 14-12 in their favor. That loss also ended Soniqs 6-series winstreak that began with Goofy Goobers back on the 19th.

What Happens Now?

With the conclusion of the Last Chance Qualifiers, the NA Challengers League will officially begin on the 1st of Feb. The 12 finalized teams competing in Splits 1 and 2 are:

M80
FaZe Clan
TSM
Shopify Rebellion
G2 Esports
The Guard
BreakThru
Disguised
Oxygen Esports
Dark Ratio
Squirtle Squad
OREsports

At the start of the split, the teams will be split into two groups, A and B. Each group will have 6 of the teams. Each group will battle it out in a single round-robin format. The top four from each group will qualify for the Mid-Season Invitational.

Image credit: Knights Arena