The opening days of VALORANT Champions 2023 have featured some minor upsets already, but a major one to kick off day three of the group stage has seemingly rattled a roster filled with trophy winners.
NRG Esports stumbled and fell face-first in their opening match against Bilibili Gaming, with the experienced and decorated roster making numerous mistakes against the Chinese team playing in just its very first international competition. On Lotus, NRG surrendered a 9-5 lead before eventually falling in overtime, then got blown out in the first half of their own pick of Split. NRG was unable to mount a comeback.
In the press conference soon after the shock VALORANT loss, coach Chet Singh admitted to gathered media he would need more time to figure out what went wrong. “We fumbled a few post-plants, I’m not really sure what happened,” he said, regarding the blown lead on Lotus. “When we review we’ll figure it out, but we have to close those kind of rounds.”
Regarding Lotus, FNS explained the team struggled to capitalize on kills despite decent reads. “We had a lot of man-up advantages but we just couldn’t close.”
Ardiis then added that Bilibili “were really the better team” on Split.
When asked, coach Chet was unable to provide an immediate reason as to why NRG made so many uncharacteristic mistakes. “I honestly have no idea what happened today. I just need to watch the VOD back because I just don’t know.”
Related: VALORANT Champions 2023 scores, schedule, and format
For NRG, slow starts have been a recurring theme, but so have strong recoveries. NRG started the VCT Americas season slow with a 1-3 record before rattling off five straight wins. In the VALORANT playoffs, they fell to Evil Geniuses in the opening round but then managed to reach Masters with three straight lower bracket wins.
This is the first international VALORANT event of the year where NRG has fallen in their opening match and now fight for survival against ZETA. After that, they will have to face either the Bilibili team that just beat them or the relentlessly dominant Fnatic.
