After two days of VCT NA Challengers 2 action, we have our first four participants determined for Masters with two days still remaining. Team Envy, Immortals, XSET, and Luminosity Gaming have all qualified for the first NA Masters event.
Envy and Immortals both qualified with two straight wins via the winners bracket. Both Sentinels and XSET had a tougher road through the lower bracket. Envy were the only team to advance that qualified via open qualifiers; the other three qualified for Challengers 2 with a top-four finish at Challengers 1.
Envy came into the Challengers 2 main event red hot after three straight 2-0 victories in the open qualifier. The momentum carried them into their opening match with XSET, another 2-0 that featured a dominant 13-1 victory on Split. This pit them against Sentinels in what ended up being a close, back-and-forth affair. All three maps were decided by four rounds or less, with the entire NV team stepping up on Split against a red hot Jay “sinatraa” Won to close out the series. They were pretty pleased to say the least.
Immortals continue to improve over time. They opened the main event with a solid 2-0 victory over Gen.G, putting them against Luminosity with a Masters spot on the line. Victory looked like it was heading to LG after they narrowly took map one in OT. But the newest additions in Nicholas “NaturE” Garrison and Rhett “Kehmicals” Lynch both carried the load for IMT on Ascent and Bind to pull off the reverse sweep.
Despite falling to Team Envy in the second round, Sentinels still had a chance to qualify for Masters 1. All they had to was beat the reigning First Strike champions in 100 Thieves. The highly anticipated meeting between the two sides ended up being surprisingly one-sided, as Sentinels claimed Ascent 13-6 then Haven 13-4. It was a sick performance from Hunter “SicK” Sims on Phoenix, who notched 40 kills over the two maps. Sentinels had some fun at 100T’s expense after the series.
XSET were on the brink of elimination after their ugly opening loss to Envy but recovered miraculously. Against FaZe Clan in the first lower bracket match, Brendan “BcJ” Jensen and Jordan “AYRIN” He shouldered the load with 44 and 43 kills each over two maps. Both players stepped up again in their surprisingly dominant series win over Luminosity, and that win secured the Masters spot for XSET Gaming.
The four teams that qualified for Masters will continue to compete in the Challenger 2 bracket over Monday and Tuesday, with $42,000 still on the line. For the four teams that failed to qualify (100T, LG, FaZe and Gen.G), they will advance directly to the Challengers 3 main event and skip the open qualifier. TSM, Cloud9 Blue, T1, the new-look NRG, and others will have to fight through the open qualifiers.
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