After years of playing second fiddle at the top of the Korean hierarchy, Dplus Esports Dplus Esports Korea Rank #2 Wenty Yang Geon-mo (양건모) Lakia Kim Jong-min (김종민) Estrella Park Gun (박건) exy Park Geun-cheol (박근철) Esperanza Jeong Jin-cheol (정진철) allow Park Sang-wook (박상욱) finally got their first-ever Challengers trophy after a grueling lower bracket run. Meanwhile, Japan found a new successor in FENNEL FENNEL Japan Rank #5 CLZ JoXJo Cho Byung-yeon (조병연) SyouTa Xdll Yuto Mizomori hiroronn Hiroki Yanai as they beat the favorites, Crazy Raccoon Crazy Raccoon Japan Rank #4 popogachi Souta Morita Meiy Ibuki Seki Medusa An Min-cheol makiba Miyamoto Akatsuki neth Yusuke Matsuda .

World Cyber Games Challengers League Korea: Split 1

The Regular season group stage saw two weeks of round-robin matches between each of the eight teams. World Game Star World Game Star Inactive Corine Sungbin JD apeX Seung Sogate Park Jong-seong (박종성) finished bottom with a 1-6 record, while CNJ esports CNJ esports Korea Rank #10 Only1 AcMe Rain Seo Hong-seung (서홍승) barely made it out with a 2-5 record, just by head-to-head differential against OP.GG SPORTS OP.GG SPORTS Inactive M1nu Rap1d B1ngSu SeolHo ExiA Jung Yeong-woo (정영우) , who also went 2-5. Gwangju Shadow Gwangju Shadow Korea Rank #6 UdoTan Go Kyung-won (고경원) empty yoman Banger stew Wolverine Cho Hyun-tae (조현태) and Dplus took the higher seeds with their respective 6-1 and 5-2 records, while Maru Gaming Maru Gaming Korea Rank #5 Hermes Ahn Byeong-wook (안병욱) Felix Park Hyeon-ho (박현호) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) , Nongshim RedForce Nongshim RedForce Korea Rank #9 Jeong Hi Lee Jeong-ha (이정하) Moves Park Jun-seo (박준서) Cloudy Gu Min-jae (구민재) pr0xy Lee Do-kyeong (이도경) margaret Kim Ji-woo (김지우) , and Rio Company Rio Company Inactive SungJin Ko Sung-jin (고성진) Sunday Kim Min-soo (김민수) SeliG Um Hyun-sung (엄현성) LuZ Lim Ui-jun (임의준) JinboongE Kim Jin-won (김진원) filled the rest with 4-3, 3-4, and 5-2 records, respectively.

Dplus' first game in the playoffs began by getting knocked down to the lower bracket by Rio Company. Unfazed, Dplus went to the lower finals, where they came out on top against Maru Gaming in a five-map series. Rio Company met Dplus again in the finals. However, the latter got their revenge.

Rio's pick of Lotus did not go their way, as Dplus demolished them 13-3, with a 10-1 attack half. Icebox was a little closer, but Dplus took it in the end. The final map Lotus was the last step to Dplus' domination as they became WCGCL Korea: Split 1 Champions.

Dplus KIA_Esports
@DplusKIAEsports
[#VALORANT] 2023 WCG Challengers S1

새롭게 시작했던 우리의 도전, 그 첫 단추는 '우승'이라는 단어로 채웁니다. 우승을 향한 집념을 보이며 매 순간 최선을 다한 선수단에게 아낌없는 격려의 박수 부탁드리며, Dplus KIA 곁에서 끝까지 함께해 주신 팬분들께 감사드립니다.

#DplusKIA #DKWIN

Challengers League: Japan Split 1

Like Korea, VCL Japan held two weeks of non-stop round-robin action in the group stage. REJECT REJECT Inactive ЯIA Flax BRIAN went winless, one of eight teams across all Challengers leagues to do so, and Crest Gaming Zst Crest Gaming Zst Japan Rank #8 Tenzou kobra Ha Su-hyun sakurai GON marin was the second in the bottom two with their 1-6 record. In contrast to REJECT, Crazy Raccoon dropped zero games, while SCARZ SCARZ Japan Rank #1 Allen TORANECO Jusei Saito Jemkin Maksim Batorov Kr1stal Savva Fedorov Yoshiii completed the top two with a 6-1 record. IGZIST IGZIST Japan Rank #7 oitaN Masayuki Takahashi RIPablo Shuma Ikeda , NORTHEPTION NORTHEPTION Japan Rank #6 BlackWiz Kohei Mikami TenTen Derialy Daichi Doi Moothie Yoo Seung-Woo (유승우) wai , Sengoku Gaming Sengoku Gaming Japan Rank #9 Fisker Hideki Sasaki Npoint NOBITA Misaya gatorada Hideki Nishida , and FENNEL round out the top six, with the latter three teams having 4-3 records.

Crazy Raccoon directly advanced to the grand finals after their semifinal victory over SCARZ, who awaited one of the other four teams in the lower bracket finals. Whereas in the lower bracket, FENNEL's road to the grand finals was long and arduous as they played in all five maps in every match, beating NORTHEPTION, Sengoku, and SCARZ one by one.

Having played in front of a live crowd the day before against SCARZ, FENNEL had the momentum given Crazy Raccoon were playing after a month. FENNEL started down with four rounds in the first half in their map pick of Ascent but managed to pull through with a 13-11 comeback. Crazy Raccoon didn't find luck in their Fracture pick as they lost 13-6, winning zero attack halves. FENNEL wrapped up the finals and got their first franchise top finish with a 13-9 win on Split, the same map where they lost 17-15 the day before to SCARZ.

FENNEL
@FENNEL_official
#VALORANT Challengers
Japan Split1 Playoff GrandFinal◢

vs Crazy Raccoon
3-0 WIN🏆

#VCJ 2023 Split1で優勝を果たしました!結成3ヶ月での快挙に選手たちを誇りに思います。

Split2でも優勝を果たしインターナショナルリーグ参入に向けて邁進します🔥

沢山のご声援ありがとうございました!

With the conclusion of Challengers Split 1, Dplus and Rio Company of Korea, and FENNEL and Crazy Raccoon of Japan are in good shape to represent their respective region in Ascension. However, it is not guaranteed that the winners of Split 1 will run it back in the second split, given the sole winner will represent their region in Ascension.