The first split of the Brazilian VCL has concluded with The Union The Union Brazil Rank #2 Askia havoc Ilan Eloy GuhRVN Gustavo Ferreira pancc Fillipe Martins ntk Lucas Martins raafa Rafael Lima taking the trophy over Keyd Stars Keyd Stars Brazil Rank #8 pollo Julio Silva liazzi Felipe Galiazzi krain Gustavo Melara pleets Marcelo Leite flainzz Felipe Saldanha in the grand finals.

The eight best Brazilian teams outside of the VCT partnered leagues met on LAN in Sao Paulo for the first split of the Brazilian Challenger League. Although it was only the first of two splits in the year, teams were desperate to gather enough circuit points to have a chance for qualification to Americas Ascension. By the end of the year, only the top two teams in Brazil will have a shot at glory against the other nations in the Americas.

The regular season was a chaotic round robin brawl as no team managed to escape with fewer than two losses. At the end, The Union and RED Canids RED Canids Brazil Rank #12 CTC Caio Torres gaabxx Gabriel Carli gtn Gustavo Moura Leozin Leonardo Quindeler deNaro Matheus Hipólito finished with the high seeds heading into the playoffs at 5-2 while 00Nation 00Nation Brazil Rank #6 artzin Arthur Araujo shion Gabriel Vilela b4rtin Bruno Câmara xand Alexandre Zizi bezn1 Gabriel Luiz da Costa and Liberty Liberty Brazil Rank #27 guuih Guilherme Mariano pepa Matheus Colleto duhT Eduardo Teixeira Zanatsu Carlos Eduardo tockers Gabriel Claumann were the two teams to fall short of the playoffs.

In the playoffs, The Union beat Keyd Stars and Red Canids in the upper bracket to take the high seed in the grand finals along with both map bans in the finals. Keyd Stars went on a lower bracket run with dominant 2-0 victories over ODDIK ODDIK Brazil Rank #7 sw Jadisson Rayan bld Victor Junqueira Tisora Kauã Estefanini fzkk Leonardo Puertas fznnn Fernando Cerqueira jacobin Guilherme Jacob , TropiCaos TropiCaos Brazil Rank #23 Fatmarino Matheus Marino mNdS Rafael Mendes xenom Eduardo Soeiro cortezia Gabriel Cortez v1nny Vínicius Gonçalves , and Red Canids before rematching The Union once more.

Keyd Stars were not intimidated by their map veto disadvantage in the finals, even though The Union banned their favored maps, Haven and Icebox. On Lotus, Keyd Stars stunned The Union with a 15-13 victory, despite never having publicly played the map. That momentum was carried over to Pearl where Keyd ran out to a 9-3 halftime lead.

Undeterred by the mounting prospects of a quick and crushing loss, The Union won 23 of the next 27 rounds to win Pearl 13-10 and Fracture 13-3 and take the series lead. They went up 8-4 on the defensive side of Split, but Keyd battled back to force an intense series of overtimes that would determine the series. Across four overtimes which featured a combined 18 multikills, The Union took home the first trophy of the year.

From hero to zero with a spectacular face-first dive

The Union's star duelist havoc dominated the regular season with a 1.24 rating. Despite struggling a bit during the playoffs, he finished with the highest rating in the tournament as a whole followed closely by Keyd Stars' aggressive flex liazzi .

With first and second place circuit points in the bag, at least one of The Union and Keyd Stars are well positioned to take their Ascension slots if they can place reasonably well in the following split.