A pair of inter-regional derbies in the lower bracket highlighted day three of the VCT Americas Stage 2 playoffs. A LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN North America Rank #10 tex Ian Botsch Okeanos Anthony Nguyen Sato Eduardo Kenzo Nagahama Sato kiNgg Francisco Aravena C0M Corbin Lee win over KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #2 keznit Angelo Mori Dantedeu5 Jesús Federico Larrosa Mazino Roberto Rivas Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro ended the joint-longest active Champions qualification streak, while 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #8 Kess Drew Lee zander Alexander Dituri Cryocells Matthew Panganiban eeiu Daniel Vucenovic Asuna Peter Mazuryk used a trademark Bind to sweep Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #18 Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le icy Jacob Lange yay Jaccob Whiteaker and move on.

LEVIATÁN downs KRÜ Esports to keep Champions hopes alive

Entering Saturday's match, KRÜ was fighting to keep its Champions streak alive. Since 2021, the Chilean organization has qualified for every Champions event. During that run, successful LCQ campaigns earned them qualification in 2022 and 2023, while a crucial lower bracket victory over 100 Thieves earned them a top-three qualification spot in 2024.

The series opened on LEVIATÁN's pick of Lotus, a map that has garnered mixed results for them with the current roster. They went 2-2 on the map with the current squad, while KRÜ has played it just once, losing to NRG NRG North America Rank #3 s0m Sam Oh brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch skuba Logan Jenkins Ethan Ethan Arnold .

Armed with two strong players in the position, KRÜ went for a double-Duelist comp on all three maps, going with keznit on Raze and Dantedeu5 on Yoru for Lotus. The map was evenly matched, with a tight push-and-pull between the disruptive double Duelist and the stalwart Vyse-centered comp seeing both halves end with the teams splitting the rounds six apiece.

LEV made it look easy in overtime, dropping just one body on attack without ever needing to plant the spike. On defense, tex and C0M held the house down on the A site,

tex and C0M doing their best brick wall impression on the A site.

LEV had trouble containing the double Duelist on KRÜ's map pick of Sunset, this time with keznit on the Yoru and Dantedeu5 on Neon. A dominant start after losing the pistol and anti-eco rounds got KRÜ an 8-4 halftime lead. Sato and LEV switched over onto attack, picking up the crucial pistol and anti-ecos to snowball a comeback. Carrying five rifles over into the bonus round, LEV seemed poised to do just that, but they were amply shut down. KRÜ picked up the bonus and the next four rounds to bring the map to a close and onto the decider map of Haven.

If KRÜ dominated Sunset, LEV dominated Haven. On the historically attacker-sided map, LEV also played a double-Duelist comp, with Okeanos on the Neon while Sato was on Yoru. Great use of utility, particularly from the pair of Duelists, told the story for a LEV side that was lethal with its retakes. They won five of the six post plants in KRÜ's attack half, entering halftime with a 9-3 lead.

KRÜ bounced back with great retakes of their own, but facing a six-round deficit, they could only do so much. In the end, it was 13-8 the way of LEV, with KRÜ's hopes of a fifth-straight appearance at Champions gone.

LEV survives, needing a top-two finish at the end of the playoffs to secure qualification to Champions. Their next opponent will be NRG, while KRÜ will watch the year-end tournament from home for the first time ever. The result also secured MIBR MIBR Brazil Rank #2 artzin Arthur Araujo xenom Eduardo Soeiro cortezia Gabriel Cortez Verno Andrew Maust aspas Erick Santos a slot at Champions, as the Brazilian team cannot finish below fourth in Championship points.

100 Thieves sweeps Evil Geniuses, keeps Champions hopes alive

100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #8 Kess Drew Lee zander Alexander Dituri Cryocells Matthew Panganiban eeiu Daniel Vucenovic Asuna Peter Mazuryk and Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #18 Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le icy Jacob Lange yay Jaccob Whiteaker met as one of four teams with six championship points, meaning a fourth-place finish, granting three points, would be enough to qualify for Champions. Historically, the series has been dominated by 100T. In three meetings since the beginning of the partnership era, 100T has three 2-0 wins over EG. Extending back to meetings in the Challengers circuit in 2022, that streak of 2-0 wins extends to five.

The battle in this series started with the map ban process. EG had the choice between sticking with its perma ban of Sunset or playing on 100T's best map of Bind. Rather than taking away 100T's strongest map, EG opted to ban Sunset and play Bind.

With Cryocells on Yoru and Asuna on Raze, 100T made use of its aggressive utility to take full control of B Short almost every round on defense, forcing EG to funnel over towards B Long or pivot away to A. Asuna could do no wrong on defense, using a dominant defender side to finish 20/5. 100T dominated the first duels 12-5 in the match, and won three of five EG post plants, setting up for an attack side that was poised for success with a double-Duelist comp. 100T dominated 13-4, with every player finishing with a K/D of 1.0 or above, while all of EG went negative.

"We had a lot of confidence — we have a lot of confidence — still on Bind," EG head coach potter said between maps. "The stage jitters got to us. Playoff jitters got to us. Map one is definitely not how we scrimmed or play at all. Map two, we should be stabilized."

EG's pick of Corrode looked to exploit a map that 100T has played just once since its release. 100T had a 13-4 win over KRÜ on it, while EG went 2-1, owning wins over EG and FURIA FURIA Brazil Rank #45 heat Olavo Marcelo basic Luis Henrique Ferlin Tessaro Palla Davi Alcides Urango Victor Rodrigues tuyz Arthur Andrade and a loss to Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #2 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid .

EG went with its usual double-Controller team comp, centered around Omen and Viper, while 100T went for a double-Initiator look. The matchup to watch was the clash of Chamber aimers between Cryocells and yay .

EG, starting on attack, used supamen 's Toxic Screen to create question marks all over mid, often forcing the defending 100T to commit upwards of three players through Top Mid or A Link. With icy and yay hitting shots, it looked as though EG could do no wrong. The pair combined for 25 kills in the half, while Derrek and supamen also tallied on 10 each to build an 8-4 lead at halftime.

After winning the pistol, anti-eco, and bonus rounds, 100T made use of well-coordinated site executes to chip away at EG's lead, eventually tying up the score at 11-11.

A clean execute of the B site forces an attempted save of yay's Operator and ties the game.

In overtime, it seemed as though the first team to win a round on defense would win the map, and that's exactly what happened. A brawl in mid saw three EG bodies drop to the ground, and 100T only suffered one casualty by the time the round was won. Attack was more of the same for 100T, using numbers to take advantage of a 5v2 towards the A side of the map to break into site, get the bomb down, and win 14-12.

EG ends the year ranked 7th-8th, wrapping up a second consecutive year without an appearance on the international stage after lifting the Champions 2023 trophy. Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #5 Xeppaa Erick Bach v1c Victor Truong mitch Mitch Semago neT Michael Bernet OXY Francis Hoang is the next team tasked with a tough map ban decision against 100T. Like EG, C9 has shown a tendency to ban Sunset. Immi will be tasked with the decision of banning 100T's best map or sticking with his team's perma ban.

On what makes Bind such a strong map for his team, eeiu had a blunt answer.

"Asuna," eeiu said with a smile after the match. "Asuna [has] like 20, 30 kills every time we play Bind. Insta win... Asuna just always takes them out."

Up next

With just one slot at Champions Paris remaining, a Last Chance Qualifier-esque competition is set to take place in the lower bracket. The Stage 2 playoffs will continue with the following matches: