Acend sweep Liquid to reach Champions grand final

Today, Valorant Champions' first finalist was decided. Acend Acend Europe Rank #9 ALIVE Gilad Hakim musashi Alessio Xhaferi Br0die Jack Emmott baddyG Kamil Graniczka chiwa Egor Stepanyuk Vuubit Roope Eilola and Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #14 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Enzo Enzo Mestari Mistic James Orfila Keiko Georgio Sanassy rematched for the first time since the Red Bull Home Ground #2 final. That game was a 3-1 victory for Liquid. The only map Acend managed to take in that grand final was Bind, 17-15

BONECOLD said the team had been sanding off their rough edges these last few weeks and that they stood a real chance to beat Liquid today. The IGL claimed a “prime team Acend” would beat Liquid today.

“Yeah, I think so,” Jamppi replied when asked if the previous result gave Liquid confidence. “We want to beat them twice and I heard they want to get revenge. We have huge confidence going into the match. I think we're going to win the match.”

BONECOLD, however, thought differently about the situation.

“There are absolutely no nerves. The whole team has come together in the nick of time and I feel like we have everything it takes to take down the full honey-moon Liquid,” he said. “I really just feel like we're the strongest team in this whole tournament, I feel like we'll easily beat Liquid.”

Having previously won Bind against Liquid, it was only logical that Acend picked the map to start today's series off.

"Well, we had been analyzing their game and we had a close game against them in the last tournament we played them so we thought, you know, we had a chance on this map," ScreaM said about letting Acend pick Bind.

The early rounds of Bind were an absolute brawl, but Acend jumped ahead 4-3 after a sole Hookah hold from zeek . Team Liquid called a timeout and converted one round, but Acend took off after that. starxo and BONECOLD locked down a B attempt to reach a 6-4 scoreline. Liquid called another timeout, but a 4K from zeek and a 3K from starxo finished out the half 8-4.

zeek spared none on Bind. By the time the teams switched sides, he had a 1.88 K:D and 349 ACS. By comparison, starxo, the player closest to him, had a 1.43 K:D and 218 ACS. By contrast, none of Liquid's players had a positive K:D or over 190 ACS.

"Our versatility really shows. We have starxo playing, right now, what? Four our five different agents. We have zeek, who only has Killjoy left to play," BONECOLD said. "It's really good for us because, a lot of the times after tournaments, we can go and switch our compositions or fill what our comfort picks are. We're a really versatile team and we embrace it after every single tournament."

Acend got off to a solid start in the second half, quickly securing their 11th round. Liquid stole a round, but were quickly shut down by a starxo 3K on an eco round. That multikill gave Acend map point, from where they quickly wrapped the map up 13-6.

The fight switched over to Split. It was Liquid's pick, and a map they had taken in the Red Bull Home Ground #2 grand final 15-13, after a hard-fought comeback.

In spite of that, cNed gave his team a commanding start. After taking the pistol, the Turkish star took a 4K in the second round. Acend won one more round. Liquid then tried to go B for their first point, which they only earned thanks to an ace from ScreaM. In spite of winning the round, Liquid called a timeout.

It didn't work.

Acend weren't fazed at all by ScreaM's ace and took the half's next eight rounds to steamroll their way to an 11-1 result. Acend were extremely comfortable on stage, leaning back during a second Liquid timeout and taking several multikills. In the second half, it didn't take long before Acend found the 13-5 win.

"One thing that really differentiates us from other teams is our main focus on growing as a team is just knowing how to adapt to different situations," BONECOLD said. "A lot of people go in and want to have quite a lot of strats, but I feel like this game is something where you really need to be focused and adapt to different situations and comps the enemy runs and that's something we're really, really good at.

"It was a bit of an off day. It happened sometimes in practice," Nivera said. "It's the first time it happens in official matches. It was a bit unfortunate. In terms of individual skill or communication, we weren't here. We missed our match. They snowballed really well."

IGL Jamppi said that the team did not play up to its level today. ScreaM later said that Acend could have won on any map with the form his team showed today.

"[We] never underestimated [Acend]. Sometimes this is how the game goes, you just get steamrolled," L1NK said. "There's not much you can do about it. You lose both pistols, you lose important rounds, you might get eco'd or something. It just goes the opponents' way sometimes. That's how Valorant is, I wouldn't say anyone underestimated them, especially not Acend."

Gambit Esports Gambit Esports Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Chronicle Timofey Khromov d3ffo Nikita Sudakov sheydos Bogdan Naumov nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin and KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #3 keznit Angelo Mori Klaus Nicolas Ferrari Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro heat Olavo Marcelo are playing the second semifinal of the day. Whoever wins will face Acend tomorrow in the Bo5 grand final. Tomorrow's winner will become the first ever Valorant world champions.

"I feel extremely confident right now," BONECOLD said. "Going against KRÜ or Gambit, they both are both extremely good opponents. Knowing that we beat Liquid very convincingly, I'm really happy to say that it's going to be a really good matchup."

"I feel like we're looking like the best version of ourselves and there is no team that is stronger than us," zeek said.