The third day of VCT North American competition once again featured high-octane action from the remaining teams in the upper bracket. A clash of North American titans came in the form of Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #9 Xeppaa Erick Bach runi Dylan Cade moose Kaleb Jayne vanity Anthony Malaspina OXY Francis Hoang taking on OpTic Gaming OpTic Gaming Inactive , followed by Luminosity Luminosity Inactive moose Kaleb Jayne mada Adam Pampuch dazzLe Will Loafman bdog Brandon Sanders TiGG Tanner Spanu taking on The Guard The Guard Inactive JonahP Jonah Pulice trent Trent Cairns neT Michael Bernet valyn Jacob Batio tex Ian Botsch , who have become fan favorites amid their rise to the top of North America.

Match 1: Cloud9 vs OpTic Gaming (2-1 OpTic)

The first match of the day began with a heavyweight matchup between OpTic and Cloud9, beginning on Haven. That map featured a Neon pick from Victor "Victor" Wong, who has been the only player to pick Neon in matches throughout the group stage and playoffs so far.

Haven began with OpTic winning the first pistol round, but once Cloud9 were able to purchase rifles, the momentum quickly swung their way. Solid play all around from C9 only allowed four total rounds to go to the Green Wall at the half.

Despite a four round deficit at the end of the first half, OpTic continued to battle back, winning the second half pistol and eventually evening the score up at nine apiece by round 19. A solid eco retake by Cloud9 and individual heroics from Anthony "vanity" Malaspina in the subsequent rounds afterwards put C9 within two rounds of taking the map. OpTic eventually tied the round score up at 11 each, prompting a timeout from Cloud9 to compose themselves before they headed into the final rounds of the first map.

The timeout proved beneficial for C9, as they captured the 23rd round off of a well-executed B site retake. However, OpTic's two ultimates - Chamber's Tour de Force and Neon's Overdrive - in addition to their stout economy gave them enough financial stability to determine the tempo of the last round of regulation, which ended in them securing the 12th round to send the series to overtime. In overtime, OpTic's solid teamplay proved to be too much for Cloud9 to overcome, and the Green Wall took both overtime rounds, and claimed the first map.

When reflecting on their overtime defeat to OpTic, Nathan "leaf" Orf admitted that the team comp that OpTic showed is “very hard to play against” because of the unique nature of Neon as an entry agent. He also added that “the more that (OpTic) plays (their Neon-based comp), the worse it'll get”.

The next map was Fracture, a map that Cloud9 hadn't played in tournament since Valorant Champions. However, their absence from the map in tournament wasn't indicative of their actual performance. According to leaf, the team's decision to allow Fracture to be played over Bind - a map that C9 themselves banned - came down to how confident the team was in performing well on the former compared to the latter.

On Fracture, aggression from Breach-Raze utility combos highlighted many early rounds in the first half, forcing both teams to take uncomfortable fights. In some instances, the early aggression worked out well, while in others, it didn't.

After finishing the first half up by four rounds, Cloud9 went into the second half of the map in high gear with clean site executes that OpTic were unable to put a stop to. OpTic were able to salvage one more round in round 17 following scrappy engagements in A main that ended up with Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker being the last man standing, but their economy in the following round left a few members - namely Jimmy "Marved" Nguyen on Astra - without any armor or multiple astral stars to repel C9's attack. The map concluded with Cloud9 winning 13-5.

The final map in the series - Ascent - began with solid tactical teamplay from OpTic, but was soon answered by masterful counter strategies and individual performances from all of C9 beginning in round four. OpTic answered back with two rounds of their own at the end of their attack side to keep the score a respectable 7-5 at the end of the first half.

In the second half of the map, Cloud9 secured a pistol round but lost the following round after yay was awarded a phantom after a kill onto Mitch "mitch" Semago and Marved won a 1v1 against Erick "Xeppaa" Bach with a single point of health, giving OpTic a chance to tie the score up and move one step closer to the upper bracket finals.

After OpTic gained the lead in round 15, their defense continued to be too much for Cloud9 to thwart, and OpTic captured the remaining four rounds needed to close out the map, sending C9 down to the lower bracket.

Despite now being in the lower bracket, and having to face the winner of the Sentinels/Version1 match tomorrow, leaf was still optimistic about his team's chances to secure a ticket to Masters: Reykjavik, saying “I think we can still make it to Iceland…all the teams that we'd potentially face would be pretty good (matchups) for us. I think V1 and Sentinels - we kind of play well into them. Obviously we'd kind of prefer the Knights/XSET side…but I think we still have pretty good chances against V1 and Sentinels.”

Match 2: Luminosity vs The Guard (2-0 GUARD)

The second match of the day featured Luminosity - a team coming off an upset over Version1 Version1 Inactive the day prior - and The Guard, who were also in high spirits following their win over Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #2 TenZ Tyson Ngo Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid Sacy Gustavo Rossi .

Bind was the first map of the series, which The Guard opened up by winning the first two rounds, but Luminosity struck back with two rounds of their own once they were able to purchase rifles. Standout plays from Sayaplayer on Raze and JonahP on Sage cracked LG's defense open on more occasions throughout the first half, but it wasn't enough to net The Guard with more than six rounds going into their defensive side.

Luminosity retaliated at the beginning of the second half by winning the first two rounds, one of which was off of Raze satchel antics from Adam "mada" Pampuch, but The Guard soon answered with four consecutive rounds of their own, giving themselves the round lead.

An aggressive eco-round push by Luminosity in round 19 overwhelmed Michael "neT" Bernet's Viper's Pit that was being set up in A short, which eventually led to The Guard's A site defense being overrun, bringing the round differential down to one. In the following round, Luminosity attempted another aggressive push onto A, but JonahP and Sayaplayer tore apart their opponent's attack to shreds, and shifted the momentum back in their favor. Two more back and forth rounds between both sides concluded the map with The Guard winning 13-10.

The second and final map in the series - Icebox - ended up being another dominant showing from The Guard, similar to their performance against Sentinels yesterday. Stalwart defenses defined the three rounds that Luminosity captured in the first half, but Sayaplayer's dominant presence was too much for LG to overcome on multiple occasions.

Going into the second half with their 9-3 lead, The Guard were primed and ready to close out the series away and put themselves one step closer to qualifying for Masters: Reykjavik. However, Luminosity wasn't going to go down without a fight. They opened the half by securing the first two rounds of the second half, but once The Guard built up their economy enough to purchase rifles, they had enough tools to suffocate Luminosity's attack efforts, giving them no chance at picking up any more rounds before The Guard got the 13th round needed to win the map and series.

neT attributed his team's stellar performances so far to the team's bootcamp at the Complexity training center in Dallas, Texas. “[being together in-person] has brought (the team) closer as teammates and just as friends in general. It really has helped with our team cohesion and just teamwork in general, and it really shows through our gameplay.” “Every time (the team) goes into a match, we have the confidence that we're the better team, and we show that through our gameplay.”

A look ahead

The conclusion of the upper bracket finals will take place next week on Friday, March 25. The final match of this weekend's competition will be the first matches in the lower bracket to determine who will continue to fight another day, and who will be eliminated from Masters: Reykjavik contention.

The lower bracket matches taking place tomorrow are:

• Knights Knights Inactive vs XSET XSET Inactive
• Version1 Version1 Inactive vs Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #2 TenZ Tyson Ngo Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid Sacy Gustavo Rossi

Matches will begin at 4:00 PM EDT, 1:00 PM PDT.