A quarter of the matches on the second day of qualifiers for VCT North America Stage 3: Challengers 1 ended in major upsets. In three other matches, the favored team had to claw their way back to victory from a 1-0 deficit.
Perhaps the biggest upset of the day was
TSM
TSM
Inactive
Timotino
Timothée Lavigne Dupont
stand-in
alvinboy
Alvin Hong
stand-in
seven
Johann Hernandez
gMd
Anthony Guimond
vora
Jordan Pulwer
's defeat at the hands of
Noble
Noble
Inactive
Precision
Colin O'Neill
bdog
Brandon Sanders
LeviathanAG
Aleko Gabuniya
payen
Nathaniel Lopez
ZK
Timothy Ly
in the Ro32. TSM began the series down 1-0, and while TSM seemed poised to win anyway after a 13-1 victory in the second map, the favorites ended up out of the tournament after a 13-1 trouncing on the third and final map. This was the debut tournament for Sean "bang"
Bezerra, whose signing was made official this week.
The bottom of the bracket was defined by a pair of upsets:
NRG
NRG
North America
Rank #1
keiko
Georgio Sanassy
brawk
Brock Somerhalder
mada
Adam Pampuch
skuba
Logan Jenkins
Ethan
Ethan Arnold
's 2-0 defeat to
VIRTUOSO
VIRTUOSO
Inactive
King
Aiden King
Eley
Zach Stauffer
DBK
Dylan Bazic-Kulangiev
Blahst
Nathan Brand
snxper
Louis Lama
and
Immortals
Immortals
Inactive
's 2-1 defeat to the
Pioneers
Pioneers
Inactive
jmoh
Jason Mohandessi
wedid
Matthew Suchan
thief
Brady Dever
Critical
Tristan Trinacty
. VIRTUOSO and the Kansas City Pioneers will now meet each other on Sunday to determine the final team to make the main event of Stage 3 Challengers 1.
The day's final upset saw
FaZe Clan
FaZe Clan
Inactive
POISED
Kevin Ngo
mummAy
Anthony DiPaolo
TiGG
Tanner Spanu
BABYBAY
Andrej Francisty
supamen
Phat Le
lose to
DarkZero Esports
DarkZero Esports
Inactive
2-1. DarkZero pulled off an overtime win in the first map to take the early lead and then closed out a tight final map later to win the series. This is the debut tournament for DarkZero after the organization recently signed KookyKoalas.
But other teams experienced close calls themselves.
Gen.G
Gen.G
Korea
Rank #4
Lakia
Kim Jong-min (김종민)
ZynX
Kim Dong-ha (김동하)
Ash
Ha Hyun-cheol (하현철)
Karon
Kim Won-tae (김원태)
t3xture
Kim Na-ra (김나라)
had to come back from a first map defeat to
Knights
Knights
Inactive
SlLO
Zeus
dáel
Madré
fox
to win their series.
SoaR
SoaR
Inactive
epathy
Ngawang Chonjor
fiziq
Lucas Blow
v1c
Victor Truong
Trill
Ashley Powell
narrowly defeated
100 Thieves
100 Thieves
North America
Rank #3
Cryocells
Matthew Panganiban
Asuna
Peter Mazuryk
vora
Jordan Pulwer
Timotino
Timothée Lavigne Dupont
bang
Sean Bezerra
in the first map of their series.
T1
T1
Korea
Rank #2
stax
Kim Gu-taek (김구택)
Meteor
Kim Tae-oh (김태오)
BuZz
Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철)
iZu
Ham Woo-ju (함우주)
Munchkin
Byeon Sang-beom (변상범)
was blown out by
Ghost Gaming
Ghost Gaming
Inactive
koalanoob
Gianfranco Potestio
NiSMO
Marc-Andre Tayar
aproto
Alex Protopapas
brawk
Brock Somerhalder
johnqt
Mohamed Amine Ouarid
in the first map, but won the next two maps 13-0 and 13-3.
In total, four matches ended in upsets and seven matches, including all four of the matches that ended in upsets, began with the favorites down 1-0.
The next two days will determine which eight teams qualify for the main event of Stage 3 Challengers 1. North America's favorites will hope to stave off anymore upsets in that time.











