The final set of opening group stage games wrapped up at Champions Paris on Monday with a pair of shutouts. In the second series of the day, FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #6 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Veqaj Sylvain Pattyn Cloud Kirill Nehozhin Alfajer Emir Ali Beder made quick work of Rex Regum Qeon Rex Regum Qeon Asia-Pacific Rank #3 Monyet Cahya Nugraha xffero David Monangin Xan Xan Ng Jemkin Maksim Batorov Kushy Bryan Carlos Setiawan crazyguy Ngô Công Anh , sweeping them 2-0.

The series, a rematch from the lower bracket of Masters Toronto between the pair of Stage 1 champions, was played out on FNATIC's pick of Ascent and RRQ's pick of Abyss. FNATIC won Ascent 13-10, and then went on to win Abyss 13-7.

After losing on their previous three appearances on the map, FNATIC made a slight change to their Ascent comp. They moved Alfajer , whose play on Chamber captured attention during the team's second-place finish at Toronto, onto Sage, an agent who was buffed in the most recent patch. Meanwhile, RRQ stuck with the comp that put in-game leader crazyguy on Tejo, with the sharpshooting Jemkin on Yoru.

After winning the pistol and anti-eco in their opening attacker half, momentum changed hands frequently, thanks in large part to Jemkin's Operator. Rounds that the long-range weaponry found impact for the defending RRQ were answered by FNATIC, keeping the honors even through eight rounds at 4-4. FNATIC's double Sentinel utility allowed for the trademark slow, methodical FNATIC attack side to gain ample control of the map, eventually leading to a three-round winning streak to gain a 7-5 lead entering halftime.

Chronicle skewers three, capitalizing on the anti-eco to pick up the ace.

A second pair of pistol and anti-eco rounds gave FNATIC a 9-5 lead to open the second half, the largest lead of the match up to that point. The back-and-forth nature of the map continued in the second half, but Chronicle led by example in the map. After helping FNATIC to the halftime advantage alongside Alfajer, combining for 25 kills with his Sentinel compatriot, the veteran continued to lead by example, finishing the map with a game-high 25 kills en route to a 13-10 win.

RRQ's pick of Abyss saw both teams take on new approaches to Valorant's second-youngest map. RRQ decided against the double Controller that it ran once during Kickoff, instead going for a KAYO/O-Sova double Initiator with Jemkin's Jett the lone Duelist. Meanwhile, FNATIC abandoned the double Duelist that it played, taking Alfajer off of Jett and onto Cypher, while Chronicle was shifted onto Breach in a double Initiator comp with crashies on Sova.

The Pacific Stage 2 runner-ups won their first pistol round of the series, and FNATIC responded by not just denying a potential bonus round victory, but winning three straight rounds. However, RRQ responded accordingly. Strong holds against FNATIC retakes were instrumental in them winning five of the next seven rounds, entering halftime with a 7-5 lead.

Leading by example. Boaster with a huge 4K in the pistol to help FNATIC to a good start on attack.

A well-orchestrated pistol round from RRQ saw the two teams trade their Duelist players, eventually forcing FNATIC to rotate into xffero 's Cypher utility. While he was good for one, the walls closed in on him too quickly, and the sequence ended with a Boaster 4K that got FNATIC a crucial pistol round victory. The IGL continued to lead by example, following up in the next round with a 1v2 clutch using the same Ghost he killed four with in the previous round.

A bonus round conversion got Boaster out of his seat and dancing, and it was smooth sailing from that point on for FNATIC. Jemkin struggled to find the same value out of the Operator as he did on Ascent, often in retake situations or unable to participate in the gunfight altogether. Slow, well-thought-out attacking movements made it so that almost every retake had to be done with a man disadvantage, and meant that FNATIC found eight straight rounds to cap off a perfect attacking half, winning 13-7.

Boaster was leading by example on Abyss, finishing with a game-high 24 kills while Alfajer's 20 and Chronicle's 19 did not go unnoticed. Chronicle ended the series with MVP honors; series-highs with a 1.65 rating and 44 kills made it so that FNATIC could breathe easy, even with slow starts from the likes of crashies and kaajak.

Up next

FNATIC will move on to play MIBR MIBR Brazil Rank #3 zekken Zachary Patrone tex Ian Botsch Mazino Roberto Rivas Verno Andrew Maust aspas Erick Santos , who swept Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #6 whzy Wang Haozhe (王昊哲) rushia Wang Xiaojie (王晓杰) nephh Marcus Tan yilai Gu Yiming (顾依铭) Knight Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔) bud Yang Renyu (杨韧余) , while RRQ will play the Chinese champions.

With the opening group stage matches finished, the group stage winner's matches are set to commence. After one day of no action, Champions Paris will pick back up with the following matches: