In Valorant Masters London, two loud fanbases saw LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN North America Rank #2 spike Rodrigo Lombardi blowz Guilherme Oliviera Neon Bruno Rodríguez Sato Eduardo Kenzo Nagahama Sato kiNgg Francisco Aravena defeat EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #4 ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) Jieni7 Zhang Juntai (张君泰) stew Park Young-chan (박영찬) 3-0, booking their tickets to the grand finals against Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 invy Adrian Jiggs Reyes Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov for the Masters London trophy. After a dominant map one, two close maps both ended with the Americas representative clutching it out over the last team from China.

The series began on Haven, with LEV running a double-Duelist alongside Neon on Chamber, and EDG instead opted for a standard double-Duelist with Cypher. spike sprayed EDG down with a Frenzy to earn the first pistol, but was unable to win the bonus round running the Judge. Jieni7 earned EDG an early 2-2 tie in a post-plant, but Neon fought right back to build another lead on map one. LEV continued to run trap plays on the defense side, which EDG struggled to adapt to. LEV entered the half up 10-2, which made the second half only a formality when the team won the second pistol. Haven was a quick 13-5, as LEV jumped ahead to start the best-of-five.

kiNgg beating EDG on map one kiNgg waves to the crowd after beating EDG on map one. (Image by Michael Czar)

Next up was Pearl, the first map pick from EDG in the series. EDG ran double-Duelist with Phoenix and Jett, while LEV stuck to the same comp from map one. For a team that struggled to win pistols in London, nobody stepped up to take one away from LEV and give EDG an early lead. The bonus also nearly went the way of EDG despite being down 2v4, but kingg outdueled Jieni7 to win LEV its first round on the map. CHICHOO won the next 1v1 versus his Astra counterpart, and nobody started to dance his way around LEV.

nobody fakes out blowz to win the round against LEV.

LEV found their footing toward the end of the half, with Neon once again styling on Chamber. EDG kept the lead at the half, up 7-5, but needed to start the second half strong to prevent a quick tie. As LEV won the second pistol, both teams traded consecutive ecos. Jieni7 nailed a late 1v2 clutch to barely keep EDG ahead, but the map eventually reached a 9-9 tie. LEV took the lead off of coordinated teamplay, swinging together constantly to seemingly always end a fight with an advantage. The map ended 13-9 for LEV, placing EDG in a tough scenario: reverse-sweep or leave London in third place.

Split began with another LEV pistol win, and familiarly for EDG, another pistol loss. Keeping ZmjjKK on Jett with Smoggy on Raze seemed to be the win condition for EDG, while LEV opted for Phoenix and Neon to run truly explosive moments in rounds. This time around, LEV were able to convert the bonus and take a commanding lead on the map, similarly to map one.

A rare Bucky god round from nobody led to EDG's first round win, but that did nothing for the confidence of LEV, who continued to put rounds together. ZmjjKK refused to let the series die with a whimper, pulling EDG to halftime only down 7-5. When EDG finally won a pistol and converted a bonus, the map and series were officially revived. Running ahead to 11-8, map four seemed inevitable. That was exactly when kiNgg said no, leading his team in kills and calls to win five straight rounds, prevent overtime, and win the series 3-0.

With this loss, EDward Gaming finish Masters London in third place, matching a run that the team accomplished in Bangkok just after winning it all in Seoul. As for LEV, the team reaches their first international grand final, confirming a rematch against Paper Rex for all the marbles.

The star of the series was kiNgg, who stood out with amazing leadership and top-level mechanical skill to boot. He ended the series with a 1.43 series rating, standing out above his teammates, who finished with slightly more kills.