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The Guard became the champion of the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) NA Stage-1 Challengers after defeating OpTic Gaming in the Grand-Finals with a 3-2 scoreline in a best-of-five series. The North American champion has surprised every team and fan throughout the tournament.
The Guard came into the VCT NA Stage-1 Challengers as an underdog. The team qualified for the Group Stage through the first qualifier. In the Group Stage, The Guard was bunched in the same group with Cloud9, XSET, Luminosity Gaming, 100 Thieves, and Evil Geniuses.
The team finished second in their group, losing just one of their five games against Cloud9.
The team started its journey in the Playoffs with another upset by defeating Sentinels in the first game. The Guard was defeated in the Upper-Finals by OpTic Gaming and needed to take a longer path towards the Grand-Finals. However, the team took revenge and went on to win the prestigious title.
Key points to take from The Guard's success in the VCT NA Stage-1 Challengers
Next month, the Guard will represent the North American region in the VCT Stage-1 Masters Reykjavik. It will be the first international appearance for the team. However, the championship title in the NA Stage-1 Challengers will boost the team's confidence ahead of the Reykjavik Masters.
Here are some key points of The Guard's performance in the VCT NA Stage-1 Challengers:
1) Decent adaptation with the meta
With every new update, Valorant sees some key changes that affect the game's meta. Teams that adapt to the meta quickly are always in advantageous positions against their opponents.
The Guard has done this quite efficiently. It helped the team perform more strategically and outsmarted its opponents several times in the tournament.
2) Utility usage
The combination of Agents' abilities and gunpower makes this game unique from the rest. Hence, perfect utility usage is an essential factor in the game.
North American sides always rely on their aim duels rather than ability usage. However, The Guard has focused more on utility usage and has surprised other teams in almost every game.
3) Unpredictable Agent composition
The team has also surprised its opponents with different and unorthodox Agent compositions. The side used different Agent-composition for different maps and games. Hence, the team became unpredictable, and it eventually helped the side win the title.
4) Quick learning from mistakes
After losing a match, the team quickly learned from its mistakes and delivered a better performance in the next game.
The team has lost only two games in the competition, and those were against Cloud9 and OpTic Gaming. However, the team had already taken its revenge against both teams when the side met them for the second time. This shows how fast the team can learn from its mistake and overcome difficulties.
5) Holding composure
The Guard can hold its composure till the end of the game. Even after losing a couple of rounds or a map, the team still has the potential to pull off a comeback at any moment.
The way the team has performed in the Grand Finals and made a comeback from 9-4 down on the final map to win it by 11-13 scoreline was truly marvelous. Fans are now eagerly waiting to see them at the VCT Stage-1 Masters Reykjavik competing against the top global teams.
