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Valorant is ready to host the last major event of the year with VCT Champions 2022 Istanbul. The tournament starts on August 31, 2022, and ends on September 18, 2022.
VCT Champions 2022 Istanbul is expected to be more intense than ever, with 16 of the world's best teams competing in a battle of marksmanship and game sense. A prize pool of $1,000,000 will further fuel the competition between the teams.
Despite being immensely talented, however, many of the participating teams share very little international stage experience. This article takes a look at five teams with the least LAN appearances ahead of VCT Champions 2022.
Note: This article reflects the opinions of the writer
Edward Gaming, XSET, and 3 other Valorant teams with little to no LAN appearances ahead of VCT Champions 2022 Istanbul
1) BOOM Esports
BOOM Esports will be playing their very first international LAN event at VCT Champions 2022. Having finished as an A-Tier team in VCT 2022: APAC Stage 2 Challengers, they will face tough competition in Istanbul.
In their last few matches against ONIC and Bleed Esports, BOOM Esports showed that they have been working on their skills to compete against the more experienced teams on the circuit. However, they did suffer losses to top teams like PRX and XERXIA in the last few VCT events.
2) Edward Gaming
VCT Champions 2022 will be Edward Gaming's first international Valorant LAN tournament.
Edward Gaming are the first Chinese team to qualify for a LAN tournament in Valorant esports history. They achieved qualification by winning the VCT 2022: East Asia Last Chance Qualifier.
The best team that Edward Gaming have statistically faced is Northeption. This means they will have to work on their strategies a lot more as the competition in Istanbul will be much tougher.
3) 100 Thieves
VCT Champions 2022 marks 100 Thieves' second international Valorant LAN tournament.
100 Thieves have competed against teams like Sentinels and FaZe in the North American Last Chance Qualifiers, where they have performed well enough to qualify for Istanbul. They also have a great roster, which adds to their winning chances.
4) XSET
XSET will be participating in a Valorant International LAN tournament for the second time in Istanbul.
XSET have emerged as a strong team over the years and have enjoyed impressive performances against the likes of OpTic Gaming and FaZe Clan. However, they were quite shaky against Leviatan in the VCT 2022: Stage 2 Masters in Copenhagen.
While the American team has a versatile roster, including Cryocells and zekken, it remains to be seen how they will adapt their strategies to the top dogs in Istanbul.
5) Leviatán
Leviatán are once again contenders at Valorant Champions 2022 Istanbul. They have displayed their strength on multiple occasions recently, including their performances against the likes of XSET and KRÜ.
Having said that, Leviatán lack the proper experience to compete against the top dogs in Istanbul. VCT Champions 2022 will be the team's second appearance at an international Valorant LAN tournament.
Nevertheless, Leviatán still houses some of the best players in the game, who are great at adapting to tough situations.
