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Valorant Challengers League: North America Split 1 kicked off on February 1, 2023, with the Group Stage phase. Over the next few weeks, twelve tier-2 contenders will engage in this fierce competition, which will ultimately promote the top teams to VCT Ascension.
Day 2 of the tournament will begin with an interesting matchup between one of the invited teams, TSM, and one of the newest organizations to enter the North American Valorant scene, Mad Lions. This upcoming best-of-three matchup will be the first time we'll be seeing the new rosters of both of these teams competing in a VCT environment.
TSM vs Mad Lions: Who will win their opening matchup of Valorant North America Challengers League Split 1?
Predictions
TSM has a fairly strong lineup as they head into the 2023 season. The organization managed to retain three members of the previous roster, while introducing hazed, a veteran in-game leader, and an up-and-coming young talent in the form of NaturE. Additionally, they have experienced players like gMd and corey, and young talent like seven to bolster their firepower.
The current TSM roster also had a fair amount of time to practice as a team, even playing against several tier-1 opponents to strengthen their squad ahead of the 2023 season.
Compared to TSM, the roster of Mad Lions hasn't had too much time to practice as a single unit. Although players like Ange and ZexRow have played together a lot in the past, the remaining three members only joined the team a month ago.
Keeping team chemistry aside, Mad Lions does have incredibly talented individuals who can guide the roster to a successful VCL season. Their star Duelist, Will, was a key member of 100 Thieves' 2022 VCT roster and is a proven talent on the North American Valorant circuit.
Both TSM and Mad Lions are in great shape ahead of their Week 1 NA Valorant Challengers League matchup. Given the experience that both teams have had with their current rosters, and considering the individual capabilities of all the players involved, TSM has an upper hand over Mad Lions in this matchup.
Head-to-head
The current Valorant rosters of TSM and Mad Lions have never played each other in an official matchup.
Recent results
TSM has already competed in two different tournaments with their new roster ahead of the 2023 VCT season. They played the Knights Freezout and Tarik x Ludwig Invitational, finishing as the runners-up in both events. In the latter tournament, TSM even managed to defeat notable tier-1 organizations, including T1 and Sentinels.
Mad Lions has played only one tournament as a team so far. Their current roster competed in the Open Qualifiers of the NA Challengers League, where they managed to emerge as one of the top teams and qualify for the VCL main event after maintaining a 9-1 win record in 10 matches.
Potential lineups
TSM
- Johann "seven" Hernandez
- Corey "corey" Nigra
- Anthony "gMd" Guimond
- James "hazed" Cobb (IGL)
- Nicholas "NaturE" Garrison
- Jacob "Daeda" Hale (Coach)
Mad Lions
- Justin "Trick" Sears
- Adam "Ange" Milian
- Anthony "ZexRow" Colandro
- Taylor "drone" Johnson
- William "Will" Cheng
- Jornen "MoonChopper" Nishiyama (Coach)
Where to watch
Interested readers can tune into the Twitch channels of either VCT North America or Knights Arena to watch all the matchups of the Valorant Challengers League: North America live. TSM will take on Mad Lions on February 2, 2023 at 1:00 pm PST / 10:00 pm CET / 2:30 am IST (next day).
Poll : Who Do You Think Will Win This Week 1 VCL Matchup?
TSM
Mad Lions
14 votes
