LOS ANGELES – “Nobody believed in them”
That was the cry of fans and team Evil Geniuses (EG) themselves as the team reached the culminating event of a year-long season for the e-sports competition.
Against all odds, the North American squad seized the throne in the 2023 Valorant Champions Tournament after an epic showdown against Singapore’s Paper Rex (PRX), 3-1, which concluded at the KIA Forum Saturday (Sunday, Manila time).
Even though PRX enjoyed a two-map ban advantage being from the Upper Bracket, they still couldn’t outgun EG at their home turf as the latter edged the former on Split during the first match, 13-10), one of PRX’s best maps historically.
EG was quick to bounce back whenever PRX started taking the lead, shutting down PRX’s Viper Pits and Showstoppers while executing clean site retakes. By Round 20 of the first match, Max “Demon1” Mazanov finally came online, denying Aces and getting kill after kill, ultimately giving EG the advantage they needed.
PRX poked back at the second map, however, and were able to best EG at Ascent; the map that EG coach Potter was confident about, enthusiastically declaring that they were “2-0, baby” in the map.
After EG took the lead during the third map in Bind, 13-5, and despite Aces being thrown around by both teams, PRX failed to force a Game 5 as EG thwarted them in Lotus, 12-10.
This was a historic VCT match as both teams were considered underdogs. Despite that, EG took home $1 million as champions while PRX bagged $400,000 as runners-up.
Meanwhile, Loud and FNatic, considered to be one of the stronger contenders in the competition, took home $250,000 and $130,000 for third and fourth places, respectively.