For six VALORANT teams spread across the Americas region, the journey isn’t quite over yet, as a meeting in Brazil will decide which team will earn the first-ever tantalizing two-year promotion to the VALORANT Champions Tour Americas.
The teams hailing from Brazil, North America, and Latin America have fought through their respective Challengers gauntlets, but for five of them, it’s right back to the Challengers system next year to do it all over again. But the one team that emerges victorious gets all the spoils: Two years in VCT Americas, and all the revenue sharing, stipends, and added viewership that comes with it.
The Americas Ascension tournament format features two round-robin groups of three. All six teams will go to a double-elimination playoff bracket, but the two teams that finish first in their group get to start off in the upper bracket semifinals.
Let’s meet the six teams competing in the do-or-die VCT Americas Ascension tournament.
The Union
Brazil’s number one seed has been number one for a good reason. The team has played 20 matches this year so far and has only lost a total of two, and they won eight straight maps to close out the Brazil Challengers regular season and sweep the playoffs. The duo of ntk (initiator) and pancc (Viper/Killjoy) led the way, each posting a K/D higher than 1.34 during playoffs.
00 Nation
00 Nation started off the season very poorly, going 2-5 in the first Brazil split. But they rallied with a 4-3 record in week two, then notched three crucial playoff wins to secure the second spot from Brazil at Ascension. The team was led by sturdy performances from initiator shion, but their biggest challenge at Ascension will likely be their familiar foe in The Union, who defeated 00 Nation in all four head-to-head meetings this year.
9z Team
9z utterly dominated the LATAM South region. In Split One they won all five group stages and swept the playoffs, only losing two maps during the entire split. The team still has to play the grand final of the LATAM South Split Two playoffs, but it’s simply a formality, having already earned more than enough points to qualify for Ascension.
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M80 Esports
The NA Challengers League was tightly contested across both splits, but only one team truly dominated consistently across the whole year, and that was M80. The core of former Ghost players only lost two series across a total of 17 this year, and just like The Union, won eight straight maps during a sweep of playoffs.
The Guard
While their former coach left to take on the Cloud9 job, and amidst uncertainty about their own future with mass layoffs at their organization, the players on The Guard found a way to win and reach another international stage. The Guard finished second place in both NA splits this year, but they’ll have to do better the get that lone promotion spot.
FUSION
A familiar face amongst the teams competing in LATAM Challengers over the past year, FUSION claimed the sixth and final Ascension spot with their victory over Six Karma. Like many of the other teams on this list, they had a dominant second split to close out their Challengers campaign, not losing a single series in the group stage or playoffs.
