In the biggest upset of the VALORANT Champions 2023 group stage up to day three, Bilibili Gaming swept NRG 2-0 yesterday, putting one NA team on the brink of elimination. What made this so surprising is how the BLG players did it: by talking some trash on stage and using one of the lowest-skill guns in the game to its best possible professional capabilities.
On the second map of Split, BLG’s duelist player Wang “whz” Haozhe consistently pulled out the Judge, both to play defensively and aggressively against the experienced core of NRG. With a combination of regular ratty spots and satchel jumps to one-shot enemies, the second seed from NA couldn’t even comprehend how that gun handily beat them.
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It wasn’t just the Judge that shocked NRG, though, especially on map one of Lotus. NRG got an early lead, but off the back of Zhong “Biank” Jian Fei and his Fade, BLG won in overtime. Then, Split came along, and some equally traded rounds at the beginning led to a very chaotic map. That seemed to be the catalyst for the Judge pick, with BLG feeling like they could catch some flankers or lurkers out easily.
Most Judge pickups in the VCT are on save or force rounds, where players don’t have enough credits to buy a Vandal or Phantom. But whz was buying a Judge in full-buy rounds, where he could buy a rifle, actively choosing the shotgun over the more common ranged weapons. On defense, if you don’t cover the site that the enemy team goes to, that Judge should get no value at range or on a retake. But round four of Split said otherwise.
In this round, NRG executed on the A site, and despite a good two kills from Liu “Knight” Yuxiang on site, NRG got the plant off in a two-vs-two scenario. The only players left on the BLG side included whz with his Judge in heaven, not even dropping it for a rifle from one of the many dead players around the A site. This is because his teammate Li “rin” Lewei dropped a smoke directly on the spike, blinded it with his Paranoia, and then whz double satcheled and flew through the air into it. Pujan “FNS” Mehta was only able to watch as the airborne Raze fast pushed to the smoke and shotgunned Sam “s0m” Oh down, ending the round.
Then, enter round 10, with BLG up 6-3. Now, in another buy round where whz could have gotten a rifle, he went with the Judge and covered mid. He moved from A heaven to mid, where a great Snake Bite from Lei “yosemite” Wang whittled down Ardis “ardiis” Svarenieks, and as the Jett swung mid into ropes, they were greeted by a Judge one-shot. Whz got another kill later in the round with the shotgun, cleaning up FNS hiding on site, waiting for his team to rotate.
Last but not least, the most morally deflating round for NRG fans had to be round 14, where whz went with the Judge for their first buy round. Now on attack, he ran fast into B, following a Skye Trailblazer by satcheling in, but not into where the spike gets planted. Instead, he went right, surprising s0m with an airborne Judge one-shot. As the spike went down, whz pushed into his own team’s smoke at the back of the site, picking off Austin “crashies” Roberts. Then, when whz knew the final two players were just around the corner, a grenade and a flash allowed him to push up, hold a corner, and get those last two kills.
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After another round win, Liu “Knight” Yuxiang shouted some trash talk at FNS across the stage, aiming to destroy a mental that looked visibly frustrated after losing those rounds to a Judge.
What makes these Judge plays different from most in ranked and professional VALORANT play is the variety of ways that whz was using it. From super aggressive satchel plays or lurks in smokes that almost guarantee kills to more defensive holds of popular choke points or corner clears, switching things up can leave opponents guessing. In a weird way, it’s similar to how moving an Operator around the map can send fear into enemies, but the Judge forces players to clear every corner or else they’ll die to some classic shotgun spam.
With BLG’s win, they have a big task on their hands with Fnatic as their next opponent on Aug. 9. If they win, they would pull off an even bigger upset. If they lose, they have the chance to face NRG once again on Aug. 13, but this time for that final playoff spot from Group C. But if there is one thing all Champions teams now have to prepare for, it’s the fear and shock that the Judge sent down all of NRG’s spines.
