With the North American VALORANT Challengers playoffs coming to an end this week, we have our first team officially making it to Ascension with the chance to earn promotion to the franchised league.
After finishing top three in both splits and winning the Mid-Season Face off, M80 have booked their tickets to São Paulo to fight for that lone promotion spot from the Americas.
The opportunity came on June 8 after M80 came back from a slow start to roll over Moist Moguls and sweep the series 2-0.
They won’t be the only team fighting for that spot from NA Challengers, with the VALORANT team they just defeated, Moist Moguls, among the other squads still competing for the region’s second Ascension spot. Even with the constant shifts of a season, M80 became one of the expected teams from NA Challengers to make it to Ascension.
Looking at M80’s season, they never had the same stumbles other best teams in NA Challengers had. Where The Guard have had their recent losses against Moist Moguls, G2 Esports crumbled in Split Two, and TSM had similar second split sorrow, M80 just ran out ahead and never looked back.
They were first in Split One, sharing the same 4-1 record as the top three teams but leading thanks to a strong map differential of +51. Their star talent of Zander and koalanoob alongside their Moroccan in-game leader johnqt quickly developed this Canadian superteam into the team to beat in NA Challengers.
One of the key reasons the team was so dominant was thanks to each player performing at their best, team-wide. NiSMO leads the league in match rating at 1.24, while Zander leads in KAST percentage at 83 percent, and koalanoob is second in average combat score at 246.8. The roster is the best in the region at playing off of each other, trading effectively and having clutch moments when needed, with NiSMO and Zander being tied second at 27 percent clutch rate.
That culminated in their Mid-Season Face Off title. In the end, Split Two was just a coronation for them after storming to the upper bracket final in the VALORANT playoffs and watching their main competitors win over The Guard once again thanks to a clutch Brimstone play.
Related: Last-second heroic Brimstone molotov secures major VALORANT win for Ludwig’s Moist Moguls
When these two teams ended up matching in the upper bracket final for an Ascension spot, it was the two best teams of Split Two putting it all out on the line. Fortunately for M80, their coordination and resolve after an early 7-0 hole on Lotus led to a near-perfect second half, a close 13-10 map win and a clean 13-5 map win on Fracture to close the series.
With this win, the Canadians (and johnqt) are the first regional representatives going to Ascension.
If you want to see this team make its mark on an even larger scale, the VCT Americas Ascension tournament begins on June 30.
