Rise defeated FaZe Clan in the VALORANT Champions Tour Last Chance Qualifier and secured their spot in the upper semifinals. FaZe has an opportunity to fight their way through the lower bracket but needs to win four straight games to make it to the grand final.
Rise and FaZe faced off in the first Last Chance Qualifier match after the tournament was postponed two weeks due to complications with players testing positive for COVID-19, causing numerous logistical issues. The event was eventually postponed to maintain competitive integrity, and the tournament finally resumed today.
The first map of the series took place on Breeze, FaZe’s map pick, which was a relatively one-sided affair. FaZe won six straight rounds to start the first half and only dropped three rounds to Rise. FaZe held sites with ease post-plant and Rawkus killed three players to secure round three with ease.
Rise did start strong in the second half, winning the pistol round and the next two rounds to bring the map to a 9-6 scoreline. FaZe slightly stopped the momentum in round 16, where Babybay secured a 3k to help win the round. Rise managed to win two more rounds, but FaZe closed the map with the next three rounds.
The first half of the second match on Ascent was a similar performance, although Rise did win five rounds on offense. But FaZe struggled heavily in the second half and couldn’t break Rise’s defense. Supamen single-handedly saved the pistol round for Rise, winning a one-vs-three situation with enough time to defuse the Spike. FaZe only won one round in the second half, and Rise forced the series to map three with a 13-8 victory.
Map three took place on Bind, FaZe’s second map pick of the series, although Rise had little trouble keeping up. The first half was a back-and-forth affair as both teams answered back with single or back-to-back round wins. The second half was where Rise shined, winning three straight rounds to start the half and set the pace for the remainder of the game.
Rise took advantage of FaZe’s tendency to overrotate between sites, allowing Rise to fake an attack and switch to an unguarded site.
“They just they abused like a big like flaw that we have, which is like over-rotating,” FaZe’s Babybay told Dot Esports. “So just like purely one because of that, like actually is mainly just from that like they just they were just able to beat us because we were just over-rotated a little bit too much.”
Unfortunately for FaZe, this was enough for Rise to win map three and secure their first victory in the Last Chance Qualifier. Rise will face the winner between Version1 and Cloud9 Blue today at 8pm CT. FaZe will face the loser of the match tomorrow at 5pm CT.
