There is a new curse in competitive VALORANT that has become stronger than the 9-3 curse, and it involves teams’ placement at international events.
With Paper Rex’s early exit from VALORANT Champions Istanbul today, a new curse has been cast upon the VALORANT Champions Tour. Every team that has placed second at an international event has been hit with bad luck at or before the following tournament.
Fnatic were the first team to be hit with the curse when they finished second to Sentinels at Masters: Reykjavík, only to miss qualification for Masters: Berlin just a few months later. Then it was Team Envy who placed second at Masters: Berlin and bottomed out at Champions in 2021. To finish the year, Gambit were the runners-up at VALORANT Champions but failed to qualify for Masters: Reykjavík in 2022.
The following year, LOUD came in second at Masters: Reykjavík to OpTic Gaming, only to go winless at Masters: Copenhagen. Then, to finish the tradition, Paper Rex, who finished second at Masters: Copenhagen, have now been eliminated from VALORANT Champions Istanbul with only one win.
This trend has now been present throughout the last two years of competitive VALORANT and may be the strongest curse to date. Previously, VALORANT had devolved a curse surrounding a 9-3 halftime score. It was said that whatever team had that specific six-round lead advantage would go on to lose the game. Meanwhile, believers felt a team that only had three rounds at the half would be sure to win due to the curse.
While the previous 9-3 trend had no real statistical backing, the second place curse definitely does.
