Review of the VALORANT First Strike tournament

The competitive VALORANT extravaganza called First Strike has come to an end today. The tournament was held from 3 to 7 December and gave us a lot of emotions. First of all, we should thank Riot for giving the opportunity to prove themselves to teams from not yet popular esports regions of the world. Now, let's remember the performance of teams from all regions.

First Strike: North America

North America has been one of the key competitive regions since the launch of Valorant. You can be convinced of this by looking at the number of eminent organizations, whose rosters are performing here. Just one of these teams became the champion.

We are talking about 100 Thieves, who beat Team SoloMid 3-1 in the final. On their way to the grand finals, 100 Thieves took down the Sentinels, beating them 2-1 and T1, beating them 2-0. Team Hiko, nitr0 and steel earned $ 40,000 and the title of the best team in North America.

First Strike: Europe

The European region does not lag behind the North American region. The battles here are no worse, and sometimes even better. First Strike in Europe was a test for regional giants such as G2, Liquid and FunPlus Phoenix, which they all successfully failed.

Team Heretics became the winner, beating SUMN FC with a score of 3-1 in the final. As a result - $ 40,000 for loWel and the company and the title of the strongest team in Europe.

First Strike: CIS

The CIS region is remembered for desperate battles and an extremely close grand final. ForZe and Team Singularity met in the decisive duel, which revealed the winner only after 5 maps. It was the forZe team, which was awarded $ 21,000 and the title of the best CIS team.

First Strike: Turkey

In Turkey, First Strike was doubly emotional. After all, this is one of the few regions where the playoffs were played in a double-elimination format with a lower bracket. However, she could not help the Futbolist team.

In the grand final, BBL Esports won 3-0, becoming the best team in Turkey and earning $ 20,000 in combination.

First Strike: Korea

In Korea, Vision Strikers ruled the show. The team stumbled only once, losing the card in the semifinal match against Cloud9 Korea. The rest of the meetings, including the grand final, glow and company closed dry.

Vision Strikers earned $ 40,000 and can rightfully be called the best team in Korea.

First Strike: Japan

The Japanese region turned out to be one of the fastest growing regions. All playoff matches, including the grand final and the third place match, were played with a clean sheet.

Absolute JUPITER excelled at this, winning the Grand Final against BackBird Ignis 3-0, and before that beat DetonatioN Gaming and Sengoku Gaming. Ablolute JUPITER earned $ 28,849 and the title of First Strike Japan Champion.

First Strike: Asia Pacific

The Asia-Pacific region turned out to be one of the largest in the framework of VALORANT First Strike. The teams were divided for geographic reasons. This is how we got First Strike: Hong Kong and Taiwan, First Strike: Malaysia and Singapore, and First Strike: Indonesia.

In Hong Kong and Taiwan, ahq e-Sports Club won the championship, and together with it, $ 8,000. The club finished the championship without losing a single map.

In Malaysia and Singapore, First Strike was held in a double-elimination format. Unlike Turkey, the lower bracket played a key role here. Thanks to her, the TODAK team managed to reach the grand final, where they won a strong-willed victory over Team SMG with a score of 3-2. TODAK earned the First Strike title of $ 2,217.

In Indonesia, 16 teams took part in the playoffs. Team nxl won the race for the championship, beating Alter Ego 3-2 in the final. The team has earned 4,236 dollars and universal fame and honor.

First Strike: Oceania

In Oceania, we watched the already familiar in the First Strike single-elimination playoffs. The EXO Clan won the region effortlessly, beating ORDER 3-0 in the grand final. EXO earned the title of Oceania Champions and $ 5,936 in prize money.

First Strike: Brazil

In Brazil, we also watched the single-elimination tournament. Gamelanders did the best with this format, losing only one map in the grand final against paiN Gaming. As a result, a confident championship and $ 13,562.

First Strike: Latin America

The Latin America region was divided into two parts: North and South Latin America.

In North Latin America, the winners were LazerKian, who played the best in the group stage and went directly to the grand final. There they dealt with Infinity Esports and earned $ 8,000 and the title of the strongest team in North Latin America.

In South Latin America the winners were Estral Esports, who similarly advanced to the grand final. There they left no chance for DKS Esports, beating them 3-0. As a result: the best team in South Latin America and $ 8,000 in prize money.

First Strike: MENA

The MENA region was also divided into several parts: the Levant and Egypt, the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf and Iraq, and North Africa.

In the first “sub-region” NASR Esports won, beating Anubis Gaming in the final and earning $ 7,000.

In the second "sub-region" RvN became the champions, who beat The Ultimates 3-1 in the final.

In the third region, the victory was won by Fox Gaming, who beat Team Majesty 3-1 in the final. The Morroco team earned $ 7,000 and the title of the best team in North Africa.

Summing up

VALORANT First Strike proved to be a pretty successful start for Riot in the new discipline. We hope that the first blow will be followed by a full-fledged series of such events and we will get even more high-quality esports events.