Fnatic Looks to Repeat International Success at Champions

The winners of the Valorant Masters in Tokyo earlier this year, Fnatic, will start their Valorant Champions campaign on Tuesday, August 8th, when Group C starts play.

Though many fans and oddsmakers believe they know who will make it out of this group, there may be more to some of these teams than what meets the eye.

You won’t want to miss any of the action when these four and 12 of the best Valorant teams in the world start the competition to name the 2023 World Champion.

Fnatic has had a year that makes any team in the VCT envious—their year started off with a bang, with a strong showing at the LOCK//IN tournament taking the whole thing in front of the São Paulo crowd.

They took that home with them to the VCT: EMEA League finishing the regular season with a perfect 9-0 record netting them the top seed in the EMEA League Playoffs.

Fnatic’s run continued its dominating streak, taking down FUT Esports and Team Liquid en route to the EMEA League Grand Finals. With only a single match separating Fnatic from the perfect season, Team Liquid would be able to find the improbable upset, stunning fans and Fnatic with a 3-1 win in the Grand Finals.

Fnatic let the disappointment fuel them headed into Masters Tokyo as they made a dominant run taking down the best competition the world could offer. They started with a 2-0 win over NRG in the opening round of the Bracket Stage before finding another 2-0 over Paper Rex.

In the Upper Bracket Final, Fnatic would 2-1 Evil Geniuses before taking them down again 3-0 in the Grand Finals to claim the last international title before the Champions. Make no mistake, despite their stumble in the EMEA finals, Fnatic is the team to beat heading into Los Angeles.

ZETA DIVISION had a mediocre season going 5-4 in the regular season, securing the 4th seed in the Pacific League Playoffs. Unfortunately, there they were unable to find any success losing their opening match to Team Secret in a close 0-2 before losing to T1 in another close match, this time 1-2.

ZETA DIVISION practiced and refined their game over the time between the Playoffs and the Pacific Last Chance Qualifier as they looked like a new team in the LCQ. They opened with a 2-1 win over Rex Regum Qeon before finding sweet revenge over Team Secret beating them in the Upper Bracket Final 2-0 and the Grand Final 3-1 to earn their trip to Los Angeles.

NRG had a decent regular season in the VCT: Americas league ending in 3rd place with a 6-3 record. They lost their opening match in the Americas League Playoffs to Evil Geniuses 1-2 before making an incredible run through the lower bracket, taking down FURIA Esports 2-0, Cloud9 2-1, and Evil Geniuses 3-1 before being dominated by LOUD in the Grand Finals 3-0.

Still, their finish allowed them to play at Masters Tokyo, where they would lose their opening match to Fnatic 2-0. They would try to make another run through the lower bracket like back at home, taking down DRX 2-0 and Team Liquid 2-1. However, Paper Rex would have different ideas, eliminating NRG in the Lower Bracket Semifinals.

Bilibili Gaming is a major competitor from the Chinese Valorant Scene, making a great run to the finals in the China Qualifier. They started their tournament run by taking down Monarch Effect 2-0 and Trace Esports 3-0 before Edward Gaming took them down in the Upper Bracket Final 3-0.

Though after beating FunPlus Pheonix in the Lower Bracket Final 3-2, they earned a rematch with Edward Gaming, they still weren’t on their level, losing in the Grand Finals 3-1. They are definitely the biggest dark horse in Group C heading into the Group Stage.