Group D to Kick Off Valorant Champions on Sunday

It’s time once again for the biggest Valorant Esports event of the year as the sixteen best teams in the game descend upon Los Angeles for Valoran Champions 2023. All of the participants were drawn into four groups of four in which teams will play in a double elimination bracket, with the top two teams moving on to the Playoffs.

This year Group D will kick off the tournament, which consists of Team Liquid from EMEA, Natus Vincere from EMEA, DRX from the Pacific, and defending World Champions LOUD from the Americas. You won’t want to miss it when these four go at it on Sunday, August 6th.

Team Liquid

Team Liquid enters the Champions riding the off the momentum of winning the VCT: EMEA League this season. During the eight-week regular season, Team Liquid showed the ability to compete with top teams but still faced their share of challenges ending the regular season with a 6-3 record. They entered the Playoffs as the 3rd seed, where they took down Team Vitality and Natus Vincere before falling to the EMEA powerhouse Fnatic in the Upper Bracket final.

They absolutely dominated FUT Esports in the Lower Bracket final in a 3-0 beatdown. In two of the games of three games, Team Liquid held FUT Esports to only five points. They brought the same energy in their rematch with Fnatic in the Grand Final, taking down the favorites 3-1.

At VCT: Masters, they had a disappointing run, only winning a single match against China’s Edward Gaming before losing to two Americas League representatives in Evil Geniuses and NRG. They look to have a better showing at Champions, starting with their match against Natus Vincere.

Natus Vincere

Natus Vincere is a team that played exceptionally well during the regular season but has yet to play well in a tournament. They finished the EMEA League Regular Season with an impressive 7-2 record and entered the playoffs as the 2nd seed, where they lost their first match against Team Liquid.

They would win against Giants Gaming but would find themselves with a 4th place finish after losing to FUT Esports. After a quick exit from Masters Tokyo Group Stage with an embarrassing 0-2 record, they’ll look to redeem themselves in LA.

DRX

DRX had a great year in the VCT: Pacific League sitting at the top of the standings all season, ending with an 8-1 record and the 1st seed in playoffs. They started their playoff run off well with a 2-1 win over Team Secret before losing to Paper Rex 2-0. DRX would battle back to the Grand Final after beating T1 in the Lower Bracket Final in an incredible 3-2 match.

However, Paper Rex would go on to beat DRX in the Grand Final as well. Unfortunately for DRX, their bad luck with Paper Rex would follow them to Masters Tokyo. DRX would lose to Paper Rex once again, this time in the opening round of the Masters Playoffs, before being eliminated from the tournament by NRG.

LOUD

LOUD had a great year domestically, ending the Regular Season at the top of the Americas League with an 8-1 record. They then ran through the Upper Bracket to the Grand Finals beating everyone in their path.

However, things started to unravel at Masters when they, too, took an early exit from the tournament, winning no games in Tokyo, listing to both Evil Geniuses and Edward Gaming 0-2.

They hope to have gotten all of their bad play out of the way as they look to defend their title of Valorant World Champions.