In Valorant there was recently the first major eSports tournament. In the “100 Thieves Invitational,” numerous well-known streamers competed against each other. In the end, the team led by top player Shroud won. However, another player from his team secured the final victory with a spectacular last-second stunt.
What was the 1st Major Tournament? The eSports organization 100 Thieves hosted the “100 Thieves Invitational”, the first major eSports tournament for Valorant. Numerous well-known streamers and professionals participated, including Shroud, TimTheTatman, Summit1g, and Ninja along with their teams. There was no prize money; the focus was mainly on fun, fame, and glory.
This was the first major tournament 100 Thieves Invitational in Valorant
This was the first scandal of the tournament: The first major issue in the tournament was that Dr Disrespect, who was also planned to be a team captain, withdrew shortly before the tournament started, making every match he would have participated in an automatic victory for the opposing team.
Funny: When the Doc announced his participation in the tournament on Twitter on April 11 and was grandstanding for teammates, someone immediately commented, “Will there be Twitch Drops?”, which was a sarcastic reference to the Twitch Drop scam of the Doc.
This is how the rest of the tournament went: After 6 rounds each in Group A and B, four teams qualified for the quarter-finals:
- TimTheTatman vs. Nadeshot
- Summit1g vs. Shroud
In the final, TimTheTatman and his team faced off against Shroud’s team. There was an epic finale.
Phenomenal Comeback of a Counter-Strike Pro
This was the highlight of the finals: Team Shroud started strongly as defenders and built a comfortable lead against TimTheTatman’s team. But when the sides were switched, TimTheTatman’s guys caught up, and Shroud’s team just couldn’t get that decisive victory.
Round by round was given away to the opponent. At one point, Shroud’s team had already gotten 12 points and only needed one more win to win the entire tournament. But it just wouldn’t happen, and TimTheTatman’s rivals had closed the gap to 5:12.
And even in this round, it seemed like Shroud’s team would lose. Soon, except for the last player AZK, all Shroud players were dead, and there were only 12 seconds of game time left in which Shroud’s team had to win. The opposing team still had 4 players left, so they had the victory practically in their hands.
But AZK kept his nerves and methodically took down one opponent after another. Yet time was clearly against him. As an attacker, he had to eliminate all enemies before time ran out. In the end, there was only one second left, and AZK still had one opponent in front of him.
Amid the loud cries of the two commentators, AZK managed to shoot the last opponent just 6 milliseconds before the end, thus securing the long-awaited finals victory for his team. A worthy conclusion for a fun and exciting tournament.
Who is AZK anyway? AZK is a former pro from CS:GO. He was banned for life by Valve in 2016 due to his involvement in a cheating scandal. He made a comeback in CS:GO in 2017 in the ESL, until he retired again in 2018 and is now active in Valorant.
How the tournament was received by fans: Especially the last round with its most spectacular victory by AZK was well received by fans on reddit:
- “Great to see the old school guard from CS back again”
- “That was insane, INSANE!”
- “So nice to see AZK play like this again”
- “Imagine something like this in a big arena full of fans, Valorant will rock so hard as an eSport!”
Do you want to play Valorant too? Then you need a beta access, which is currently only available through Twitch Drops with Valorant streamers. But luckily, the rules for Twitch Drops during the Valorant beta have been relaxed. Read here how you can now get keys for the closed beta.
