The Crash of FURIA And the Chinese Miracle: Results of the ESL Challenger Valencia 2022 Group Stage
The group stage of ESL Challenger Valencia 2022 has ended and gave the audience a lot of surprises about teams that were considered outsiders. The first semifinal match will begin tomorrow, July 3, at 12:00 PM, but we will first discuss what happened in groups A and B.
On the other hand, the Outsiders played consistently, reaching the playoffs. But still, it is very early to say that the team has returned to the same level it showed before the departure of YEKINDAR and buster.
As for Sprout, the Europeans took advantage of the instability of FURIA and the unsympathetic nature of the new 00NATION lineup to get to the next stage with the Outsiders.
Movistar Riders still can't reach the level of their opponents at ESL Challenger Valencia
Group B became a real storehouse of spectacular matches with unexpected twists, which began in the second BO1. Movistar Riders dealt flawlessly with HUMMER Esports, shutting them down with a score of 16:0. Then, in the winners' match, they defeated MIBR similarly (16:3), thus paving the way to the playoffs.
The Chinese from Rare Atom suddenly performed well in the relegation match. At first, they gave HUMMER the first map but rallied on the remaining two and went on to a decisive series with MIBR.
Few expected it, but here Rare Atom showed them even better: on their peak Inferno, the team destroyed the Brazilians in the attack, and on Overpass, MIBR took the victory on the fifth series of additional rounds.
As a result, we have an exciting set of teams in the semifinals: Outsiders – Rare Atom and Movistar Riders – Sprout. However, the newly-emerged dark horses will have to put it all in to make it to the grand final.
Individually, the following three players performed best:
- dumau (MIBR) – 7.5 ratings
- Spiidi (Sprout) – 7.1
- JamYoung (Rare Atom) – 6.8.
