VALORANT Japan Split 1: All you need to know
Riot Games and RAGE organised the VALORANT Challengers 2023: Japan Split 1. It is part of the VCL series and is taking place in Japan. The tournament consists of a prize pool of ¥5,000,000, for which the top 8 teams for the Japanese region are competing. The top two placement holders will qualify for Split 2 while the 3rd to 6th placed teams will head for the Advance Stage. VALORANT Challengers Japan Split 1 commenced on the 28th of January and will go on till the 19th of March. The regular season is currently underway and on the 28th of January, it kicked off featuring Day 1, Day 2 was played out yesterday i.e., the 29th of January and a total of 4 matches were witnessed by the fans.
Regular Season Day 2: A recap of the matches
The tournament follows a two-stage format which includes the Regular Season and Playoffs. The Regular stage is currently going on and it will continue till the 10th of February. All the matches are the best of 3 games and all 8 teams are placed in a single round-robin group. The top two teams from the Regular Season will head for Upper Bracket Finals and the 3rd to 6th placed teams will make it to the Lower Bracket Quarter Finals.
Day 2 of the tournament consisted of a total of 4 matches, the stream is available on VALORANT // JAPAN’s official YouTube channel. Let’s have a closer look at what happened in the matches.
Match 1: IGZIST vs Sengoku Gaming
(Bo3 Score: 0-2)
Map Veto – Ascent, Fracture and Pearl.
- Ascent Map -Sengoku Gaming began to dominate the game as it started well. First half score remained 3-9. The second half was a complete sweep from them as it remained 0-4. Sengoku Gaming won the game by 3-13.
- Fracture Map – First half score of the game remained 5-7 and later a second-half score of 4-6 led Sengoku Gaming to a win by 9-13.
Match 2: SCARZ vs REJECT
(Bo3 Score: 2-1)
Map Veto – Haven, Fracture and Pearl.
- Haven Map – SCARZ was seen dominating the game as the score remained 7-5 in the first half. But a strong display from REJECT in the second half by 2-8 led them to a victory by 9-13.
- Fracture Map – SCARZ enjoyed the lead in the first half by 8-4. The second half ended with a score of 5-6. SCARZ won the game by a 13-10 finish.
- Pearl Map – SCARZ pulled off a great display in the first half and made it 10-2. A 3-3 finish in the second half was enough as SCARZ got the victory by 13-5.
Match 3: FENNEL vs Crazy Raccoon
(Bo3 Score: 0-2)
Map Veto – Haven, Fracture and Ascent.
- Haven Map – The score remained 4-8 in the first half and a 5-5 second-half finish led Crazy Raccoon to a win by 9-13.
- Fracture Map – The first-half score remained 4-8 again and a 3-5 finish in the second half cemented Crazy Raccoon’s win by 7-13 scores.
Match 4: Northeption vs Crest Gaming Zst
(Bo3 Score: 2-0)
Map Veto – Fracture, Breeze and Ascent.
- Fracture Map – Both teams took the match for overtime as the scores remained the same. Northeption made it a 15-13 victory.
- Breeze Map – Northeption made it 7-5 in the first half and a 6-1 second-half finish led them to a victory by 13-6.
After these matches got over, Sengoku Gaming took the top spot followed by Crazy Raccoon, SCARZ and Northeption in 2nd, 3rd and 4th position respectively in the standings.