Sentinels redeemed themselves in a decisive 2-0 sweep against FPX, securing their spot in the group B decider match.

SEN CITY LIVES TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY! #VALORANTChampions pic.twitter.com/DQMMNCdi3D

— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) August 8, 2024

Coming off a tough 2-0 loss to Gen.G, Sentinels were determined to bounce back against FPX, who themselves had narrowly lost to Team Heretics in a thrilling 2-1 series.

FPX’s pick of Bind, where they had previously excelled with a unique Yoru and Chamber composition, initially looked promising as they took an 8-4 lead in the first half.

However, Sentinels made key adjustments, and they rallied to win nine consecutive rounds, closing out the map at 13-8.

Zachary “zekken” Jude Patrone led the charge with 20 kills, and Kale “Autumn” Dunne was the only player from FPX who could match his performance.

On Lotus, Sentinels continued their momentum, exploiting FPX’s unconventional composition, which lacked a duelist.

FPX struggled to break Sentinels’ defensive setups, allowing Sentinels to secure a dominant 9-3 half.

Zekken and Tyson “TenZ” Van Ngo were the stars of the show, with TenZ contributing 19 kills to help Sentinels finish the map 13-5.

With this victory, Sentinels eliminated FPX and advanced to a rematch against Gen.G for a spot in the playoffs.

KRü Esports also delivered a commanding performance, eliminating Bilibili Gaming with a 2-0 victory.

KRü’s map veto favoured them, forcing Bilibili to play on weaker maps.

Despite Bilibili taking an early lead on Lotus, KRü’s resilience showed as they turned the tide with a near-flawless second half to close out the map 13-9.

Fabian “Shyy” Patricio Usnayo’s triple kill in the final round was crucial in securing KRü’s victory.

Moving on to Bilibili’s pick, Icebox, KRü dominated from the start, with Nicolás “mta” González and Angelo “keznit” Mori leading the charge.

Despite Bilibili’s efforts to adapt, KRü’s aggressive playstyle proved too much, and they wrapped up the map with a decisive 13-4 scoreline.

KRü’s victory set them up for a high-profile rematch against Fnatic, a team they famously defeated at Champions 2021.

For both Sentinels and KRü Esports, these victories were vital in keeping their tournament hopes alive.

Sentinels will face Gen.G in a do-or-die match, while KRü will look to continue their run against Fnatic.

KRü KEEPS THEIR #VALORANTChampions DREAMS ALIVE! pic.twitter.com/8xiyQEUW7p

— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) August 8, 2024

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Sentinels had a very tough start to VALORANT Champions 2024, as they had to face the top team in the world, Gen.G, and lost in two maps. FunPlus Phoenix did not have it much easier, as they lost to Team Heretics in overtime.

FunPlus Phoenix showed more than expected against Team Heretics, although the latter side did not perform at 100% on the day. As such, it is fair to question whether FunPlus Phoenix are actually good.

Sentinels, with their roster, should not be losing games like this. But as FunPlus Phoenix proved in Shanghai and last week, they can hang with the best. Expect a close series.

Bilibili Gaming kicked off their tournament run with a 0-2 loss against Fnatic; however, they showed a pulse on Bind, where the VCT China representatives won nine rounds. Lotus was much more one-sided, but it is not like Bilibili have ever been good on that map.

Bilibili Gaming do not have to worry about Lotus for this series, as it is one of their opponents’ weakest maps, along with Abyss — as shown in KRU Esports’ defeat against DRX in the opening series.

VALORANT betting sites have KRU as big favourites for this match. But based on the teams’ performances in the first round, it is easy to believe Bilibili Gaming can leave a dent in VCT Americas’ fourth seed.

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Gen.G dominated a gallant Sentinels squad in the opening series of the event, while Team Heretics and FunPlus Phoenix played out a nail-biting contest.

For the tournament’s opening match, Gen.G, playing on home turf, dominated Sentinels in a decisive 2-0 (13-8, 13-7) victory, settling the score after their loss in the VALORANT Champions Tour Masters Madrid grand final.

Revenge taken!

Gen.G wins the rematch vs Sentinels to kick off their #VALORANTChampions run! #GenGWIN pic.twitter.com/WjyINxMOS1

— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) August 1, 2024

The Korean squad’s aggressive playstyle and impeccable teamwork proved too much for the North American giants.

In particular, Kim “t3xture” Na-ra, the Gen.G duelist, was a standout performer, pushing Sentinels to their limit throughout the series.

Sentinels were unable to win their pick on Haven, and Gen.G, known as the world’s best team on Ascent, proved way too good on their choice.

Kim “Meteor” Tae-o secured a 1v3 clutch in the first round on defence, setting the tone for the match on Haven.

Gen.G showcased excellent retakes and individual heroics, flipping crucial rounds in their favour.

T3xture ended the game with a KDA of 24/12/4 and an average combat score (ACS) of 305 and led his team to victory.

Sentinels tried a team composition with Deadlock and Cypher on Ascent but struggled against Gen.G’s coordinated attack.

The VALORANT esports rookie sensation, Kim “Karon” Won-tae, secured a remarkable 4K with a sheriff in the second round before going on to lead his team to a 13-7 victory.

Gen.G’s victory sets them up to face Team Heretics in the upper bracket, while Sentinels will face FunPlus Phoenix in a must-win lower bracket match.

If the first match was a showcase of dominance, the second was a masterclass in resilience and determination as Team Heretics and FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) engaged in a thrilling battle that showcased their highest level of gameplay.

Heretics won on Abyss with a scoreline of 14-12 in overtime, with both teams trading early rounds on the newest addition to the map pool.

Enes “RieNs” Ecirli finished with the highest rating of 1.53, 202 ADR, and a +16 differential.

The Turkish-born rifler led his team with 28 kills, including a standout 4K with the guardian.

FPX returned serve with a 13-9 victory on Bind, ending the map with three straight round wins to end Heretics’ late comeback.

FPX dominated with a double-controller and Chamber-based composition, taking an 8-4 lead and eventually winning 13-9.

Both teams traded 6-6 halves to send the final map of Lotus to overtime before Heretics clinched the map 15-13.

RieNs continued his dominant form and ended the series with a server-high 1.34 rating and +27 kill/death differential across the three maps.

Team Heretics walk away with the series win against FPX at #VALORANTChampions Seoul! #VamosHeretics pic.twitter.com/tHihcenhnu

— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) August 1, 2024

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It is no surprise that Gen.G are outright title favourites on VALORANT betting sites. They placed second at VCT 2024 Masters Madrid, won in Shanghai, and ended the season with VCT 2024 Pacific Stage 2 title.

That is admirable, but it’s fair to question whether Gen.G should be priced at $1.36 to win this bout. Also, they recently started banning Sunset, which used to be their best map, indicating a lack of confidence in their pool.

Sentinels have not won as much this season, but they’ve only struggled at the final hurdles and have done relatively well domestically. But while Sentinels’ results don’t look excellent, this is still a very experienced roster, and they dominated the opposition in their only international tournament this season. This is a winnable match for Sentinels.

FunPlus Phoenix are one of the lowest-rated teams travelling to South Korea, but they have done well in the past international tournaments. Notably, FPX barely missed the playoffs in Shanghai, with two close defeats against the eventual finalists — Team Heretics and Gen.G — and placed top eight at VCT 2024 Masters Madrid.

Team Heretics are one of the most consistent VALORANT Champions Tour teams of the season, with two silver medals from VCT 2024 EMEA Stage 1 and Masters Shanghai and a third-place finish in Stage 2. Heretics slowed down a bit in the final stage, but that can be attributed to the fatigue of the long season.

FunPlus Phoenix are no pushovers, but Team Heretics should prove to be too much to handle for the Chinese squad.

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Invictus Gaming and EDward Gaming are tied at 1-3 after four rounds of action, having played teams of similar quality. But even though there is not much to set the teams apart, it’s hard to have much faith in Invictus Gaming after their horrendous display against Oh My God.

EDward Gaming aren’t great — although most teams in Group Nirvana are bad, with poor macro and a lack of individual talent. This also explains all the upsets we have seen in this bracket, which makes backing favourites less appealing.

This game is an exception, mainly because of Invictus Gaming’s horrendous performances over the last couple of weeks. True believers might also consider backing EDG to sweep at $2.59 with the best esports betting sites.

Although LGD Gaming are 0-3, they have played Anyone’s Legend, JD Gaming, and Bilibili Gaming — all of the best LPL teams except for Top Esports. This explains why LGD have the league’s worst gold difference at 15 minutes (-2882).

FunPlus Phoenix have not looked as good as they should have over the last few weeks. Their only victory came against Ninjas in Pyjamas, but even that was not too exciting.

LGD Gaming are a capable team, but they have not shown a lot of quality yet. The same applies to FunPlus Phoenix. We can give LGD a slight bump with side choice, but that is not enough to believe they will manage a clean game.

The last time these sides met in a best-of-three series, Ninjas in Pyjamas closed as $3.13 underdogs. This time they are paying $4.33 with GG Bet, and it is not hard to see why.

Ninjas in Pyjamas are an incredibly frustrating team. Their macro and decision-making are atrocious; they are just a group of extremely good players who know how to fight as a unit. This is usually enough to stomp on weaker teams, but they are exposed when matched with any semi-capable squad.

JD Gaming have had a couple of hiccups this split, but they are still an elite team with solid fundamentals, which is more than enough to expose Ninjas in Pyjamas for what they are.

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Rare Atom won their second match of LPL 2024 Summer on Saturday when they swept Invictus Gaming. It was a nice bounce-back win after losing to Ultra Prime on Thursday, but realistically, it was just another case where Rare Atom were lucky to get the result.

EDward Gaming are a capable and resilient team with solid early-game numbers. But while they rarely fall behind too much before the 20-minute mark, EDward are also very inefficient in using their leads to close out games. That was noticeable in their last two series.

Rare Atom haven’t shown much recently, but at $3.06 with the best esports betting sites, they are a great outsider pick.

Ninjas in Pyjamas lost their third consecutive match of the split on Sunday against Weibo Gaming. In their defence, NiP have so far played LNG Esports, Anyone’s Legend, and Weibo, which is a difficult schedule. Still, their lacklustre record has more to do with volatility.

FunPlus Phoenix showed some glimpses last week when they took a map from JD Gaming, but they are not quite at the same level as in the spring split. Some of it has to do with Ping “Xiaolaohu” Xiao-Hu taking personal leave, leaving FPX without a stable weak-side top laner — although Zhu “Zdz” De-Zhang should find his footing with time.

FunPlus Phoenix have a lot to prove after a shaky run through LPL 2024 Summer Placements, but this is still the same core that posted the league’s fourth-best performance figures. Since both teams are a bit wobbly, this could be a scrappy affair that goes to three maps.

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Oh My God ended LPL 2024 Summer Placements as the only team without a single series won. Royal Never Give Up were hardly more successful, finishing Group B in last place with a 1-5 record and 3-11 in maps. They’ve since added a 1-2 loss to EDward Gaming in the first week of LPL 2024 Summer.

Both teams struggled in the early game during the Summer Placements, rarely holding a gold lead at 20 minutes. Their mid-game performance was just as terrible.

Based on their showings in the first stage of the split, Royal Never Give Up and Oh My God are the weakest teams entering the LPL 2024 Summer regular season. And with little to separate them, backing the team with side choice at plus money makes the most sense.

FunPlus Phoenix showed very promising performances last split, when they ranked as one of the top five teams in the league. However, they were far less impressive during the Summer Placements.

JD Gaming defeated FunPlus Phoenix twice last month. However, in the most recent series, FPX were the better team and held over 6k gold lead on the second map until they were outplayed by Seo “Kanavi” Jin-hyeok’s Zyra pick.

FunPlus Phoenix are talented enough to compete at the top level and will be a force to be reckoned with if they iron some things out. That’s a good enough reason to back them to keep their map pick close.

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FunPlus Phoenix showed some signs of life last week when they defeated EDward Gaming, but they still have a long way to go. FPX are a very good team, as already displayed during LPL 2024 Spring, and while potential doesn’t matter until we see something, they head into the main stage of the season as a squad with huge upside.

ThunderTalk Gaming swept EDward Gaming on Monday, but the final result doesn’t paint a full picture, as EDG should’ve won the first map. The second map was much more one-sided, but ThunderTalk didn’t show much throughout the whole series.

FunPlus Phoenix are still a bit shaky and they’ve produced a few sloppy maps across the five series played. But they defeated ThunderTalk in the first week, and if FPX can show the same level of performance they did against JD Gaming on Monday, a 2-0 sweep is possible.

As one of the league’s strongest teams, JD Gaming should be expected to take care of business on Friday and sweep EDward Gaming. But that doesn’t mean they’re a good bet.

EDward Gaming are not as weak as they seem. Their performance numbers are very solid, and they know how to navigate the mid-late game. But EDG also tend to coin-flip important fights, which introduces some unnecessary variance and explains their recent results.

JD Gaming are the superior squad by all metrics; however, they don’t need the win, so it’s possible we will see them try out some new things. Whether that’ll be enough for EDward Gaming to take a bite out of JDG remains to be seen, but we like the underdogs to keep their map pick close.

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Anyone’s Legend managed to produce a few flashy upsets in League of Legends Pro League (LPL) 2024 Spring, but their overall performances were very poor, resulting in a disappointing 11th-place finish. For the final split of the season, Anyone’s Legend addressed one weak spot with the addition of top laner Hu “Ale” Jia-Le, but there are still some macro problems they’ll have to improve on in order to accomplish anything.

There’s some upside to this team, and if Anyone’s Legend can work on their approach in the mid-late game, they’ll remain feisty underdogs. However, all that is a big ‘what if’.

Ultra Prime have already played their first match of LPL 2024 Summer Placements, winning against Invictus Gaming 2-1. This doesn’t prove much, as Invictus Gaming are one of the weaker rosters in the league, and the eye test suggests Ultra Prime aren’t much better than last split.

It is anything but surprising, as Ultra Prime didn’t replace some of their weaker players during the offseason. At the very least, things can’t get much worse for them, but there aren’t many reasons to feel optimistic about this lineup.

We’re taking a leap and trusting Anyone’s Legend to sweep.

ThunderTalk Gaming retained their roster for the LPL 2024 Summer season but made some changes to the coaching personnel, adding Xiao “Vlone” Chu-Yu as a new analyst. But with Chou “AFei” Cheng-Ting staying put and no new player arrivals, those changes don’t move the needle too much.

Last split, ThunderTalk had their moments. However, even though they didn’t have any critical weaknesses, they also struggled in some areas of the game — mainly in the transition from early to mid.

FunPlus Phoenix have kept all their players from last split and made just one change with the arrival of top laner Zhao “TheNiu” Yong-Zhuo, who might not even start. Keeping the roster together is a reasonable move, as FPX had a very strong run though the first split before they fell apart in the playoffs.

FunPlus Phoenix looked a bit raw in the spring, but this is an excellent squad with huge upside. This squad will surprise many by the end of the season, but they’ll likely need some time to get going, so we’ll tame our expectations for their LPL 2024 Summer Placements opener.

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The tournament began with a much-anticipated clash between G2 Esports and T1, a rivalry that extends across multiple esports titles.

G2 emerged victorious with a 2-1 win, setting the stage for an intense competition.

G2 Esports win their opening series at #VALORANTMasters Shanghai! #G2ARMY pic.twitter.com/VsPvKhJn1J

— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) May 23, 2024

The opening match took place on Breeze, where rounds were fiercely contested.

T1 initially showcased their prowess, taking the lead on what is considered their best map.

However, G2 Esports turned the tide after the side switch, dominating the sandy shores and securing the first map of the tournament.

T1 struck back on Icebox, delivering a near-perfect performance.

Their aggressive playstyle earned them 11 rounds on attack, while G2 could only manage one.

T1 continued their momentum on defence, quickly wrapping up the map with a 13-1 victory, levelling the series.

The decisive third game on Lotus was a spectacle of high-stakes VALORANT.

The teams traded rounds until they reached overtime, tied at 12-12.

G2 then demonstrated their resilience, winning the next two rounds decisively to clinch the match.

Another highlight of the day was FunPlus Phoenix’s (FPX) dramatic win over FUT Esports.

This series, which extended to three maps, showcased the strategic depth and resilience of FPX, marking their first international triumph.

The match began on Sunset, FUT’s chosen map, where they initially led.

However, FPX quickly adapted, ending the first half with a commanding 9-3 lead and eventually winning 13-7.

On Lotus, FPX’s pick, FUT fought back, closing the first half 8-4.

FPX, led by standout performances from Chang “BerLIN” Po-lin and Qu “Life” Donghao, launched a strong comeback, though FUT ultimately won 14-12 in overtime.

The decider map, Icebox, saw FUT take an early lead with an 8-4 first half.

Yet, FPX staged a remarkable turnaround, winning nine consecutive rounds to secure a 13-10 victory and a 2-1 series win.

FunPlus Phoenix defends their home turf and comes away with the series win! #VALORANTMasters pic.twitter.com/fExYdOWZaJ

— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) May 23, 2024

This victory not only highlighted their potential as strong contenders but also set the tone for their campaign in Shanghai.

With the Swiss stage format, both G2 and FPX have taken crucial first steps towards the playoffs.

T1 and FUT Esports, despite their losses, still have opportunities to advance.

The Swiss stage leads to a do-or-die double-elimination bracket, ensuring that every match is critical.

FPX’s coach, Deng “NaThanD” Senqiao, emphasized the team’s readiness to adapt and counter their opponents’ strategies, showcasing their confidence and strategic flexibility.

FUT Esports, under coach GAIS, remains focused on growth and the bigger picture, aiming for qualification for VALORANT Champions.

VCT Masters Shanghai continues on Friday with two more matches set to take place.

Friday’s VCT Masters Shanghai series

• Gen.G ($1.53) vs Leviatan ($2.37) @ 4pm CST
• Team Heretics ($1.10) vs Dragon Ranger Gaming ($6.50) @ 7pm CST

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