The remaining eight teams from North America Circuit Points will clash at NA LCQ to decide which one of them represents NA at Champions Istanbul. This is the last step before the ultimate tournament, putting an end to VALORANT Champions Tour 2022. Let’s take a look at what to expect from this LCQ.
Stage 1 champion The Guard, FaZe Clan, NRG, Shopify Rebellion, Cloud9, 100 Thieves, Evil Geniuses and Sentinels will participate in NA LCQ, starting on August 4. Matches are decided accordingly with the Circuit Points table, a double elimination round will be played and only the lower bracket final and grand final will be best of five.
Comments about the participants
With their performances, XSET and OpTic Gaming qualified to Champions Istanbul and only one team will make it from the North America Last Chance Qualifier. Circuit Points #3 and Stage 1 NA champion, The Guard, seem like they should be the favourites but they are not. Recent performances matter the most in tournaments like this and their 1-4 group stage run in Stage 2 NA Challengers diminish their chances of winning.
So, who’s the favourite at NA LCQ? That’s a hard question to answer. Looking at Stage 2 NA Challengers, XSET and OpTic Gaming were miles ahead of any other competitor, and they both faced each other inthe grand finals after playing the upper bracket final. Third place was FaZe Clan who defeated NRG in the lower bracket, but neither of them showed something that would give them a good advantage over the rest of the LCQ teams.
FaZe and NRG are followed by Shopify Rebellion who signed the Luminosity Gaming roster. They also have a strong roster but together with Cloud9 and Sentinels who were eliminated in the group stage of Stage 2 NA Challengers, they will hope for miracles to make it to Istanbul.
Circuit Points #8 100 Thieves and #9 Evil Geniuses had a hopeful performance in Stage 2 NA Challengers, where they ended up right behind FaZe and NRG. A similar performance could be expected of them, and one of them might even take it a step further for a better finish, or even win the NA LCQ.
Stage 2 performances really make it hard to make any guesses, with NA struggling to produce a strong third representative for the region this year. Thus, even the worst-looking candidates may exceed expectations and win the LCQ to secure a ticket to Turkey. Make sure to watch the games live on Luckbox and sign up before placing your bets.
NA LCQ schedule
The first games at North America Last Chance Qualifier will follow the schedule:
August 4, Thursday
The Guard (2.00) vs Sentinels (1.72) - 22:00 CEST
Just like The Guard’s fall after their Stage 1 success, Sentinels has been disappointing the fans for a long time now. While The Guard should be the more prepared side, no one expects either of them to make it to Istanbul, sadly.
August 5, Friday
FaZe Clan (1.58) vs Evil Geniuses (2.25) - 01:00 CEST
FaZe vs EG will be the first of the two most critical tests in the first round of NA LCQ. FaZe is definitely the side with the advantage, but their performance against EG will be decisive in their LCQ run.
NRG vs 100 Thieves - 22:00 CEST
The second test is between NRG vs 100 Thieves. As mentioned earlier, NRG had a better performance in Stage 2 NA Challengers and eliminated EG. NRG is one of the favourites in the tournament and will fight for the perfect start.
August 6, Saturday
Shopify Rebellion vs Cloud9 - 22:00 CEST
If we don’t witness a fantastic underdog story, this match will be the least important one in the NA LCQ. Both teams had a disappointing result in Stage 2 and weren’t that special in Stage 1 either. They will try to prove that they have the strength to make it to Istanbul.
The upper semi-finals, lower round 1 and lower quarter-finals will be played on August 7-8, leaving the rest of the matches for the next week.
