Acend Defeat Gambit To Win The Valorant Champions!

This was the best world championships we could have asked for – full of surprises, excitement, and plays at the highest level. And it all culminated in the final of Acend vs. Gambit, two teams from the EMEA region that gave us one of the best matches in the history of Valorant eSports. Even though both teams played their absolute best, and it was super close (only one round difference) Acend won Valorant Champions and thus became the first team that can call itself "World Champion". The match was very close and ended with a score of 3-2, so we were able to see all of the scheduled maps. Let's look back at exactly how the first Valorant World Championship ended!

Breeze

The first game was super stressful for both teams. At first, you might have had the feeling that Acend would destroy Gambit on this map; the CIS team lost the first half 3:9. However, it's not over until it's over, especially when it comes to Gambit on Breeze. Remember that 13-0 they did against G2 Esports at Masters Berlin? Well, they played the second half in more or less a similar style and ended the match 13:11 in their favor.

This is starting to look familiar. @GambitEsports pic.twitter.com/ZSgOyHfQll

— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) December 12, 2021

Ascent

This game is a must-watch for every Sova main! These lineups from BONECOLD and Chronicle were so good, we even suspect them of reading our guide on the best Shock Dart lineups on Ascent. It was a pure Wallhack game – Best Sovas in the region and Sheydos killing everyone through smokes. But still, even though Gambit was making a comeback, Acend didn't let up, and the match ended with some clean kills from BONECOLD and starxo.

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Fracture

One word – brutal. Gambit absolutely owned Acend here, and there's no denying that. Honestly, it seems that Gambit spent lots of their preparation to get some tactics and lineups for this particular map and their opponents... not necessarily. But after all, Fracture was Gambit's map of choice in this BO5. Perhaps Acend thought that most teams would ban this map, so they didn't particularly prepare for it. And once again, nAts showed he is really built different, scoring 26 frags and using Cypher's abilities in a way few can.

Icebox

This Icebox game was so close that it needed an overtime! For a moment, we thought it would be a repeat of Gambit vs The Vikings, but no, Acend didn't give up and showed that they deserve one more map to prove that they're the ones to be called the “world champions”. Honestly, the fact that Acend was able to maintain such focus after that Fracture game is insane.

Split

And that was the map after which Acend won the title of Valorant's first world champion. The end of the first half was a bit scary, and Twitch chat was already sure Gambit would sweep the European mix after the defenders' site.... well, not today. Acend did even better on the attackers' side.

THE FIRST-EVER WORLD CHAMPIONS OF VALORANT!@AcendClub pic.twitter.com/P9oB3djR3B

— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) December 12, 2021

And of course, if there's one MVP of this match, it has to be starxo, who scored 20 frags with a 25% headshot rate. Starxo even said in a post-match interview that he didn't feel any pressure; he even thought that it wasn't even the last map and was ready for more. Adding up all the rounds of this BO5, Acend won only one round more than Gambit – the total score in rounds was just 54 to 53.