ZETA Division is still in the running to play in the semifinals as they earn the final spot in the VALORANT Champions Tour Masters Reykjavík playoff after their back-to-back win against Ninjas in Pyjamas and Fnatic.
ZETA defeated Swedish team Ninjas in Pyjamas in Wednesday's elimination match. Both teams have previously lost to DRX, which put them at 1-1 in the group stage. The winner of the elimination round would earn the final spot in the playoffs and will move on to the semifinals in Iceland.
ZETA's Consistent Victory Was Stunning
The first map was Split, which was Zeta's choice, where NiP gave a strong start with 13-6, according to a report by Dot Esports. NiP almost got it in the bag after winning three consecutive rounds in the first half with 7-5, which brings them to an early lead 1-0.
ZETA, however, proved that they were not to be messed with. They brought the good stuff in the Icebox map, NiP's pick, and won 13-10. ZETA's Yuuma "Dep" Hisamoto as Jett was the real star of the match, finishing with 2.0 KD after providing the team with 26 kills and only 13 deaths. ZETA may have started rough, but they were able to pull their stats up to bring the score up to a tie at 1-1.
The final map was Fracture. The match was so intense that NiP was forced to go overtime, despite getting an early lead. After consecutive wins, ZETA managed to bring their score up to 14-12, winning the map and the series.
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With Two Members Missing, Fnatic Failed to Secure Playoffs Spot
ZETA previously defeated Fnatic in the elimination match in Group A. The Japanese team's choice map in the first half was Fracture, and won 13-7 after an impressive defense by Shota "SugarZ3ro" Watanabe. This stellar performance carried on to the final map Astra, where he secured 24 kills and only about half as many deaths.
This looks like the end of the road for Fnatic for this season. After team members Andrey "BraveAF" Gorchakov 's suspension and Nikita "Derke" Sirmitev's illness, the team seemed to have struggled to rebuild their strategies. BraveAF was suspended from the competition after screenshots of his texts showing support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine were leaked on Twitter.
According to a separate Dot Esports report, Derke also took time off due to illness after testing positive for COVID recently.
The absence of the two seemed to have taken a toll on Fnatic's performance, which became apparent in Tuesday's match with ZETA as they struggled to takeover ZETA's early lead. In the last four consecutive rounds, it seemed that Fnatic simply surrendered to ZETA's attacks, which ended with a clutch by Dep's Jett, capping the series with a 2-0 win.
This is a meaningful win for ZETA Division. This is their first international win as a team after losing Masters Berlin and failing the qualifications for VCT Champions last year. ZETA is the second Japanese team to win at an international VCT event. Crazy Raccoon won last year's Masters Berlin against Brazil's Havan Liberty.
ZETA is now off to face the all-star players of G2 Esports on April 14, as the first round of playoffs begins. The winners of which will face LOUD or Liquid in the semifinals.
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Story posted on GameNGuide
Written by Fred Layno