Just like with many other games – we debuted in the German esports scene with the game Valorant.
A game that’s rising in the esports landscape, and we definitely didn’t want to miss the growing trajectory that the game was going under!
We approached VaniX to take us by the hand and make our debut in the German Valorant scene a swinging success, lets go through everything that happened!
The grind is on
For starters, we picked up the best performing team in the Project V qualifier.
Hard for us to fail from that part onward you’d think, but the grind was only getting started at this point.
Project V was a huge tournament for offseason standards, it featured over 7 different groups over 3 divisions with an impressive promotion/relegation system that promoted long term sustainability. In total over 50 teams were formed and participated in this league alone, but even for those that were missing out on this league structure there were weekly tournaments that allowed teams to obtain circuit points directly.
We had joined one of the largest leagues in the offseason, that much was certain, and since we signed the best performing team at the time, we qualified straight into Division 1. The stage was set for success but the other teams were just as keen on that same success and worked hard to make it difficult for us.
During Stage 1 of Project V, we fought hard an valiantly to secure 4th place, which meant we avoided relegation – which was crucial for obtaining the best possible outcome later in the tournament. We had to let Entropy, onliners and Lions pass us unfortunately. Entropy even managed to stay undefeated in the first stage, our work was cut out for us. After Stage 1 ended, we saw the bottom 4 teams relegate and 4 fresh teams join our division.
It was in Stage 2 that we really improved our game and stayed true to the image of this competition – where long term consistency was rewarded above all else.
The previous top 4 stayed fairly the same, although onliners went mental boom and disbanded in the middle of Stage 2, landing them a 7th place finish.
Entropy was also still in 1st place, proving to once again be to strong for us, we were however in 2nd place.
Lions had replaced us in our earlier spot: 4th place.
This was partly to our victory over the newly acquired team in 3rd place: Divizon.
The stage was set for a penultimate split with 4 freshly promoted teams – after all the most challenging road was still ahead for us.
We were warned that the 3rd and final stage of Project V would be the most difficult, and we fought hard to stay on top.
Even Entropy took a fall from grace in this final stage down to 3rd place, with Divizon improving enough to secure an uncontested 1st place.
Lions had moved from back up to 2nd place, throwing their hat in the ring once more.
It was those last 2 spots that were especially hard to grab and were very heavily contested.
In the end we had a 3-way tiebreaker for 3rd place, in which Entropy, Geekz and NXT both went 4-3.
Regardless of whether or not we made top 4 in this stage was less relevant than our ultimate goal: reaching a top 4 finish in circuit points, which we did.
It would now all come down to an offline final between the 4 best performing teams in Project V: Divizon, Lions, Entropy and NXT.
Despite having reached our goal, we ended the Project V regular split with mixed emotions: part of our success in stage 2 was found with KovaQ.
Partly due to his convincing performance, he was however picked up by alternate aTTaX who was simply playing in a higher level of German Valorant scene.
Understandably, after his departure, we once again had to find our confidence with ever important finals ahead of us.
We were ready for an exciting final – and due to the offline final coinciding with Project Queens, we were forced to finish top 2 in order to go offline.
Having ended in 4th place in overall circuit points, we were matched with the #1 seed: Lions.
Initially we were hopeful: although Lions was technically the #1 seed they hadn’t wont a single Project V stage, and thus we were banking on a good result.
Unfortunately Lions came prepared, a quick 0-2 was all they needed to keep us home and prevent us from going further.
We eventually end in 3rd place in Project V, and Lions goes on to win the whole thing.
Going offline (or trying to)
Missing the offline finals in Project V definitely left us wanting more – and so we continued to grind to achieve this goal.
Next up was the A1 eSports Valorant Cup – an event where the top 4 would be playing offline.
First up we needed to qualify for the main event though: there was room for 8 teams, but in the end we failed to make the cut.
The place for this cup were very contested, and in the end a lot of teams would fail to participate in this tournament: another chance for offline finals missed.
In the end we only had 1 more tournament to end our year, and it was the biggest one yet: it was time for The POKAL.
Luckily the top 16 teams in Project V were automatically invited so we didn’t have to qualify this time, already one bridge we couldn’t fall over this time around.
The downside? The 8 VCD teams playing at a higher level than us would also be attending, with one of those teams being seeded in our group: Unicorns of Love.
Playing against Unicorns of Love could easily have been our match of the year, given the gravitoss of such an organisation, together with our win in League of Legends against G2 ofcourse. Being able to win against them would be an entirely different feat however.
With 2 fresh additions to our roster: TheoW and KhA, we feel confident we can take on this challenge, and rightfully so, we manage to beat Unicorns of Love in a convincing 2-0 fashion.
We’re overjoyed in managing to beat them, but the biggest challenge was still ahead of us, we do lose against the “VCL Rejects”, forcing us in the 2nd place in our own group.
Regardless of this setback, we still qualify to the playoffs, the only downside is we face the #1 seed from another group, which ends up being Ovation, one of those VCD teams. We took down 1, but the chance of taking down another VCD team was definitely looking even more slim – especially since Ovation was a better team on paper.
Against all odds, we come out on top in a nailbiting 2-1 win over Ovation – somehow we’ve made it to the quarterfinals of The POKAL.
Once again those offline finals are within reach, as top 4 is being played fully offline.
Only 1 more challenge is standing in our way: Fokus – another VCD team.
Once again our journey ends, right before reaching offline finals, after a 0-2 defeat against Fokus.
We can be proud though, as we fought tooth and nail to be among the top 8 best teams in Germany.
And proud we are, another succesful debut as there’s definitely more to come.
