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In an unexpected turn of events, Leviathan took down Team Liquid with a clean sweep in Valorant Champions 2022 action on Wednesday.
For Liquid, who had a terrible season which almost resulted in the team losing their spot at Champions, it was a terrible start to their campaign.
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The 2022 VCT Champions tournament commenced with an intense match between Paper Rex and Edward Gaming, with Paper Rex emerged as the victor.
The second Group A match slated for the event was the battle between Leviatán and EMEA’s Team Liquid.
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In the match against Liquid, Leviathan showed a new side of themselves. They displayed noticeable improvement compared to their previous performance that got the team eliminated from the Masters Copenhagen tournament, which occurred two months ago.
The team showcased a reformed playing style that enabled them to triumph over Liquid, who they had previously clashed with.
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Due to Marco “Melser” Amaro getting some multi-kill rounds in, Leviathan started the first map strong. Liquid picked the starting map, Haven, to the surprise of fans who expected Ascent to be selected due to both teams’ strength in it.
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Although Leviathan is known for their more chaotic play-style, the team seemed more composed during the first half of the match and displayed calculated strength and strategy. They carried on in the lead in the second half of the map, with Francisco “kiNgg” Aravena and Melser in full control.
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Team Liquid soon stepped up after the team went on a number of timeouts and received stern talks from Emil “eMIL” Sandgren, the head coach. As a result of the efforts of Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom and Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom, Liquid was able to stop the match from being entirely one-sided. Leviathan eventually came out on top with a 13-10 record.
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The second map, Ascent, saw different strategies from both teams and was chosen by Leviatán. The franchise used Vicente “Tacolilla” Compagnon’s agent Chamber when playing the map in LATAM. In Ascent, Tacolilla usually held long angles while playing patiently.
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Liquid’s strategy in Ascent involved the use of Phoenix by ScreaM. The team was able to use the player to dominate the EMEA field. However, they were unable to win the match against Leviathan.
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In the first half of the map, the Argentinian esports franchise was able to convert multiple thrifty rounds of the stinger meta. This was done while Liquid made use of ScreaM’s aggressive Phoenix play against Leviathan.
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Halfway into the first half, Leviathan started to play in their previous anarchic style and bought stingers on the team’s save rounds. The first half of Ascent continued with back-and-forth wins from both teams and ended in a 6-6 tie.
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The second half of the map saw Leviathan set up advantages while Liquid continued to put pressure on them. Despite this, they were able to end the map with a 13-10 score against their Netherlands counterpart.
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In order to move forward from the already demanding Valorant Champions Group A, Team Liquid has a number of tough matches to play.
In a few days, the team will play against the Chinese squad EDward Gaming in an elimination match. In the Group A winner’s match, Leviathan will take on Paper Rex, who are favourites to win with $1.42 odds at the top esports betting sites.
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The opening day of the 2022 VCT Champions event has certainly shown that the tournament could be one of the most competitive professional Valorant showcases yet.
