VALORANT Champions Tour Challengers 3 playoffs preview

With play-ins now concluded we know the final eight teams that will have one more shot at qualifying for the VCT EU Masters. That tournament will be held from March 12 until March 21 and offers a $150,000 prize pool, with $60,000 going to the winner.

Joining the losing teams from Challengers 2 are Guild Esports from Sweden, DfuseTeam from France, Ballista Esports from Poland, and Raise Your Edge Gaming from Europe.

They fought their way through the open qualifier for their chance of qualifying for the main event. 

Wave Esports vs Guild Esports

Guild Esports does not have any tournament wins under their belt, other than a few second-place finishes in C-tier events. The story of the Swedes can be described as “close, but no cigar”. 

Will they break the curse against Wave Esports? Wave has won numerous C-Tier events, and recently beat Rix.GG 3-0 in the EpicLAN 32 finals and pushed Alliance in their Challengers 2 playoff match, so the confidence of Wave is high.

G2 Esports vs DfuseTeam

The number one ranked team in Europe needs to win one best-of-three to qualify for Masters. Anything less is a failure for a team of this caliber. DfuseTeam has an exciting opportunity to play the ultimate David-vs-Goliath card, and cement themselves in the upper echelon of European VALORANT.

Also read: VALORANT EU Challengers 2: The Cinderella story of Alliance – Ninjas in Pyjamas in great form

Fnatic vs Ballista Esports

The Fnatic players showed glimpses of what they’re capable of in Challengers 2, and a qualification for Masters should be more than realistic against the Polish side of Ballista Esports. Despite a strong showing in their play-in match against honk, I think they lack the experience needed to win against a top team in a best-of-three. 

OG vs Raise Your Edge

RYE had an extremely close game in their play-in match against Rix.GG, the UK team that defeated Team Liquid in the Open Qualifier. After falling behind 1-0 in maps and 11-3 in the second, they managed to reverse sweep their opponents.

OG however has been slowly finding their groove and has more experience on the highest level. They should have this one in the bag.

The VALORANT Champions Tour EU Challengers 3 playoffs start March 6 at 5 PM CET.

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