EU Valorant Is Wild & Highly Competitive
The EU Valorant scene has been forced to endure something of a rough beginning. From bad seeding and dicey tournament structures to a lack of competitions in general and substantially lesser prize pools, the region just hasn’t been given the same opportunity to grow as has NA.
Yet, despite all that, EU Valorant is absolutely thriving, and after Masters I think it’s safe to say it’s easily on a par with NA in terms of talent. In fact, it might even be more competitive, with unusual team compositions and strikingly different tactics suggesting a greater nuance in the degree of strategies utilized by EU teams at the very top level.
I’ve recently written about this particular topic in more detail after Challengers 3 saw major esports orgs like G2, Fnatic, and Team Liquid knocked out by up-and-coming teams, but Masters has once again highlighted just how deep the talent pool in EU is and how criminally underrated it has been up until recently.
In particular, the EU final between Team Heretics and Acend Club, which was a David versus Goliath tale for the ages. Heretics, a team unbeaten in major competitions, were bested by Acend, formerly Raze Your Edge, a team that wasn’t considered anywhere near one of the region’s best when it was formed only two months ago.
Acend is so new it isn’t even listed in Liquipedia’s Valorant Ranking, and yet they just beat the very cream of the European crop in a thrilling 3-2 series. Along the path to that victory, they also beat Ninjas in Pyjamas and FunPlusPhoenix, the region’s two other best teams. Their rise to prominence is astonishing.
There is so much more to come from the region, I’m certain, and Riot needs to stop roadblocking the scene if it wants Valorant to truly establish itself as one of the biggest esports in the world.
