Visayan team 6045 Pirates snatched the last ticket to the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) Stage 2 Southeast Asia Challengers Finals as they conquered the Philippine Challengers 3 over the weekend.
Bannered by Vince “FLASH” Medado, Carl “SENYORCARL” Carandang, Dominique “N1CO” Tul-id, Keith “FIRESAIYAJIN” Madarang and James “2GE” Goopio under coach, Yuki “ZYKI” Uruma, the Pirates capped off their championship voyage with a 3-1 stunner over heavily-favored Hashira, 3-1, in the grand finals on Sunday night.
ZYKI and his crew bagged the P100,000 champion’s prize and more importantly the last slot to the SEA Challengers Finals which stakes the region’s lone berth to the Masters Reykjavik in Iceland next month.
The Talisay, Cebu-based squad will compete along with PH Challengers 2 champion Bren Esports against teams from Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia/Singapore in the 10-team SEA Challengers Finals slated on April 29-May 2.
Hashira, the Challengers 1 winner, actually drew first blood in the best-of-five title series by easily winning Bind with an 13-8 scoreline.
But 6045 Pirates bounced back and outlasted Hashira in the next two maps that both went into overtime, 16-14 in Haven and 15-13 in Ascent, before securing the ring with a 13-7 victory in Icebox.
The Cebuano gunners started their campaign with a 2-0 sweep of Vendetta last Friday then took down Alpha Esports Pro, 2-1, in the semifinals of the tournament hosted by the Philippine Pro Gaming League (PPGL).
Hashira, which beat Galaxy Racer (2-1) in the opening round and Walküre (2-0) in the semis, settled for P45,000.
Alpha and Walküre got P20,000 for finishing at the 3rd-4th places