Giant Upset Breaks EDG’s VALORANT Split Map Win Streak
The Champions 2023 tournament saw a historic moment as EDG, one of the favorites, lost Split for the first time in almost two years. In their match against Giants Gaming, the Chinese team couldn’t maintain their streak and fell 13-15 despite some impressive plays from Wang “nobody” Senxu.
The Challenge of Split Map
Split is known for being a difficult map to maintain a consistent win streak on. It favors the defending side, which means that one bad streak of defensive rounds can make it tough to come back. Furthermore, the map was out of competitive play for several months and underwent changes to better suit ranked and pro play.
A Counter-Strat by Giants
Giants had a clear strategy to counter EDG in this match. They set up trap plays around mid to punish any lurking players, while focusing on Zheng “ZmjjKK” Yongkang whenever possible. Many rounds were defined by smoking off ZmjjKK’s position, flashing past it, and using other utility to eliminate him.
An Intense Match and Giants’ Victory
Giants took an early lead of 9-3 in the first half, and despite EDG’s efforts, they couldn’t fully recover. However, nobody from EDG showed exceptional gameplay, helping them reach overtime and clutch crucial rounds. In the end, Giants won 15-13 with their strategies proving successful against EDG.
Despite this loss, EDG remains dominant on Split with a record of 20-1 since August 2021. Their focus, however, lies in winning VALORANT games, proving their success regionally, and dispelling any notion of luck in their performances at Masters Tokyo.
VALORANT, EDG, Giants Gaming, Split map, Champions 2023