EDG’s Longest Map Win Streak in VALORANT History Broken at Champions 2023
At the Champions 2023 tournament, one of the longest map win streaks in VALORANT history was broken. Fan favorites EDG faced off against Giants Gaming in their first match and encountered their first loss on Split in almost two years.
The match between EDG and Giants on Split turned out to be the best map of the tournament so far. Despite some impressive plays from Wang “nobody” Senxu, EDG couldn’t maintain their win streak and lost 15-13.
Tough Challenges on Split
Split is known for being a challenging map to maintain a consistent win streak on. It heavily favors the defense, so a few defensive losses can create a difficult uphill battle. Additionally, the map underwent some changes to better suit ranked and pro play after being removed from competitive play from June 2022 to January 2023.
Despite these challenges, EDG had remained undefeated on Split since 2021 due to their dominance in the region and recent international success.
Counter-strated by Giants
So how did EDG lose to Giants in their first game at Champions 2023? The simple answer is that Giants heavily counter-stratted them. They set up trap plays around mid to punish any lurking players and focused on Zheng “ZmjjKK” Yongkang throughout the match. Most rounds were defined by smoking off areas where they expected ZmjjKK to be, flashing past it to push him back, and using additional utility to eliminate him.
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These tactics led to a 9-3 lead for Giants in the first half. Although EDG tried to make a comeback, Giants secured the final two rounds of the second half with ease, except for one round where an EDG player managed to clutch with four consecutive kills.
One of EDG’s key players, nobody, played a crucial role in helping them reach overtime from round 23 and in clutching round 26 to keep them in the game.
Despite the sweat-inducing efforts, Giants’ strategies were never truly countered. EDG’s performance was hindered, and Giants emerged victorious with a 15-13 win.
While EDG’s record on Split stands at an impressive 20-1 since August 2021, their focus remains on winning VALORANT games and proving their success in the regional and Masters Tokyo competitions were not mere flukes.
VALORANT, Champions 2023, EDG, Giants Gaming, Split, win streak, map, tournament, defense-sided, counter-stratted, dominance, regionally, international success