NRG Esports Faces Upset in Opening Match of VALORANT Champions 2023
The VALORANT Champions 2023 tournament has seen some surprising upsets in its early stages, and day three of the group stage started with a major upset that has shaken a roster filled with experienced players.
NRG Esports suffered a defeat in their first match against Bilibili Gaming. Despite their decorated roster, NRG made several mistakes against the Chinese team, who were playing in their first international competition. On the map Lotus, NRG gave up a 9-5 lead and eventually lost in overtime. In their own pick of Split, NRG faced a blowout in the first half and failed to mount a comeback.
During the post-match press conference, coach Chet Singh admitted that it would take some time to understand what went wrong. He acknowledged that there were mistakes during the post-plants and expressed the need to close those rounds when reviewing the match.
FNS, one of the players, mentioned that despite having advantages, the team struggled to capitalize on kills.
Ardiis, another member of the team, commented that Bilibili Gaming was the better team on the map Split.
When asked for an immediate explanation for the uncharacteristic mistakes made by NRG, coach Chet admitted that he had no idea and would need to review the VOD to understand.
Related: VALORANT Champions 2023 scores, schedule, and format
For NRG, slow starts have been a recurring theme, but they have also shown strong recoveries. In the VCT Americas season, they started with a 1-3 record but then won five consecutive matches. In the VALORANT playoffs, they lost to Evil Geniuses in the opening round but made it to Masters with three consecutive wins in the lower bracket.
This is the first international VALORANT event of the year where NRG has suffered a loss in their opening match. They now need to fight for survival against ZETA and then face either the Bilibili team or the dominant Fnatic.
Plain text related keywords: VALORANT Champions 2023, NRG Esports, Bilibili Gaming, upset, defeat, roster, mistakes, international competition, coach, VOD, slow starts, recoveries, lower bracket, survival, ZETA, Fnatic.