NRG Esports Eliminated from VCT Stage Three Qualifiers
In a surprising upset during the NA VCT Stage Three Challengers Two open qualifier, NRG Esports were defeated by the Resonate roster in the round of 32. This loss marks the end of NRG’s Stage Three run, and now they are fighting to maintain their spot in the Champions’ NA Last Chance Qualifier.
Resonate secured a victory on the first map, Haven, with a close 13-11 score. Both teams displayed strong performances on their attack sides, although NRG struggled with their primary duelist tex. However, s0m and eeiu stepped up with impressive 20 kill performances. Despite NRG’s 11-10 lead, Resonate claimed three consecutive rounds to take a 1-0 lead.
NRG responded with confidence on Breeze, dominating the second map with 10 straight round wins to secure a decisive 13-5 victory. Tex had a better game this time, supported by an outstanding performance from ANDROID on Viper. In map three, Ascent, ANDROID once again utilized KAY/O, but Resonate completed the upset with a 13-8 win on the final map.
While Resonate moves forward in the open qualifier for Challengers Two, NRG’s journey ends in Stage Three. However, their spot in the Last Chance Qualifier is uncertain. Currently, NRG ranks 9th in NA VCT circuit points, earning 30 points from the Stage Two Challengers Finals. They qualified for the Finals with a third-place finish in Challengers Two, followed by a tied fifth-place finish with wins over XSET and losses to Cloud9 Blue and Version1.
If two teams below NRG in the NA standings—such as Luminosity, Andbox, Immortals, TSM, T1, or any team without points—manage to reach the Stage Three Challengers Playoffs, they will earn enough points to surpass NRG and eliminate them from contention for Champions.
This would be a worst-case scenario for NRG, who made significant changes to their roster during this VCT campaign. They acquired ANDROID and tex, two standout duelists, and brought on WeDid as a controller after daps left to coach Evil Geniuses’ CS:GO roster. Now, NRG can only watch and hope that at least three of the four teams in Challengers Playoffs are already ranked higher than them.
NRG Esports, VCT Stage Three, NA VCT, Challengers Two, open qualifier, Resonate roster, upset, Last Chance Qualifier, standings, defeat, champions, roster changes, WeDid, ANDROID, tex, hope