Author: Pedro Romero

In Week 2 of the 2023 VCT Americas League, the Brazilian squad took down KRU Esports of LATAM 2-1 to record their first victory after losing their first two matches which spanned across two months.The eventual triumph started with a setback as MIBR lost in Ascent 13-9 off a rough 8-2 half as the attacking side. From there, MIBR rebounded in Lotus and Pearl where, with the direction of IGL Murillo “murizzz” Tuchtenhagen, the team won both times to clinch another win for Brazil so far in the league and the first of their own this year.With murizzz specifically, he…

NRG opened their VCT Americas League season with a loss on the board as they fell to Latin American side Leviatán 2-0 in the last series of Week 1. Even after NRG executed a role swap in which Pujan “FNS” Mehta became more of an initiator and Victor “Victor” Wong played used Viper in Pearl, they couldn’t fend off their opponents in the long run.A 13-4 drubbing at the hands of their LATAM counterparts, where they were outclassed in seemingly every department of the game, puts NRG in a position where they must respond with authority in their ensuing match…

With the qualifying portion of the 2023 VCT North America Game Changers Series 1 competition wrapped up, it’s time to highlight the best players within the game and what each individual did with their respective teams.With an eye towards the start of Series 1, here are the three best players in each role during qualifying. Rankings and statistics described below are all cited from VLR.gg.Best DuelistskeencWith a few days left before the start of the qualifers, Evil Geniuses brought in keenc as their newest duelist; following the player’s previous stint with Complexity GX3. keenc was seen as a player who…

Following a Top 8 finish in LOCK//IN, which happened as a result of a memorable series against reigning world champions LOUD, NRG, with three of the former OpTic Gaming core, a former Masters champion in Ardis “ardiis” Svarenieks, and a young promising talent in Sam “s0m” Oh, was tabbed as a major contender for the VCT Americas League. Even as they faced Leviatan, another considerable force in the league, as the league’s marquee match for its opening week, NRG remained a favorite regardless.Unfortunately for the North American team, they were upended by LATAM’s best squad with a 2-0 series defeat…

Talk about a statement being made in your opening series of the season. In what is regarded as the most anticipated match in the opening week of the VCT Americas League, Leviatan of LATAM defeated North America’s NRG 2-0 with resounding authority.Despite scraping past NRG with a close 13-11 victory on Pearl, Leviatan took matters into their own hands by trouncing the opposing team 13-4 on Lotus. It was a performance befitting of a major contender in the league and one who is aspiring to qualify for Masters: Tokyo at the season’s end.Of those that made Leviatan’s victory possible was…

Following 100 Thieves’ run in Valorant Champions Tour 2023: LOCK//IN, where they lost to eventual champions Fnatic 2-0 in the quarterfinals, controller player Sean “bang” Bezerra spent time reviewing and reflecting on his team’s performance in Brazil.Having rewatched 100T’s matches during the event, he identified two things that led to their Top 8 finish in the first event of the 2023 season: a tendency to play scared as opposed to playing with a clear initiative and a confluence of various small mistakes that prohibited them from going further than they would have liked.Such things needed to be addressed; should 100T…

Arguably, one of the biggest stories that shook the Valorant scene during this past offseason was the retirement of Carpe from competitive Overwatch and his subsequent signing with T1 for the VCT Pacific League season. While the game has seen a flurry of past FPS professionals switch to Valorant, few carried as many past successes as Carpe has before making the literal jump.During Carpe’s days in the Overwatch League, where he spent all five years there with Philadelphia Fusion, he became one of the greatest DPS players of all time. Despite coming up short for multiple years—he was 2nd in…

FaZe Clan became the latest esports organization to join the Valorant Champions Tour Game Changers scene with their signing of the Hamboigas squad for the 2023 season. The new lineup consists of panini, Maddie, refinnej, Emy, and di^, the latter of which will be playing as the IGL.For di^ specifically, her joining FaZe ushered a new chapter in her professional career which spans nearly a decade, the majority of which happened in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. She started her professional career in 2013 as a member of UBINITED before getting signed to represent Counter Logic Gaming and its new Red branch.As…

In the second part of BLIX.GG’s interview with FaZe Clan GC’s IGL Diane “di^” Tran, she covers how exactly she was signed by the org and reflects on her Counter-Strike career after moving to Valorant, as well as offering her view on the current state of the women’s competitive FPS scene.Catch up on the first part of the interview here.Getting signed by FaZe ClanBLIX: I want to talk about how this lineup caught the attention of FaZe. What is the story behind that move?Diane “di^” Tran: We were actually assigned with a different org at the time and props to…

In esports, competing is not always the only thing people look for when it comes to measuring success. Instead of focusing on winning trophies, some look to other avenues that can lead to prominence such as building a major brand that could generate a large following. To that end, social media has become a pivotal asset for teams to have beyond their competitive commitments.For those that utilize their social media platforms in a proficient manner, having a successful brand could strengthen their presence in the space entirely. Although that could help make up for a team’s performance, when one does…