NAOS ends VCT Pacific Ascension with semifinal finish after losing to SCARZ
NAOS ended their VALORANT Champions Tour 2023 Pacific: Ascension run with a semifinal finish after falling to SCARZ 2-1 in their best-of-three series last Saturday, July 8, 2023.
Our journey in VCT Ascension Pacific has come to an end.
We are very grateful for all the fans who cheered for us and supported us. Expect us to fly higher and stronger in the next tournament! GGs! 💙💛#NAOStheTime #FlyHighNAOS pic.twitter.com/fbSNVHBqBW
— NAOS Esports (@NaosEsports) July 8, 2023
After securing a semifinal spot by being the top-seeded team from Group Alpha, NAOS faced SCARZ after the Japanese representatives took down Vietnam’s Fancy United Esports via a 2-0 sweep in the quarterfinals. Unfortunately for the Filipino squad, NAOS fell down in the semifinals as the eventual first-runner-ups of Ascension beat them 2-1 in their series.
Initially, NAOS narrowly lost to SCARZ in game one on Pearl 13-11. SCARZ’s pairing of Russian player Maksim “Jemkin” Batorov and former Sierra Esports Atlas Filipino pro John “Yoshiii” Kawakami outgunned NAOS, with Jemkin recording 25/15/1 and Yoshiii not far off with 21/15/10.
NAOS then bounced back and stole game 2 on Ascent with yet another 13-11 ending. NAOS originally had trouble during their attacking half as they only ended up with four rounds to their names going into halftime. Fortunately, they soared up high on their defensive half, securing a seven-round win streak starting from their first buy round to catch up with SCARZ and eventually securing the game for themselves.
Alas, SCARZ crushed NAOS on Fracture to win the series, beating the Filipino hopefuls to a pulp by closing the third game 13-3.
With their 3rd-4th place finish along with Indonesia’s BOOM Esports, NAOS went home with USD $10,000 more in their pockets but missed out on a VCT Pacific League franchise spot. Meanwhile, SCARZ ended up with USD $15,000 in prize money after losing to BLEED in the grand final. BLEED, on the other hand, took USD $20,000 as the grand champion of VCT Ascension 2023 along with a franchise spot for VCT Pacific League 2024-25.
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