VALORANT Champions 2023 begins with NAVI and DRX winning on opening day
VALORANT Champions 2023 has just begun and the opening day saw both Natus Vincere (NAVI) and DRX winning their respective matches.
NAVI wins the opening match of #VALORANTChampions Los Angeles! pic.twitter.com/4lsqyx1506
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) August 6, 2023
Kicking off Champions 2023, EMEA LCQ runnerup NAVI went against the EMEA League 2023 champion Team Liquid and won via a 2-0 sweep.
To start the series, a tied first half on Fracture turned into a 13-11 win for NAVI after they cleaned up Team Liquid on their attacking half, winning five out of the seven rounds they won in the second half through planting the spike. NAVI then won the series on Bind after four grueling overtimes that ended 17-15 in their favor.
.@DRX_VS shocks the VCT Americas Champions with a 2-1 reverse sweep win!#VALORANTChampions pic.twitter.com/pocUOrkqvI
— VCT Pacific @ Champions (@vctpacific) August 7, 2023
For the second and final match of the day, DRX had a banger of a series going against Americas’ champion LOUD.
Initially, it seemed like DRX’s recent performance woes still affected the team as they lost the first game on Lotus 15-13. As luck would have it, DRX shook off the loss from the first game by bouncing back on their map choice, Split, and winning it convincingly 13-6. The South Korean super squad then finished LOUD off by serving yet another beatdown on Ascent, winning the third and final game 13-8 to claim the series with a 2-1 win.
With today’s results, both DRX and NAVI move up in Group D’s bracket where they will face each other to determine who gets to qualify first to the playoffs from their group. Meanwhile, LOUD and Team Liquid both drop to the elimination match of Group D’s lower bracket.
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