Which NA teams playing this weekend will qualify for Challengers Finals?

April 21, 2021

by Jessica Scharnagle

The race to Iceland is on, and the Stage 2 Challengers qualifying matches are coming to a close in the next few weeks.

This weekend, fans will find out the final four teams that will advance to the NA Stage 2 Challengers Finals. Eight teams will compete in the finals, and the top two teams will punch their ticket to Reykjavík, Iceland, to compete on LAN in Stage 2 Masters.

Stage 2 Masters is the first international tournament in the VALORANT Champions Tour, and will feature the top teams from around the world.

XSET, 100 Thieves, Version1 and Team Envy have already qualified for the Stage 2 Challengers Finals, and are waiting to see who they will match up against in the bracket.

The teams that will compete this weekend are quite different from what many fans expected. The most notable change is the absence of FaZe Clan, who lost to T1 in last weekend’s open qualifier. Since FaZe failed to qualify for the Stage 2 Challengers Finals, they will not be going to Iceland despite being a finalist during Stage 1 Masters.

Eight teams will battle it out this weekend, but only four will advance. Below is a rundown of each team and predictions for where they will finish.

Teams predicted to get knocked out

8. Andbox

Even though they finished ahead of Built By Gamers in Challengers 1, they didn’t do much to get there. They had a fairly easy bracket to qualify for Challengers 2 with the exception of Noble, who had to beat Luminosity to match up with Andbox. In a tight 2-1 match, Andbox squeezed their way into a spot in Challengers 2. It doesn’t help that they’ll be facing Sentinels in their opening matchup Thursday.

7. T1

Although it is true that T1 beat FaZe Clan, who made it all the way to the Stage 1 Masters grand finals, they have an awful track record when faced with Sentinels. If they can win their matchup against Cloud9 Blue, Sentinels could be their next match. Fans aren’t confident they can break the curse and suspect they will fall to Sentinels once again.

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6. NRG

As far as competition in Stage 2 Challengers, NRG had it pretty easy coming into the bracket. They faced and beat OOKERS and Squirtle Squad, two orgless teams. They did manage to beat Luminosity, a team that played in Stage 1 Masters, but fans are unsure if they’ll have what it takes to beat Built By Gamers, who are making an impressive run through this Challengers circuit.

5. TSM

TSM has had some issues when it comes to consistency. Their tournament results are all over the place. They didn’t qualify for Stage 1 Masters, and they’ve lost several times to teams like XSET and Immortals. They’ll need to put their heads together and come up with a solid strategy in order to qualify for Challengers Finals.

Teams predicted to qualify for Challengers Finals

4. Cloud9 Blue

Although it is particularly entertaining that C9 made it through to the closed qualifier before Sentinels did, they have a lot to prove. They have loaned their star player Tyson “TenZ” Ngo to Sentinels, but if they can beat T1 and end up facing Sentinels next, it would be quite the intriguing matchup.

3. Immortals

With coach Mike “Packing10” Szklanny expecting nothing short of 100% out of his players, Immortals are always a contender in any given tournament. They’ve been consistent performers in most tournaments, and fans shouldn’t ever count them out.

2. Sentinels

Fans are surprised that Sentinels aren’t in the group of teams who have already qualified for Challengers Finals. For a team that won Stage 1 Masters, fans were expecting them to dominate the first Stage 2 Challengers qualifiers, but instead they got knocked out early on by Built By Gamers, and now must fight their way through yet another bracket to even have a chance at Iceland.

1. Built By Gamers

For a team that few people expected to get this far, Built By Gamers have been surprising many fans. They beat Sentinels once already, but got tripped up by XSET, who qualified ahead of them for Challengers Finals. If they can keep up their strategy that led them to beat Sentinels previously, they are poised to be a real contender for Iceland.

Lead image credit: Riot Games