With Valorant Champions underway in Istanbul, Turkey, the first two teams to be eliminated are BOOM Esports from Indonesia and EDward Gaming from China.

Both of these teams were huge question marks coming into this tournament. In the case of BOOM Esports, they qualified for Champions as the first all-Indonesian team to qualify for an international event, but they had always lacked behind Paper Rex and XERXIA, so a placing like this is expected, especially for their first international appearance.

As for EDward Gaming (EDG), although the Chinese powerhouse went undefeated on their way to Champions, no one knew how they would handle the likes of Southeast Asia and South America.

BOOM GOES BOOM

BOOM lost their first match against OpTic Gaming 1–2, winning the first map in overtime 18–16 on Breeze. Unfortunately, the Indonesians weren’t able to convert that momentum into another map win as they got dismantled in the next two games on Bind and Fracture, 5–13 and 3–13 respectively. This meant that they would play in the elimination match against the loser ZETA DIVISION from Japan and LOUD from Brazil.

With LOUD coming out on top, meant the ZETA would be BOOM’s opponent as both teams fought for their place to stay in the tournament.

Game 1 was played on Haven a map that both teams were fairly confident on. ZETA started off hot, after losing the pistol round and going on to win the next five rounds. The half ended 4–8 in favour of ZETA and momentum looked as if it was balancing out.

.@lazvell SECURES THE ROUND! #VALORANTChampions pic.twitter.com/UUVV3AToqd

— VALORANT Champions Tour ?? (@ValorantEsports) September 4, 2022

BOOM won the second pistol round along with the round following, ZETA responded with three rounds of their own. With only one round from match-point, little did ZETA know that the rest of the match would go in favour of BOOM. The Southeast Asian side went on to win seven consecutive rounds before closing out the first map 13–11.

The next map was to be played on the newest map in the map rotations, Pearl. The first half went very much as it did on Haven with ZETA dominating the first half 8–4, but BOOM had the last laugh as they clutch the final round of the half.

The CLUTCH to end the half! @tehbotolvlr | #VALORANTChampions pic.twitter.com/rC8jtZayB1

— VALORANT Champions Tour ?? (@ValorantEsports) September 4, 2022

The second half didn’t start off as expected for ZETA, BOOM came out swinging as they took seven of the first eight rounds to start the second half. But unfortunately, the Indonesians weren’t able to maintain composure and close out the map as ZETA bounced back and took the map 13–11.

With the series all tied up, the deciding map was Fracture, arguably one of BOOM’s worst maps, and this map proved that point true. Although BOOM won the first two rounds of the map, ZETA would go on to win 13 rounds back-to-back, closing out the series 13–2 in favour of ZETA and sending BOOM packing.

ZETA will go on to play LOUD in their final match of groups where it will be decided who will stay and who will go home. You can catch that game at 1:00 AM (GMT+8) on 8 September.

EDG FIGHT

Unannounced to the public during their first match, one of EDG’s members, Donghao “Life” Qu had tested positive for COVID so EDG had Zhao “Smoggy” Zhang sub in for him against Paper Rex, so before the game had begun, the Chinese side were already at a disadvantage. Regardless they fought hard throughout their first game, managing to take a map off the most recent Masters finalists but still lost the series 1–2.

With Life returning to the lineup for the team’s elimination match against Team Liquid, EDG were in fight or flight mode in hopes to stay in their first-ever international Valorant tournament. Map 1 would be on Bind with the first half favouring Liquid as they closed out the half 8–4. But that’s not stray away from the fact that Yongkang “ZmjjKK” Zheng got a phenomenal ace against Team Liquid in the seventh round.

THE ACE FOR @zmjjkk! #VALORANTChampions pic.twitter.com/F1cO279Nyq

— VALORANT Champions Tour ?? (@ValorantEsports) September 4, 2022

Even with a momentum reset, the Europeans were hell-bent on closing out the map only allowing EDG to take a single round in the second half. The final score for Map 1 was 13–5 in favour of Liquid.

Map 2 would be Breeze and having warmed up by now, EDG were here to play. The first half was a lot more competitive as rounds went back and forth concluding in a 7–5 half to Liquid. The back and forth continued going into the second half as both teams fought hard to get to match point. With EDG at match point, they only needed one more round to tie the series but Team Liquid weren’t going down without a fight and put the map into overtime where they managed to win the first two and only rounds of overtime to secure the win and eliminating EDG from Valorant Champions.

Liquid will go on to play Paper Rex in their deciding match of groups. Catch that match on 7 September at 10:00 PM (GMT+8).