Alpha bracket of VCT : LOCK//IN comes to an end! Here is what happened!

Greetings readers, welcome back to our blog after a long long time. Today, we shall be discussing what happened in the Alpha Bracket of VCT : LOCK//IN, the first VCT Tournament for the 2023 season.

To start the tournament off, we had one of the fan favorites, NRG, facing off against KOI. This series, went as per the expectations of most fans, when NRG comfortably won it 2-0.

Following this, we saw Giants Gaming take on Detonation FocusMe on the same day, and not to many people's surprise, Giants won this 2-0 with rather ease.

On the next day, we got to see the two of the fan favorites in there debut matchup for the 2023 season, DRX and PRX. The first matchup for the day, although, was FPX vs KC, which KC won 2-1. FPX, were one of the specially invited Chinese teams in this event. We were supposed to see 10 teams from all 3 franchise leagues participate, but FPX and EDG from China, were invited to the event. Not only does this promote Chinese representation in VCT (thanks to the launch of Valorant in China), but it also hints us to the fact that we might see China getting there own official VCT league, considering the fact that we have not seen any hints of Chinese inclusion in the VCT Pacific. 

Then, we saw DRX fight against BBL from EMEA, where DRX took a comfortable 2-1 series victory.

Now, was the most anticipated matchup in this bracket, Cloud 9 Gaming vs Paper Rex Gaming. Not only was this matchup highly waited for, but it was also worth the wait. Paper Rex are one of the few teams who went through no roster changes after all the league teams were announced, and stuck to there original roster which also played the 2022 season. This, gave them an upper hand over other teams who were coming into this event with rosters formed less than 3 months ago. Apart from this, one cannot ignore the fact that Paper Rex are not any usual team, and do not follow the normal meta everyone goes with, rather, they have there own meta, and own playstyle which others have to forcefully adapt to.

This, makes Paper Rex one of the worst opponents for any team in such type of event, where you know nothing about your opponent because it is the first tournament of the season, but also, it is a single elimination bracket, so one loss equals back to square one. However, it did not seem like Paper Rex were ready for this matchup as everyone expected them to be, because Cloud 9 won this series with rather ease in classic 2-0 fashion, winning the final map 13-4.

Next up, we have another day with 3 matches. The day started off with Evil Geniuses taking on Team Heretics. Evil Geniuses, are a team who took a different approach towards Valorant franchising, evident from there move of hiring a 10 man roster excluding the support staff. This move, was also adopted by another organization in the league, Global Esports, from APAC. The playing 5 for Evil Geniuses in this match were C0m, Boostio, Ethan, jawgemo and BcJ. EG, with not much difficulty, took down Team Heretics in clean sweep 2-0 fashion, moving on to the Quarter Finals of the Alpha bracket. 

Next match of the day, was of Talon Esports and MiBR. Despite of having the home ground advantage, which is considered to be huge considering the nature of Brazilian crowd, MiBR were struggling against Talon, to whom they lost, 2-0, getting eliminated from the tournament, while Talon, were promoted to the Quarter finals where they later faced Evil Geniuses.

To end off the day and the Q16 of the Alpha Bracket, we saw GenG take on LOUD. LOUD, managed to retain there Champions winning core post the league announcement, which made them the classic favorites to win this series, which they eventually did, but not so easily. GenG, who were franchised in the VCT Pacific league, took LOUD and the entire Valorant fanbase by surprise, giving them a run for there money, taking them to overtime on Fracture. Although LOUD moved on to the quarter finals after successfully beating GenG, the GenG roster looks to be promising for the upcoming Stage 1 VCT Pacific.

Now, comes the Quarter Finals part of the Alpha bracket. To start it off, we had another banger series, NRG vs GIA. For the first map of the series, Giants Gaming seemed to be the team in control, beating NRG 14-12 on Lotus. But, things changed from then on, changed so much that NRG reverse swept Giants with ease, beating them 13-1 on Haven and 13-7 on Icebox, moving on to the Semi Finals of the Alpha Bracket. 

After this, we saw LOUD take on Karmine Corp, where they won it quite easily, clean 2-0. 

Moving on to the next day of the Quarter Finals of the Alpha Bracket, we see DRX, take on Cloud 9, another banger of a game. Many fans were expecting DRX to beat Cloud 9, and avenge there "sons" Paper Rex. Well, this did happen, because DRX managed to beat Cloud 9 2-1. Not only did this series look like a super comfortable win for DRX, it was a reverse sweep, because DRX lost to Cloud 9 in the first map, 13-3, but came back in the next two maps beating them 13-7 and 13-2, winning the series and moving on to the Semi Finals.

To end this day off, Talon, faced off against Evil Geniuses, for a shot at the final slot of the Semi Finale of the Alpha Bracket. This matchup, seemed to be quite equal, considering both of these teams are quite new to the public audience, but, Talon were the favorites here, which they later on proved, beating them 2-0, in an exciting but nail-biting series, where the rounds went double digits for both teams on each map.

Now come the final two matches of this bracket. LOUD vs NRG and Talon vs DRX. Something common among these matches is that both these matches are amongst teams of the same league. LOUD and NRG both are from VCT Americas while DRX and Talon both are from VCT Pacific. 

The first match, NRG vs LOUD, has a history of its own, being a Val Classico for all the VCT fans. Both these teams(with little bit different rosters) have faced off plenty of times in 2022, where LOUD won where it mattered the most(when they became the world champions). Now, both these rosters face off again, where the loser gets eliminated, and the winner gets a spot at the Finale weekend of VCT LOCK//IN, Sao Paulo. This match, as expected, was nerve racking to say the least. The first map, went quite boring where LOUD won. But the next two were no less than a heart attack. Both the last maps went overtime, where NRG beat LOUD 15-13 once whilst LOUD beat them in the final map, 18-16, sending NRG back home and booking a spot for themselves.

Now, comes the final match of the Alpha Bracket, DRX vs Talon. Unfortunately, Talon are playing this tournament with a sub, because the star of the roster (patiphan, ex-X10S) was a wrist injury and is currently in Thailand, getting a surgery done. But even so, Talon managed to beat there previous two opponents, and now this match seemed like a quite equal one. 
For the first map, Talon dominated DRX very heavily, winning the map 13-10 and shutting down all the fans who were sleeping on Talon. For the next map, DRX had a comfortable win on Ascent, taking it 13-6, pushing the series to its final map, Icebox. Icebox, was another nail-biting venture, but DRX, the fan favorites, won it 13-10, eliminating Talon Esports and booking the second slot for VCT : LOCK//IN Finale weekend. 

Well, this sums up the entire Alpha Bracket, which took place from 14 February to 19 February. Now, we will be watching the Omega Bracket, which starts on 23 February. Indian representatives Global Esports are also in the Omega Bracket, so make sure to support them whenever you can!