VALORANT Champions 2024 consists of the top 16 teams in VALORANT Esports. Day 9 of the tournament consisted of matches deciding the teams’ faith. If they win their game, they will qualify for the playoff stage of the tournament. If they lose, then their journey to the tournament comes to a close. Gen G faced off against Sentinels for the second time in the tournament. In the other game, FNATIC faced off against KRU Esports. In this article, let us look at some crucial bits from day 9 of the tournament.
Image Credits: Riot Games
Sentinels faced off against Gen G for the second time on day 9 of VALORANT Champions. In the first match, Gen G had a clean sweep against the champions of VCT Masters Madrid. Sentinels had to claw their way back against FunPlus Phoenix to have a chance to qualify for the playoffs. On the other hand, Gen G could have played better against Team Heretics and lost their first chance to be eligible for the playoffs.
Going into game one, it was played on the Lotus map. Using their map pick, Sentinels started strong and won 5 out of the first six rounds. The team composition was the same for both the teams. What separated the two teams was the patience shown by both teams. If we look at Gen G, they lost a lot of rounds as one of their players was the one to die first. On the other hand, players like zekken and Zellsis had 4+ first-bloods. Sentinels went on to win the map with a score of 13-9.
Game 2 was played on the map of Icebox. This was a map that Sentinels had permanently banned during this event. Sentinels on this map proved many wrongs as they clean-swept Gen G. Being confident with their post plant allowed Gen G to plant the spike. In the first five rounds, Sentinels could diffuse during each of those rounds. Sentinels won the game with a score of 13-6.
During this game, T3xture did get the ACE he had been trying for since the start of this event. With this, the Sentinels became the second seed from their group to qualify for the playoffs phase of VALORANT Champions.
Image Credits: Riot Games
FNATIC is the first seed from VCT EMEA in their tournament. They are known for their incredible form during the VALORANT Champions Tour 2023. In 2024, they won VCT EMEA in an astonishing match against Team Vitality. In their last game in VALORANT Champions, they lost to DRX. Going into this game, they were the favorites to win this series.
During Game 1, KRU Esports shocked the world by winning the first map. In the first half, they took the lead on attack with a score of 8-4. Angelo “keznit” Mori pulled out quite a complete first kill using the team composition consisting of Neon. With this incredible mechanics, KRU Esports won the first map with a score of 13-11.
In games 2 and 3, FNATIC proved why they are one of the best teams in the world, with a unique Iso, Yoru team composition on the map of Haven. One player lifted his team on his shoulder, and it was the star duelist in Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev—in game two while on Yoru secured three 3K’s in his name. In game three, he played on Raze, which was one of the main reasons for completing the reverse sweep. He ended game 3 with a KDA of 30/11/5 and five first-bloods to his name.
With this, FNATIC becomes the second seed for Group A to qualify for playoffs. KRU Esports finish another VALORANT Champions event in the group stages. It must be stated that with GEN G being eliminated on VALORANT Champions Day 9, they have only lost to Sentinels and Team Heretics during all VCT international tournaments in 2024.
LOL
CS2
Dota 2
Valorant
Fortnite
Call of Duty
Mobile Games
Gaming
EN Global 
JP 日本語