The ace clutch helped CR take the lead in Overtime. Japan Challengers has witnessed high vieewership as the game’s popularity continues to rise in the region.
The VALORANT Challengers 2023 2023: Japan Split 1 kicked off on Jan 28 with eight teams competing for the limited two Split 2 slots. Crazy Raccoon Neth's ace was an incredible highlight-worthy play on Day 1 of the Challengers to get his team one step closer to map victory.
An exciting start to Icebox overtime
After a 7-5 first-half lead for Crest Gaming Zst, Crazy Raccoon managed to pull it back to take the map to overtime. The first team to secure two round-victories would take the map win. Everything was at stake, more so for Crazy Raccoon, one of the favorites at the tournament.
Playing as the support Sage, Neth had no option but to try to clutch the situation. After two of his teammates die as soon as he puts up a wall, Neth had to act calmly and take as many 1v1s as possible.
The video clearly shows how his movement was dictated based on input from his teammates who had just been eliminated. His crosshair placement was exactly at the opponents' location, with two 1v1s in each case.
With the bombsite clear, Neth would then go on to plant the Spike and with that, he got enough Ult points to revive his ally. He revived Makiba and quickly assumed a position to delay any incoming opponents.
All three of the Crest Gaming Zst players came in from mid, and Sage was more than ready to take them one. He got the first kill and the next two saw the opponents line up in front of his crosshair.
The win secured a round lead for Crazy Raccoon. They went on to win the next round to secure the win on Icebox. CR also took home the next map to win the series 2-0.
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Day 1 of Japan Challengers sees high viewership
The first day of the VALORANT Challengers: Japan Split saw a peak viewership of more than 107,000 viewers. Japan has been one of the regions where VALORANT has seen a spike in popularity. This is partly due to the stellar performances by the Japanese teams such as Zeta Division and Northemption in International tournaments. But local LAN events have also seen massive attendance, highlighting the popularity of Riot’s FPS title in the scene.
Zeta Division, the best VALORANT team from Japan is a partnered VCT team and will be competing at the VCT Sao Paolo next month. The tournament will see the world’s 30 best VALORANT teams compete in Sao Paolo in a format that is very punishing. Teams will be traveling to South America to play in a single-elimination format, a format that has not gone down well with some of the players and coaches.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest VALORANT news and updates.
