KRÜ Esports came to life in the VCT Americas Last Chance Qualifier, shedding their winless season to find themselves at Champions.
What was once thought impossible has been deemed reality. KRÜ Esports put together a dream run through the VCT Americas Last Chance Qualifier that is right up there with the likes of Evil Geniuses in the regular season and EDward Gaming at Masters Tokyo.
The probability was low, but in VALORANT, there is always a chance. And KRÜ Esports took their chance to make history. After a winless inaugural season in VCT Americas, the LATAM team that no one predicted would "go on a run" went on the run of their lives.
0-9 in the regular season
KRÜ Esports ended VCT Americas in dead last. This kept them from going anywhere near the playoffs and gave them a 10-series losing streak after dropping out of VCT LOCK//IN in their first match against NAVI. As a team that made every prior international tournament in VALORANT's short time, a dreadful season like that was unexpected.
Here is every result of their VCT Americas schedule:
- FURIA wins 2:0
- MIBR wins 2:1
- Evil Geniuses wins 2:1
- 100 Thieves wins 2:1
- NRG wins 2:0
- LOUD wins 2:1
- Leviatán wins 2:0
- Sentinels wins 2:0
- Cloud9 wins 2:1
As you can see, there were several close games. They took maps from some of the best teams in the league. The issue with KRÜ Esports was closing things out. They lost a large portion of their maps by very few rounds. And the inability to maintain any momentum came back to haunt them.
Their regular season ended on May 19. A two month break occurred and in that time, something happened with KRÜ Esports. Confidence was oozing out of them. The damage done by a winless league was nonexistent heading into the Last Chance Qualifier.
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Destined to "go on a run," KRÜ Esports triumphs at LCQ
KRÜ Esports was pegged to drop out of LCQ almost immediately, with Cloud9 the overwhelming favorites. They had to win two matches in a row just to reach the double elimination part of the bracket. They did that and then some, enacting revenge on many of the teams they fell to in the season.
And it was all because of the energy put out into the universe by the VALORANT community and casters such as Brennon "Bren" Hook and Josh "Sideshow" Wilkins. Memes and mockery were made of the possibility of KRÜ Esports doing the unthinkable.
Instead of bringing them down, it only made them stronger. They took the challenge to heart and decimated everyone that got in their way during the Last Chance Qualifier:
- 2:0 against MIBR
- 2:1 against FURIA
- 2:0 against Leviatán
- 2:1 against Cloud9
- 3:1 against Leviatán
The words of Sideshow from the Plat Chat podcast are now etched into VALORANT history. "Go on a run?! The 0-9 team is gonna go on a run?!" Couple that with Bren and Sideshow's chaotic bracket prediction segment seeing KRÜ make it to the end, even after having them lose to FURIA, and you've got the caster curse of the century on every other team in LCQ.
Now, nothing can take away from the hard work this LATAM squad has done. They may have missed out on Tokyo to stay perfect, but KRÜ adds yet another international LAN to their resume with VALORANT Champions 2023. And who knows, maybe they go on another run? Stranger things have happened.
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