Team Liquid defeat Acend in Red Bull Home Ground Finals

Team Liquid has emerged victorious at the Red Bull Home Ground Grand Final, the custom pro VALORANT invitational broadcast live from the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in London.

The Redbull Home Ground Grand Finals saw Team Liquid and Acend go head-to-head to stake their claim as the best EMEA VALORANT team. 

Red Bull Home ground features a unique format where each team is able to claim a “home ground”. In other words, each team picks their strongest map and if one team is able to win on both of these “home ground” picks, they automatically win the series.

Heading into the finals, Team Liquid claimed Split as their pick and empathically placed pressure on Acend to win their pick of Bind. In what was meant to be a resounding push back to the EMEA fourth seed, Team Liquid mounted an incredible comeback from 11-5. This eventually lead to both teams heading to overtime. The two teams continued to battle until Acend finally grabbed game 2, 17-15, forcing the series into a best-of-five.

While Acend was able to narrowly grab Bind, the rest of the series did not work out for them. The final two games went to Ascent and Breeze. And while hard-fought from Acend on both maps, it was ultimately Team Liquid who claimed two 13-11 victories and the Home Ground Champions title.

This victory marks Team Liquid’s second event victory since adding a new player Nabil "Nivera" Benrlitom. After failing to qualify for VCT Masters Berlin 2021, Team Liquid swapped out James "Kryptix" Affleck for the aforementioned player in late-September. And in roughly one month's time, the new Liquid player has been an integral part in turning Team Liquid into a darkhorse contender once again for VCT Champions.

“I’m very excited and I think we have a lot of potential … It’s still a new team, but it’s crazy how much we grinded [for the victory]. We’ve fought against the best teams in Europe, but something is different and we’re definitely a good contender.” Team Liquids Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom states.

While Team Liquid displayed dominance over Acend in the end, it is Acend star Mehmet Yağız "cNed" İpek who shined bright en route to a finals loss.

Throughout the event, cNed was a standout player. The Turkish player boasted an average combat score of 234.4. He was rewarded with the Legion MVP Award for his efforts.

The second iteration of Red Bull Home Grounds ramped up proceedings at the unique pro VALORANT invitational, with an expanded roster of 16 star-studded teams and an even bigger prize pool, which saw over 50,000 current viewers across all channels during the Final.

In the end, Team Liquid, the fourth-seeded EMEA team heading to VCT Champions 2021, continued their new reign of dominance over second seed Acend. Fnatic and the VCT Masters Berlin Champions Gambit will join them at the end of the year event.

VCT Champions 2021 will begin on December 1st and run all the way to December 12. At the event, 16 teams across 8 different regions will compete for the Champions title.

Stay tuned to Esports.gg for the latest Valorant news and updates, as well as coverage from Worlds 2021.