UPDATE (May 2nd): Liquid beat Fnatic 3-2 in the final of the EMEA Stage 2 Challengers Finals today.
Original article (published May 1st 2021):
What’s been a top weekend for UK esports so far is just getting better and better.
Two Valorant esports teams featuring a host of UK talent have qualified for the world’s first international Valorant LAN.
Team Liquid and Fnatic will be the two European representatives at the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) 2021: Stage 2 Masters, which takes place in Reykjavík, Iceland from May 24th to 30th.
They beat Oxygen Esports and Gambit Esports 2-0 respectively today in the EMEA Stage 2 Challengers Finals, and will be playing one another in the grand final of that tournament tomorrow (May 2nd).
Team Liquid features three UK players – L1NK, Kryptix and soulcas – while Fnatic have two: Mistic and team captain Boaster. And both teams have a UK coach – Sliggy for Liquid and mini for Fnatic.
Both sides have made changes to their roster in recent months. In April, Fnatic dropped Moe40 and tsack and brought in Derke and Magnum. Team Liquid, meanwhile, benched ec1s and signed Jamppi back in February.
Fnatic first announced they had signed the Valorant roster of SUMN FC back in February, while Team Liquid brought on board the fish123 roster last August, in the early days of Valorant esports.
In other UK esports news today, Excel Esports’ League of Legends academy team, BT Excel, defeated mousesports 2-1 to progress to the EU Masters grand final. They made history by becoming the first UK team to do so in the tournament’s history. You can check out our interview with BT Excel’s UK bot-laner Deadly on his expectations for EU Masters here.
As well as the VCT Masters Stage 2, Iceland will also be hosting the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) in May.
Further reading: MSI & VCT Masters interview with Ásbjörn Ásbjörnsson from the Icelandic Esports Association
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
