Photo credit: Mark Roe / Red Bull Content Pool
Team Liquid have 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 thrilling clash saw Team Liquid and Acend go head-to-head to stake their claim as one of the best EMEA Valorant teams, having battled through a star-studded field of 16 top sides across a series of gruelling group matches and knockout rounds.
You can see our Red Bull Home Ground preview article here including all the teams and casting talent and other info.
The final day began with a scintillating third-place playoff clash between Tenstar and Vodafone Giants. The Vodafone Giants, who were playing on-site at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in London, were dominant throughout, edging past Tenstar in the first match before taking an insurmountable lead in the second to ultimately claim the tie in just two matches.
The Grand Final started in fast and frantic fashion, with Team Liquid claiming victory on their home ground of Split to put the pressure on Acend for the second match. Initially, it looked like Acend would make their home advantage on Bind count in emphatic fashion, but Team Liquid mounted a comeback from 11-5 down to take the second match to overtime.
The teams traded games in a nail-biting clash, before Acend finally twisted the knife to take the second round 17-15 and turn the Grand Final into a best-of-five battle.
The third match continued the marathon back and forth clash between the two Valorant teams, with Team Liquid earning a hard-fought 13-11 win that put the tie in their own hands. The fourth match, this time on Breeze, saw yet another epic clash, and with neither side ever fully on top it looked like the Grand Final would go all the way.
However, a resurgent Team Liquid once again came back to earn another 13-11 win and seal their place as Home Ground champions.
Getting to the final was no easy feat for the Netherlands-based team, with Team Liquid battling past the likes of G2 and Futbolist in the group matches, setting up an intense clash against Fnatic in the quarter finals before easing past Tenstar in a dominant semi-final display.
Adil ‘ScreaM’ Benrlitom at Team Liquid said after the win: “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.”
Liquid also have two UK players in soulcas and L1NK, as well as Finnish player Jamppi and Belgian brothers ScreaM and Nivera.
Acend’s fan-favourite Mehmet Yağız ‘cNed’ İpek was the standout player at Red Bull Home Ground, scooping the Legion MVP Award and a new Lenovo Legion Y25-25 240hz 1ms response time gaming monitor as his prize.
Helping his team to the Grand Final with his threatening presence and clutch performances throughout the competition, cNed’s average combat score of 234.4 underlined a level of dominance that saw him win the community vote by a landslide.
“Red Bull Home Ground was a fantastic tournament, bringing the 16 best teams from EMEA. The Grand Finals was one of the best we’ve had in Valorant in the region, and both Team Liquid and Acend put on a show for the ages, and I’m looking forward to seeing them next year!”
Yinsu Collins, desk host
The Red Bull tournament featured a unique ‘home and away’ format, with the first two opening matches on each team’s chosen ‘home ground’ where winning them both gives an automatic win and a stalemate defaulting to a best of five battle.
Home Ground saw over 50,000 current viewers across all channels during the final.
British desk host Yinsu Collins said: “Red Bull Home Ground was a fantastic tournament, bringing the 16 best teams from EMEA. The Grand Finals was one of the best we’ve had in Valorant in the region, and both Team Liquid and Acend put on a show for the ages, and I’m looking forward to seeing them next year!”
Fan-favourite Valorant commentary pairs Lauren ‘Pansy’ Scott, Michael ‘hypoc’ Robins, Mitch ‘MitchMan’ McBride and Tom ‘Tombizz Bissmire also helped bring the competition and final to life for viewers, alongside G2’s Jakub ‘Lothar’ Szygulski, each bringing their trademark expertise and strategic knowledge to every matchup.
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.
