Nerd St. Gamers’ Valorant Winter Championship ended with an upset from Luminosity Gaming over the fan-favorite Sentinels.

The Winter Championship began with 16 teams and four Groups with everyone from Sentinels to XSET. Only eight teams, ANDBOX, Cloud9 Blue, Envy, Sentinels, NRG, Luminosity, Equinox, and Built By Gamers made it through to the playoffs. Luminosity, ANDBOX, and Equinox were viewed as underdogs coming into the Playoffs, but each team stepped up in its own way. Luminosity proved that they have the skill needed to take on a T1 Valorant squad after taking down Sentinels in a 3-2 upset.

Luminosity Takes on the Top Dogs

Icebox started hot for LG, punishing Sentinels for sloppy attacks and doing everything in their power to shut down Shahzeeb “ShahZaM” Khan on the Operator. This was the Sentinels’ map pick, and they lost to LG 15-13, setting the stage for a Bind victory for Luminosity. On attack, LG went nuts, putting up nine straight round wins over Sentinels and securing their second map, and setting the series at 2-0. This was the time for Sentinels to come back, down to an underdog, their back against the wall with no options except to win. The first half of Split was questionable, but Sentinels found their stride on defense and barely secured a map victory. The first half started with LG on fire once again, holding back Sentinels on defense. When it was Luminosity’s turn to attack, they fell short on most pushes.

// We’ve got a series on our hands.@Sentinels vs. @Luminosity @nerdstgamers Winter Championship Grand Finals pic.twitter.com/LMswPPXHTC

— VALORANT Esports (@EsportsValorant) January 17, 2021

The predictable lurk from Alex “aproto” Protopapas cut them short in a lot of fights and Moose was unable to make use of flanks. With the series tied 2-2, it was all or nothing for both squads, and the margin for a mistake was minimal for both teams. Ascent was a gripping map, and all it took was some clever rotations, a few well-placed shots, and Diondre “YaBoiDre” Bond making the most of Raze and her abilities. Regardless of this loss, there is something to be said about the skill of Hunter “SicK” Mims who managed to play five different agents in a single series and performed exceptionally on each one. In Overwatch, some players can excel at any hero they play, and in Valorant we have yet to see that level of adaptability in professional play. Even though Sentinels lost, the roster that has been built and refined over the past few months is looking to be one of the deadliest squads in Valorant.

New Talent Emerges

Cloud9 Blue no longer has Duelist super star Tyson “TenZ” Ngo on their roster, and despite making it to the Playoffs, they lost to Andbox in a three map series. The slack was picked up by the teamwork of Nathan “leaf” Orf and Mitch “mitch” Semago, working together to close out Spike sites and carry the team into Quarterfinals. It would be unfair to say that Cloud9 Blue has fallen out of the graces of T1 Valorant, as they lost one of their most valuable players days before a competition. Andbox on the other hand is demanding respect in 2021. In their series against Cloud9 Blue, Bradley “ANDROID” Fodor picked up 52 kills, and even when he fell short on Ascent, Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker was standing by to shut out C9.

The last major highlight of Nerd St. Gamer’s Winter Championship was Equinox Esports and their latest addition, Ian “tex” Botsch. Although Equinox ended in 4th place, they faced the opposite problem of Cloud9 Blue. Tex is a player with incredible pop off potential and ended up as the top fragger for every single match that Equinox played during the Winter Championship. Riot’s Champions Tour for Valorant will be the ultimate proving grounds for players like Tex and teams like Equinox. Out of the many tournaments last year, it was impossible to nail down who is the best Valorant team in all of North America due to the circumstantial nature of early tournament brackets. This year, Equinox is pushing to grab the title, and it shows. 

The post Luminosity Upsets Sentinels at Nerd St. Gamer’s Valorant Winter Championship first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Rob Sterling

Yoru is another duelist added to Valorant’s roster designed to deceive the enemy and catch them off guard.

Valorant Episode 2 Act 1 goes live on Jan. 12 and will introduce Yoru to the game along with a new battle pass and a handful of balance changes. Yoru’s focus is to distract the enemy with his teleportation abilities, ghost footsteps, and a brief period of invisibility. Misdirection is the name of the game for Yoru, as Riot stated he is ideal for “stealthy infiltration”.

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Yoru’s Abilities

Fakeout: Everyone has had to deal with a player who fat walks while the team is trying to pull off a sneaky flank. Yoru makes use of heavy footsteps and can choose a direction to send a pair of ghost steps forward, making lots of noise with Fakeout. This ability is used to throw off enemies and fake a push or flank while the team executes a play. It is impossible so far as to tell the difference between Fakeout steps and normal footsteps unless you see the shadowy feet walk by. Fakeout has an alternate fire that works like Killjoy’s Swarm Grenades, only initiating once Yoru activates it.

Gatecrash: Utilizing dimensional rifts is what makes Yoru so powerful, and with this ability, he can place a rift tether that acts as a teleport beacon. The tether can be pushed forward and activated or placed in a safe location for later use.

Blindside: The joy of another flash ability in Valorant is less than exciting, but requires some skill to be used. Blindside can’t be thrown directly at an enemy or lobbed over walls, it must hit an object or solid surface before the flash will activate.

Dimensional Drift: Yoru has a mask that allows him to see between dimensions, and upon activating the ultimate, Yoru will hop into his dimension and become invisible to enemies. Yoru can traverse the map freely without being seen unless enemies come within a small radius of Yoru. Similar to Reyna’s audio cue when she goes in and out of invisibility, This ultimate ability seems slightly overpowered at first glance, but the short duration balances it out.

So far, Riot has only released a short gameplay trailer, but there is only one more day until Episode 2 releases, and Yoru enters the fight.

The post Valorant’s Latest Duelist, Yoru, Enters the Rift first appeared on Tekrati and is written by Rob Sterling