Cloud9 White three-peats in VCT Game Changers by beating Shopify Rebellion in Grand Finals
The queens of North American Valorant retain their place on the throne. Cloud9 White staved off a valiant showing from Shopify Rebellion to win the grand finals of the NA VCT Game Changers 3 tournament 3-1.
The series capped off an impeccable 2021 season for Cloud9 White as they finished with an almost spotless record in Game Changers, going 27-1 in all three editions of the event and accumulating $60,000 in total prize money. They were undefeated in all of their maps until finally dropping their first to SR in Haven.
Despite C9 being favoured heading into the grand finals, SR started off full-throttle in Icebox with a strong 8-4 first half as the attacking side. Nevertheless, the champions flexed their muscles after switching sides by winning the next seven consecutive rounds to wrestle the lead away from SR and preserve it to the end, winning 13-10 to open the series.
Bolstered by the momentum created in Map 1, C9W went 10-2 up and formed an insurmountable lead over SR, which reached the grand finals of Game Changers for the first time in the organization’s history after finishing third in Series 2. Unperturbed by the situation, the challengers slowly clawed back in the map by winning six of the next seven rounds, making it an 11-8 affair and being on the brink of conducting a comeback of their own.
Alas, such a scene did not come to be as the next two rounds were taken by Cloud9 White to take a commanding 2-0 series lead.
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Standing on the edge of elimination and desperate to change the series, SR opted for a different agent composition by playing Astra in Haven for the first time since June 5 after 19 straight matches with Omen as their controller agent.
Thanks in part to that switch and SR in-game leader KP’s 25/17/4 KDA and 278 ACS on Sova, the team managed to win on their selected map 13-11 over C9W, becoming the first-ever team to take a map from the champions in the history of Game Changers.
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Nevertheless, C9W refocused on Bind for Game 4, a map they hadn’t lost in 10 games going back to before GC Series 2 qualifying. Duelist Jazzyk1ns led the way for the reigning champions with a cumulative 88/58/20 KDA, 295 ACS, and 187.6 ADR for the series. The 17-year-old Canadian duelist also led the team in first kills with 18.
In Bind she was especially effective against SR, having compiled 30 kills and three assists on just 11 deaths with Raze, one of her signature agents which bombarded the competition throughout 2021. Not to be outshined by the young upstart, C9W’s in-game leader meL followed suit with 73/58/19 and 232 ACS with Killjoy, Cypher, and Viper.
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