We had quite a busy month in July. A lot of tournaments and qualifications as the esports world prepares for championship season! Welcome to this month’s edition of the Esports Report where we are going to cover all the action from July. We have Valorant and CS:GO tournaments along with DOTA 2 Masters and much more!

Valorant’s Lead Up to Worlds with Ascension and Last Chance Qualifiers

With the World Championship taking place in August, the Valorant esports scene readies itself for Worlds with two final tournaments, Ascension and Last Chance Qualifiers. Ascension is a series of tournaments in the three super regions of the VCT where the top Challenger Circuit teams are invited for a spot in the VCT next year. As for the Last Chance Qualifers, each of the three regions hosts one last tournament for the last spots into Worlds.

At Americas Ascension, 6 teams were invited: 2 each from North America, Brazil and Latin America. In the seeding phase, Brazil’s The Union and The Guard from North America dominated by not dropping a map. In the following double elimination bracket, both the Guard and the Union met at the upper bracket finals, where the Guard won the match 2 – 1 to advance to the finals. The other North American team, M80, who has been rivals with the Guard all year trading matches back and forth would go on to meet the Guard in the Grand Finals for one last match to determine who gets to qualify for VCT next year. The Guard would claim the final victory over their rivals with a 3 – 1 win and claim the spot. At EMEA Ascension, ten teams from across Europe and the Middle East were invited. In the group stage, the ten teams were narrowed down to four for the double elimination bracket. In Group A, the winners from Eastern Europe division Acend win the group after a slow start. The second-place team was Portugal’s SAW who shocked the community with wins coming from strong communication and teamwork becoming the tournament’s dark horses. Group B saw tournament favorites from Norway Apeks go undefeated in group play and to be joined by the French representatives, Gentle Mates. In the bracket SAW and Acend get bounced out of the contention after losses to their Group B counterparts. In the best of five finals, the Gentle Mates from France shock the favorites with a clean sweep to ascend to VCT. Finally in the Pacific, ten teams from across Asia came together. After a tight group stage, Singapore’s Bleed Esports and NAOS Esports from the Philippines win their respective groups. However, in the Grand Finals Bleed Esports would face the runners-up from their group SCARZ from Japan. Bleed Esports would go on to sweep SCARZ 3 – 0 to advance to VCT.

At all of the Last Chance Qualifiers, the remaining VCT teams who haven’t made it to Worlds are invited to play for the last spots. All of the teams are seeded based on their performance in league play earlier in the year. In the Americas, bottom seed KRU Esports from Latin America shocked the world by dominating their way through the entire bracket, dropping only 3 games out of the 14 played to claim the Americas slot. EMEA, unlike the others, had two spots available for Worlds due to Fnatic’s win at Masters in June. In addition, Team Vitality though invited withdrew from the tournament due to the sudden death of one of their players, Twisten. Top seed Natus Vincere from Ukraine struggled at the start after losing to KOI but bounce back with two wins against Karmine Corp and a revenge match vs KOI to claim one of the slots. Spain’s Giants, the third seed, would get the final slot with wins also against Karmine Corp and KOI. In the Pacific, top seed from Japan ZETA Division deny Team Secret from the Philippines in the Grand Finals 3 to 1 and claim the Pacific’s final slot to Worlds.

The Final Two Tournaments before the International Take Place in Indonesia and Saudi Arabia

DOTA 2 also had a busy July with two tournaments, the final Major that took place in Bali, Indonesia and a third-party tournament in Saudi Arabia, Riyadh Masters.

Eighteen teams were invited from the Division I leagues of the DPC, DOTA Pro Circuit. The teams were divided into two groups of nine in the Group Stage and followed by a double elimination playoff bracket. In the group stage, each team plays each other in two game matches in a round robin format. Team Liquid in Group A dominated going 12 – 4 to claim the top spot. On the other side, Invictus Gaming from China disappointed with only four wins total and were eliminated early. Quest Esports emerged as the kings of Group B, while South America’s top dogs Evil Geniuses were eliminated with only three wins as well as Bleed Esports. In the playoffs, Team Liquid is bounced to the lower bracket by Tundra Esports but regain their form to get to the Grand Finals with wins over fellow group winner Quest Esports and a revenge match against Tundra. There they met the reigning two-time Major winners Gaimin Gladiators, who coasted through groups and the upper bracket to Grand Finals. In a best of five, Gaimin Gladiators defeat Team Liquid 3 – 1, with this victory Gaimin Gladiators head into the International with first place finishes in all three Majors that took place this year.

At Riyadh Masters, which was hosted by the Saudi Arabian esports festival Gamers8, twenty teams were invited to compete for a $15 million prize pool. Unlike the Bali Major, invitations were based on the Dreamleague and the ESL power rankings. After a short play in stage that eliminated four teams, the remaining 16 teams were sorted into two groups. Repeating their success from Bali, Quest Esports finish at the top of Group A with a 9 – 5 record. Team Liquid didn’t finish in first place, that honor would go to BetBoom Team, who finished 12 – 2, Liquid still managed to qualify for playoffs with a respectable 9 – 5. North America continued their international tournament struggles with TSM and Shopify Rebellion finishing last and eliminated early. In the playoffs, Gaimin Gladiators were eliminated in fourth place, thus opening the door for a first new team to win an international tournament since last October. It would come down between Team Spirt and Team Liquid who faced off in the upper bracket finals and the grand finals. Team Spirit would win both matches and claim first place and the $5 million top prize.

Rocket League’s Final Major of the RLCS Ships Up to Boston

To cap off their spring split, the RLCS hosts its last major tournament before World in Boston. Sixteen teams from around the world based on ranking on performances in the spring split were invited to compete. The entire tournament is a double elimination bracket with the early rounds featuring best of five matches and the later stages switching to best of sevens.

In the upper bracket, Europe’s teams claimed all four of the semifinals slots with Team Vitality, Team BDS, Karmine Corp and Moist Esports. Saudi Arabia’s Rule One after being sent to the lower bracket by Team BDS, clawed their way to the lower bracket semifinals. The North American teams on the other hand struggled against their European rivals; Complexity lost to Team Vitality, Spacestation lost to Karmine Corp and Optic Gaming lost to Moist Esports, all in the second round of the upper bracket. North America’s final team, Gen.G, lost in the lower bracket to Team Vitality 4 – 0. In the battle of the European teams, Team BDS came out on top to claim the first spot in the Grand Finals through the upper bracket. Team Vitality after being forced to the lower bracket by Team BDS, defeated Gen.G and Rule One 4 – 0 and then in a barn burner match Vitality knocked out defending major champions Karmine Corp 4 – 3, for a rematch against Team BDS in the finals. Team Vitality would force a bracket reset after winning the first match 4 – 2, due to their rise from the lower bracket. In the reset match, Vitality win again, this time 4 – 1. Heading into Worlds, Europe has won the last two majors with Gen.G being the last North American winners back in the fall split major in December of 2022. Oceanian, Latin American, APAC and Middle Eastern teams have yet to finish in the top four of any international tournament this year.

Other Stories and Highlights

In PUBG, all of the regions hosted qualifiers for PGS2, the second international LAN tournament of the year. In the Americas, Latin America finally shined and earned a spot to an international event with FIUMBA, an organizationless team finishing first. Luminosity Gaming and Friendly Fire claim the remaining two spots. Partner team Soniqs automatically qualifies to PGS, finished in fourth. In Europe a region with three partner teams, left only two spots up for grabs for the other teams. Although Twisted Minds, a partner team, finished first, the two slots go to Question Mark, an organizationless team, and Sarvem Esports. TYLOO and DD Team qualify from China, while Danawa Esports return from Korea along with Dplus and GAME PT. Finally, in the APAC qualifiers Vietnam and Thailand dominating taking all six spots between the two nations. CERBERUS Esports and Daytrade Gaming return for another attempt at PGS and joined by Forest Gaming, Theerathon Five, The Expendables and eArena. In other PUBG news, nations who are invited to the Nations Cup have announced their rosters with the tournament to be hosted in Seoul, South Korea after the conclusion of PGS2.

In CSGO, the Fall Groups for the BLAST Premier took place. The twelve partner teams were invited to compete for direct spots for the season finals that’ll take place in November. After a series of double elimination brackets, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Heroic, Faze Clan, Team Vitality, Natus Vincere and Astralis won the six direct slots to the Fall Final. The remining teams are knocked to their respective region’s showdowns for a chance at competing.

In Rainbow Six, a small tournament was hosted at Gamers8 and featured eight teams. G2 Esports, Oxygen Esports, w7m Esports and Team Falcons were invited directly. Team BDS qualified from EU, M80 from North America, Ninjas in Pyjamas from South America and CYCLOPS from Korea and Japan. After the group stage, defending major champions w7m were knocked out by the Boston-based organization M80 2 – 1, while the local heroes Team Falcons drop to Team BDS 2 – 0. In the Grand Finals the French secure the tournament with a 3 – 0 sweep over M80. The Gamers8 tournament is the last tournament in the midseason break for Rainbow Six, the regional leagues resume in September.

In Apex Legends, the ALGS Split 2 Playoffs took place in London. The tournament was divided into three stages; a group stage, a bracket stage and the grand finals. North America dominated throughout the tournament, including eventual winners DarkZero Esports. TSM, Oxygen Esports and XSET round out the top four. Zer0 from DarkZero earned the Monster Energy MVP award as the best player in the tournament. The ALGS concludes its year with its Championship tournament taking place in September.

Upcoming Events and Tournaments in August

• League of Legends: League Play – throughout the month
• Valorant: World Championship – August 6^th to 26^th
• DOTA 2: The International Qualifiers – August 17^th to 31^st
• Rocket League: World Championship – August 3^rd to 13^th
• Overwatch: OWL Summer League Play – throughout the month
• PUBG: PGS 2 2023 – August 10^th to 20^th
• SMASH: Super Smash Con 2023 – August 10^th to 13^th
• SMASH: Shine 2023 – August 25^th to 27^th
• Fighting Games: EVO 2023 – August 4^th to 6^th
• HALO: HCS Open Series Salt Lake City – August 4^th to 6^th
• Pokemon: World Championships – August 11^th to 13^th