Barça Esports win first national VALORANT title
18 July 2024
When we are talking about the importance of mainstream recognition for international esports, it’s hard not to mention the natural link that exists between real-life sports and esports. Just a few days ago, for example, we wrote about a perfect example in that season, when Hong-Kong based esports organization PSG Talon won the right to represent South Korea at the 2024 Esports World Cup. It’s a perfect example, because the team is the result of a collaboration between Talon Esports and Paris-based football club (and current French champions) Paris Saint Germain (PSG).
Naturally, considering the enormous growth the international esports industry as a whole has experienced over the past few years, PSG are not the only major football team to run their own esports organization. Barça Esports, for example, is the esports team of Spanish giants FC Barcelona. The team got into VALORANT just over half a year ago, at the time of writing, and they just managed to clinch their first national title. They beat UCAM Esports from the city of Murcia 3-2 in the final of the VALORANT Challengers 2024 Spain: Rising Split 2.
Two favorites for the Grand Final
The VALORANT Challengers 2024 Spain: Rising Split 2 consisted of two phases, the Regular Season and the Playoffs. During the Regular Season, Barça Esports and UCAM Esports already dominated the table, finishing second and first in the table, respectively. As a result, they both went into the Playoff stage as favorites to reach the final, and this is what happened as well. Both sides were allowed to enter the Playoffs in the Semifinals, as a reward for their superior Regular Season performances.
In those Semifinals, UCAM Esports left no room for doubt about their form by beating Ramboot Club 3-0 in a one-sided affair. Barça Esports, on the other hand, had a lot more trouble with disposing of KPI Gaming in their own Semifinal. In a true VALORANT thriller, KPI took the lead by winning the first map (Bind), but eventually, it was Barça Esports who managed to book their place in the Grand Final with a 3-2 victory.
Resilient Barça Esports
At the very start of the Grand Final, it looked like it was going to be a repeat of the Semifinals for Barça Esports as the Catalans lost 13-10 on Haven. They reacted as quickly as they could by winning 6-13 on Bind, but the draw state did not last long. UCAM did not seem phased though and went right back to work on the third map, Sunset, which they won 9-13.
This meant Barça Esports once again had to come back from behind, but they showed remarkable resilience by clinching the victory on Ascent, led by a brilliant Jakub “maniek” Mankowski and Victor “KPZET” Steensgaard. As such, it came down to the fifth and final map, Split. This time, Barça were not pushed on the backfoot again and instead pushed through after their Ascent victory, winning Split 9-13 and taking home their first national VALORANT title since creating a roster for the game back in December of last year.
Photo Credit: FCBarcelona.com