By James Paul R. Gomez and Mary Beatrice L. Umlas
Bren Esports booked a ticket to Valorant Champions Tour 2021: Stage 3 Masters Berlin after completing a 2-0 sweep against Indonesia’s Alter Ego in a best-of-three lower bracket finals at the Southeast Asia Challengers Playoffs on Sunday.
The Philippine-based esports team also took revenge and won the regional finals against Singapore’s Paper Rex, 3-0, in a best-of-five series.
Jayvee “DubsteP” Paguirigan said he had been waiting for this moment in his whole career in professional esports as he has gone through so many rough times in the past.
“It was so hard. I’m just so happy that [our] hard work paid off because I’ve been trying to chase this for my entire career. I’m so happy that we made it, and I didn’t stop. I’m 28 years old, and I’m still trying my best to do this thing,” Paguirigan said in the post-game interview.
Bren did not lose a single map today, 13-8 and 13-6 against the Indonesians, while dominating the Singaporeans on all maps, 16-14, 14-12, and 13-6.
Jessie Cristy "JessieVash" Cuyco and Riley "witz" Go ruled in the lower bracket game, scoring 27 and 19 kills.
In the grand finals, Jim "BORKUM" Timbreza carried the team in two maps, averaging 22.5 kills, while Kevin "Dispenser" Te tallied 22 kills in first map with an average combat score of 232.
To secure the slot to Berlin, Bren Esports executed an aggressive A and mid map push, fragging every Alter Ego player. They ended the round with a flawless victory.
The roster is composed of JessieVash (Initiator), DubsteP (Duelist), witz (Initiator), BORKUM (Controller), Dispenser (Sentinel), and their coach Gilbert "Gibo" Sales Jr.
Bren Esports earlier outplayed Vietnam's Team Big BAAM and CERBERUS Esports, 2-0 each, before succumbing to Paper Rex in the upper bracket finals, 1-2, making them the first team to qualify for Valorant Masters Berlin.
The top two SEA representatives will face top international teams worldwide, including Masters 2 Reykjavík champion, Sentinels, from the North American region.
Other than their flight to Berlin, the Filipinos took home $25,000, while the Singaporeans had $15,000 from the total $100,000 prize pool.
VCT 2021: Stage 3 Masters Berlin is an S-Tier tournament sponsored by Riot Games, which will be held in Berlin, Germany, from Sept. 9 to 19.
Valorant is a 5v5 character-based online tactical first-person shooter video game with diverse arsenal guns, agents with unique abilities, and different maps developed and published by Riot Games.