Ludwig x Tarik VALORANT Invitational: The Guard Defeated TSM in Grand Finals – The Guard defeated fellow Challengers foe TSM 2-1 to win their first trophy of the year at the Ludwig x Tarik Invitational. Along the journey, the squad defeated South Korean squad T1, a Pacific league team, as well as Sentinels, one of the associated organizations in the Americas league. Their convincing win over two of the most anticipated paired teams demonstrated how little separated Challengers teams and franchised teams, at least in North America. Ludwig x Tarik Valorant Invitational
Event was amazing. Congratulations to The Guard boys on taking home the win
Thank you @LudwigAhgren and everyone who made this possible ❤️
— tarik (@tarik) January 16, 2023
Ludwig x Tarik VALORANT Invitational: The Guard Defeated TSM in Grand Finals
MAP 1: PEARL
The first map of the grand finals was played on pearl, The Guard was looking comfortable in the first half of the map taking a 7-5 lead over TSM. But, TSM makes an insane comeback in the latter half and took the game in overtime. In the overtime, TSM sealed the first map of the day by 14-12. With this win, TSM took a 1-0 lead in the BO3 series. Ludwig x Tarik Valorant Invitational
MAP 2: ASCENT
The second map witnessed the comeback of The Guard. The Guard again dominated TSM in the first half making a comfortable lead of 8-4. But this time, TSM didn’t get a chance to repeat map one heroics. The Guard secured the second map with 13-11. Trent from TG was the top fragger from the team. Each win from the respective team leveled the series 1-1.
MAP 3: HAVEN
After witnessing two insane maps fights, we finally reached the third and last map of the day. This map was supposed to be the decider and fans were expecting cutthroat, but TSM was completely thrashed by The Guard. The Guard sealed the final map with a 13-1 dominating score. With this win, The Guard sealed victory with an overall 2-1 score.
The Guard, owned by Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, will have to enter the Ascension competition in order to qualify for the league since it was not chosen for the Americas-partnered league. The Guard emerged from the depths of Tier 2 obscurity to win VCT NA Stage 1 Challengers in March of last year under the leadership of 20-year-old in-game commander Jacob “valyn” Batio. The young team, which was considered to be North America’s best chance, eventually failed to repeat its success at Masters Reykjavik on a global scale.
