Red Bull Home Ground 2022, the final major Valorant event of the year, has come to a close. With eight teams from around the world coming together to compete, it was always destined to be a pretty spectacular event, and it certainly delivered.
This event marked the first time that North American teams had been invited along, providing them the opportunity to take on European squads on their home grounds. And those NA teams excelled, with 100 Thieves and Cloud9 dismantling the competition and leading to an all NA final.
The Grand Final is certainly a battle worth watching, but there were plenty of great moments all throughout the tournament. Here are just a few of the best from Red Bull Home Ground 2022.
Boo! Headshot!
Team Heretics may only have made it to the quarterfinals, but an utterly ridiculous performance from Ričardas “Boo” Lukaševičius has cemented their status as legends at the event.
Already one game down and trailing six rounds to 10 against Team Vitality, it was pretty much all over for Heretics, but they kept on trucking in hopes of a comeback. This led to some pretty wild gambles on their part, none more so than Boo spraying wildly with a pistol as Vitality popped some smoke around the spike they were trying to defuse. And, somehow, it worked – Boo popped two enemies without even seeing them, and took out a third as the smoke cleared, preventing a defuse right before it was finished.
.@BooVAL1 finds four! #RedBullHomeGround pic.twitter.com/iYbQGsEhXC
— Red Bull Gaming (@redbullgaming) December 10, 2022
KRU-sing through
KRU Esports were the underdogs of the tournament, and had a difficult time getting out of Groups and into the quarterfinals. Many would’ve expected reigning Red Bull Home Ground champions Team Liquid to send them packing, but that wasn’t the case this time around.
Whether by a sudden burst of focus or sheer luck, KRU managed to find their footing in their games against Team Liquid, pushing the more experienced team right to the very ends of the round limit. Game 1 between the pair ended 13-11 after some truly heroic plays from KRU, and Game 2 was even more of a wash. Liquid seemed to have lost their spirit, and the first half of the game ended 8-4 in KRU’s favour, and the second half ended not much longer after that.
That’s not to say Liquid didn’t pull off some incredible performances, even when the pressure was on. A particularly magnificent play from Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen saw him pick up four kills with an AWP in a beautiful display of sniper prowess.
.@Jamppicsgo with another 4K! #RedBullHomeGround pic.twitter.com/HEgMWSaZRw
— Red Bull Gaming (@redbullgaming) December 10, 2022
They’re coming out of the walls!
It’s generally ill-advised to start spraying bullets through the walls of a Valorant map, but in the semifinal match between 100 Thieves and Team Vitality, it practically became an artform.
Game 1 between these two had run into overtime, and in the 25th round, desperate plays were the name of the game. Vitality took a chance and managed to pick up their own wallbang, as they’re known, earlier in the round, severely thinning out 100 Thieves’ numbers. In the end, only Brenden “stellar” McGrath remained.
With two enemies left and not many options available, stellar took the only route available to him – hiding behind a stack of boxes, spraying, and praying. And it worked. Two members of Vitality had stacked up in a straight line right where he was firing, and his shots landed perfectly, wiping them out and earning him a clutch that won’t be forgotten anytime soon.
STELLAR! #RedBullHomeGround pic.twitter.com/ANqMQsY7eg
— Red Bull Gaming (@redbullgaming) December 10, 2022
Up on Cloud9
KRU may have made it to the semifinals, but they simply weren’t prepared for Cloud9. The North American team had skipped the quarterfinals thanks to their performance in Groups, and a day of rest between games had done wonders for them.
It’s fair to say that their semifinals match was an absolute stomp. Cloud9 wrapped up Game 1 in 18 rounds with a 13-5 record, and then closed out the match with a 13-3 in Game 2. It was a devastating performance, full of fast, aggressive plays that KRU simply couldn’t counter. And it led to one thing nobody predicted – an all NA final.
.@Xeppaaa is too CLEAN! #RedBullHomeGround pic.twitter.com/WtMSxdTBAq
— Red Bull Gaming (@redbullgaming) December 11, 2022
So many Thieves
100 Thieves and Cloud9 weren’t exactly unknown to each other before Red Bull Home Ground – the two teams had faced off several teams in their home leagues, and had traded wins back and forth for years. The game could’ve gone either way – right up until the point that 100 Thieves took complete control and crushed Cloud9.
The games were fairly even to start with, with 100 Thieves winning Game 1 in a close 13-10 and Game 2 with an almost-as-close 13-9. But in Game 3, the fight seemed to have gone out of Cloud9. 100 Thieves won nine rounds in the first half of the game, needing only four more to win the entire tournament. And they did so without any resistance from Cloud9, wrapping up Red Bull Home Ground with an astounding 13-3 win.
The final moments of #RedBullHomeGround: pic.twitter.com/Kaf60rr1KN
— Red Bull Gaming (@redbullgaming) December 11, 2022
“Bringing home the team’s first international title is great for us as Red Bull Home Ground has acted as a great proving ground for 100 Thieves ahead of the 2023 VCT,” said 100 Thieves’ Matthew “Cryocells” Panganiban on the win. “It’s been great to prove anyone wrong who has underestimated 100 Thieves and to play with a group of people that are my friends…I love these guys.”
100 Thieves are now the reigning champions of Red Bull Home Ground, but as we’ve seen with Team Liquid, that doesn’t always mean a guaranteed win next time around. Will they be back next year to defend their crown? We’ll have to wait and see. Catch up on the full Red Bull Home Ground 2022 VODs on the Red Bull Gaming Twitch or YouTube channels.