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EU vs NA: The biggest matches in VALORANT history
VALORANT teams from Europe and North America don't often get the chance to face off, but when they do – like at Red Bull Home Ground 2022 – things can get pretty explosive.
VALORANT is always a game of high stakes, especially in the professional circuit where teams battle for the top across the world. But what happens when these global teams go head-to-head?
In the case of Europe vs North America matches, it’s a tale as old as time, as the rivalry has become legendary, and not just in VALORANT. These two giant regions each encapsulate different play styles and priorities, causing heated battles that bring the richest talent to the forefront. When the two collide, it often seems like things could take a turn at any moment - and not just for memes.
Red Bull Home Ground has been the stage for endless explosive match-ups over the last three years, and aside from the fully-fledged VALORANT Champions Tour international finals, it's one of the few chances fans get to see teams from all over the world competing for supremacy in their own style. And for the first time, we will see North American teams added into the mix at Red Bull Home Ground, facing off against some of the top EU teams.
With this year's battleground set for Manchester, England, will this give the EU teams the Home Ground advantage, or will the legendary Atlantic rivalry give NA the drive they need to succeed? Only time will tell.
We've combed the history of this cross-continent rivalry to pick out the differences between the EU and NA regions, their most decisive battles and the reason for all the drama.
VALORANT's debut
Both regions very quickly took to VALORANT when it burst onto the esports scene in 2020. The fast-paced hero shooter made for the perfect competitive game, enthralling viewers on both sides of the Atlantic and quickly gaining fans across the world. NA and EU teams sprung up quickly, as regional leagues were established and teams took up the task of climbing the leaderboards.
Sentinels came out early as one of the stronger NA teams
© Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games
Within this, a diversity of playstyles and cultures arose within each region, seeing certain styles favoured in some areas of the world more than others. Fans would follow their team through the regional leagues and quickly notice the difference when they were tasked with competing on the international stage.
Of all the region rivalries, the EU and NA split seems the most contentious, with esports stars and fans alike noticing the vast divide between the two in terms of style and substance. The power dynamic has been known to shift dramatically, and when it does, the rivalries are only further reignited.
2021 – An official rivalry
When the official VALORANT Champions Tour kicked in at the start of 2021, there wasn't much chance for teams to compete internationally – the first Masters events were limited to regional match-ups. But that all changed when the VCT went to Reykjavík, Iceland for the second Masters of the season.
For the first time in the professional circuit, teams from all over the world came together to prove their might. And two teams, in particular, showed incredible skill – Europe's Fnatic and North America's Sentinels. The two first clashed in the first round of the Upper Bracket, with Sentinels handily beating Fnatic 2-0 and sending the European team into the Lower Bracket.
But Fnatic didn't just fade away. Instead, they charged through the Lower Bracket like a team possessed, destroying all those in their path without losing a game, right up until their face-off in the Lower Bracket finals against South Korean team NUTURN Gaming. Their 2-1 victory in this round saw them return to face off against Sentinels in a stunning revenge match – but despite their best efforts, Sentinels proved too powerful, and won 3-0 to take the trophy.
Team Liquid have beaten several NA teams on the international stage
© Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games
That wasn't the only story of EU and NA rivalry from the tournament, however. Europe's Team Liquid had a dramatic battle against North America's Version1, who won 2-1 in the first Upper Bracket round to send another European team into the Lower Bracket. But just one round later, Version1 found themselves in the Lower Bracket and facing off against Fnatic – and we already know how that went. Indeed, the team that would finish off Team Liquid were their region-mates Fnatic in a decisive fourth-round battle.
VALORANT Champions 2021
Things got serious at the end of season Champions tournament. Take Team Liquid for instance – after sneaking into the tournament through the EMEA Last Chance Qualifier, they immediately put a target on their back by beating the Reykjavík Masters winners Sentinels in the Group Stage – a loss that clearly knocked Sentinels to the point of being taken out of the competition in their next battle against LATAM team KRÜ Esports. Liquid went on to dominate NA team Cloud9 in the knockout phase, before taking third after losing to fellow EU team Acend.
Indeed, Acend had a part to play in keeping NA out of Finals contention. They similarly beat NA squad Team Envy in their Winner's Match, which led to their eventual elimination at the hands of Southeast Asia's X10 CRIT. Acend went on to take the whole tournament – the perfect revenge for Sentinel's victory at the second Masters.
2022 – The rise of other regions
2022 didn't get off to the most prestigious of starts for NA or EU. At the first Masters tournament of the season in Reykjavík, every EU team found themselves eliminated by the second round of the Knockouts without a single bout against an NA squad. NA went on to win, with OpTic Gaming pulling off an impressive run all the way from the Group Stage, but had to eliminate their fellow NA team The Guard to do so. The time for non-EU and NA teams had come.
But that didn't stop the fireworks when the regions clashed once more at the second Masters of the year in Copenhagen, Denmark. This time around EU and NA teams got far more chances to take each other on – OpTic and EU's Guild Esports fought in one of the very first matches of the tournament, with both ultimately making it out of the group. Meanwhile, FunPlus Phoenix also survived their group to make it to the knockouts. At last, every NA and EU team had made it to the most dangerous part of any tournament.
OpTic and FPX had one of the most explosive matches in NA and EU history
© Lance Skundrich / Riot Games
It didn't end well for everyone. Guild were defeated by APAC's Paper Rex, before being finished off by FPX in the Lower Bracket. Similarly, OpTic knocked fellow NA team XSET into the Lower Bracket, where they were taken out by LATAM's Leviatán. The regional infighting didn't end there – Fnatic were the ones to put FPX into the Lower Bracket in the first round, only to find themselves facing off against their fellow EU squad later in the bracket, ultimately losing 2-1.
The biggest EU vs NA match-up of the tournament was the Lower Bracket final between OpTic and FPX. With OpTic surviving right up until the Upper Bracket final, they'd shown they had staying power. But FPX's run through the Lower Bracket proved they could survive even the toughest of situations, and their winning momentum came into its own. FPX took two games before OpTic finally picked up one, but it wasn't enough – FPX took the final game, and then – to add insult to injury – went on to win the whole tournament.
Red Bull Home Ground: The best place to solve rivalries
In terms of the VALORANT Champions Tour, EU clearly has the advantage over NA – but that isn't the end of the story. While this year’s Champions tournament awaits, there's also a brand new chance for NA and EU teams to sort out their rivalries once and for all.
Will NA be able to overcome Europe's home turf advantage?
© Mark Roe / Red Bull Content Pool
For the first time, Red Bull Home Ground will be inviting EU and NA teams to compete in a unique tournament, where your best match is your strongest advantage. We've seen the likes of Acend, Fnatic and FPX battle it out on the Red Bull Home Ground stage before – now the NA teams will have their chance to show that they really do have what it takes to be the top region in VALORANT.
Red Bull Home Ground will run from December 9-11, live from the Victoria Warehouse in Manchester, England. You can catch all the action on Twitch, or see all the action live at the arena – stay tuned for more info.
