GenG Takes Victory at Knights Before Christmas Valorant Tournament

The Pittsburgh Knights’ Knights Before Christmas tournament ended with GenG completing a reverse sweep over Dignitas in the Grand Finals.

More Valorant is always a good thing, and the Pittsburgh Knights hosted what will most likely be the last NA Valorant tournament of the year. This was no small competition like Cloud9 To The Skye Invitational, which only invited eight teams to compete. Knights Before Christmas invited 32 teams to compete and included a mixture of top tier teams and unknown organizations. Ninja’s newly founded team, Time In, competed going 2-1 in the Group Stage, only to lose to Built By Gamers in the opening Playoff round.

Knight Before Christmas Drama

The weekend was not without controversy, and it revolved around the BBG versus Time In match. In just one 20 second clip where no one secured a kill, Tristan “Critical” Trinacty was accused of cheating, and Built by Gamers was disqualified. The Pittsburgh Knights reversed their decision, but BBG decided not to continue in the tournament. Back to the clip at hand, Critical is holding down Courtyard on Ascent, keeping a close eye on CT spawn and Gelato. For a brief second Critical flicks his crosshair to check an angle, and it just so happens that across the map, a member of Time In is right where Critical’s crosshair ended up. If you listen to the Ninja fanboys, they will die on the soapbox that Critical is cheating. From the looks of it, Critical was holding a common angle where enemies could have been pushing, and his crosshair placement was consistent with where it should be. Critical has been accused of cheating three times prior, yet all were cleared by Riot.

// @makkaloff presses the gas against @GenG #KnightsXmas #digwin #Geng #VALORANT #VALORANTEsports pic.twitter.com/ON8CqdCjTG

— VALORANT Esports (@EsportsValorant) December 21, 2020

High Octane Valorant Finals

The Semifinals started slow for GenG, dropping Haven to XSET, after failing to find footing on defense. It didn’t take much for Shawn “Shawn” O'Riley to start popping off, and GenG secured a reverse sweep to move on to the Grand Finals. There isn’t much to say about Equinox vs. Dignitas considering how much of a decisive win it was for the Dignitas roster. The Grand Finals was a spectacle, and GenG came into map one slightly off and unprepared. Much of the success from Dignitas early on was from Bryan “MAKKA” Drouillard, a Sova player who is on the same level as someone like Spencer “Hiko” Martin. Despite the loss, Makka was a much-needed addition to the team and showed his value in this final series. Ascent was a one-sided affair, and moving into Bind, GenG was confident in their ability to secure a reverse sweep. On attack, Dignitas put up five back to back round wins, sparking hope for fans, through aggressive and risky plays. 

The Grand Finals match was a tense back and forth, but in the end, Dignitas showed new life impressing just about everyone. It is unlikely that there will be any more tournaments in 2020, and even going into 2021 it may be a month or two before competitions go into full swing.