From hell to heaven. Poles are world champions in Valoranta!

it is the tournament which was the end of the year and was to select the first world champion in history. The games in Berlin were a holiday with the best teams in the world. Two teams from the EMEA region – Acend and Gambit Esports met in the finals.

Marathon in the final

The match deciding the title of world champion in Valoranta was a perfect end to 2021. The duel between Acend and Gambit Esports lasted as many as five maps, which resulted in a nearly five-hour feast for esports fans. At that time, the players treated their fans with a mood swings, because the result was changing like in a kaleidoscope.

However, it was the people supporting Acend who had to have stronger nerves in this series. The team of Aleksander “zeek” Zygmunt and Patryk “starxo” Kopczyñski started brilliantly – leading 9-1 on the first map. You can see the demonstration of the power of the zeek in the video below. Such a large advantage achieved on the theoretically more difficult side could give hope for winning Breeze. Gambit, however, was able to keep the nerves in check and thanks to the brilliant form of Ayaz “nAts” Akhametishin, who was the biggest worry in the later stages of the series, he returned to the meeting and finally won 13:11.

For more esports content, also visit

It was much calmer on the next two maps. First, Acend easily won Ascent with the result 13: 7, and then Gambit crushed their rival at Fracture 13: 3. However, the defeat on the third map of the grand finale had a larger dimension, as the fact that Acend did not ban this location was surprising. The Europeans later had to pay a considerable price for it and they were losing 1-2 in the series.

The fourth map – Icebox – is the time of the greatest emotions. The winter weather prevailed only in the background, because it was boiling on the server – both teams were going head to head and we couldn’t be sure until the very end how this exchange of blows would end. Luckily for Acend, at the end of the meeting, Poles, and most of all Starxo, showed off their form. Kopczyñski kept the team afloat almost alone at times, and eventually the European collective tore Icebox for themselves with the score of 14:12 and led to the fifth map.

In Split, we could get the impression that Gambit still has the previous location in its head, where the Russians have rubbed off to become world champions. As a result, they lost a lot of rounds at the beginning of the competition. Acend, on the other hand, gained such an advantage that it could drift towards the victory. Eventually, the match in Split ended with the Europeans winning 13: 8 and thus the Poles and the company became world champions in Valoranta.

Historical moment

The games in Berlin selected the first world champion in Valorant’s history – the European Acend. Part of the already legendary line-up are Poles who played a huge role in the final success. Winning at VALORANT Champions is not only a title, but also a huge amount of money – Acend gained 350,000 dollars. It is also worth noting that the prize pool included an additional $ 7.5 million raised by the fans of the game. Each of the tournament participants will receive an additional prize of approximately 460,000 dollars.

At this point, Poles deserved a special mention, as they were the main figures of the final. Patryk “starxo” Kopczyñski finished the game at the top of the table with 83 frags on his account. Aleksander “zeek” Zygmunt became the best player of the entire tournament, achieving the best statistics over all matches.