M80 lead NA, qualify for Ascension alongside TSM

M80  won the grand finals 2-0 and secured the top seed for NA. The second squad heading to Mexico is  TSM , who rose above other talent to secure their chance to qualify for VCT Americas.

These two teams from North America will compete against the top two teams from Brazil and LATAM in a single round-robin group stage to begin Americas Ascension. Then, the top four teams from the group stage will face off in a double-elimination format to see which single squad will secure promotion.

M80 demolish TSM in grand finals, completing dominant NA run

Across the entire year, M80 had been the best team in NA Challengers. Their core remained from 2023, when they lost in the Ascension finals to The Guard and just missed out on a spot in franchising. Even with a mid-season swap of  nitr0  for  neT , M80 remained the frontrunners for the region when the Split 2 playoffs began.

Their first match of the tournament was a close 2-0 win over TSM , with a 14-12 overtime win on Icebox securing the series win. That was followed up by their toughest challenge in the tournament: a 2-1 win over  Oxygen Esports . After sweeping  Moist x Shopify  to secure their Ascension spot, they rematched against TSM in the grand finals and swept them more convincingly than before.

For M80 , their coaching stood out across these playoffs. Their triple-Sentinel composition on Lotus was unique and proved near impossible to attack against, as TSM found out in the grand finals.

Zander  and  koalanoob  ended the tournament with the best stats across all teams, reaching a match rating of 1.26 and 1.25 respectively.

TSM had a tough final Challengers series, but their run to Ascension was unexpected. The squad eliminated great teams in the lower bracket to earn their Ascension spot, including Oxygen Esports and Moist x Shopify Rebellion. Their standout was  sym , who was the spearhead for their engages and was key in their lower-bracket run. In their wins against Oxygen and MXS that secured them the second seed, sym combined for 32 first kills across both matches, nearly more than the rest of his team combined.

Ascension

The Americas version of the Ascension tournament starts on September 10 in Monterrey, Mexico. After a group stage, the best four teams will compete in a double-elimination tournament starting September 18 to see who will VCT Americas.

The teams qualified for Americas Ascension are:

The teams qualified for Ascension are:

•  Galorys (Brazil)
•  2Game Esports (Brazil)
•   RETA Esports  (LATAM North)
•   All Knights  (LATAM South)
•   M80  (North America)
•   TSM  (North America)