Pop Flash finishes for North American VALORANT esports

Pop Flash, a five-day VALORANT esports tournament hosted by B Site finished today. As one of 18 concurrent events in the North American Ignition Series, it was a tough competition ending in Sentinels’ victory. Eight teams attended the event including Cloud9, Dignitas, Immortals, Gen. G Esports, T1, Team SoloMid, Sentinels and Team Envy. Each team faced each other in a best-of-three format, with the two winners of each group moving to playoffs.

Image credit to Pop Flash/ B Site.

Road to Finals

During the group stages, Sentinels bulldozed through the groups and into the finals, only dropping one map through the whole series. With a roster holding former Overwatch League MVP, Jay “Sinatraa” Won, it’s no surprise the team gained the upper hand.

Team Envy on the other hand held quite a different story. Although they trained, scrimmed and learned over the series, Envy lost to Cloud9 on the second day of Pop Flash, despite close games. The team moved into the lower bracket and into a marathon for the finals on Sunday. Their rematch against Cloud9 proved one for the history books. C9 proved a formidable foe, but Envy was able to gather themselves in lower bracket finals. Envy took hold of the game and made a miraculous comeback to win 2 – 0.

Sentinels vs Envy

The lower bracket was the start of a David vs Goliath storyline for Team Envy. But the outcome would be in their hands if it came true. Although there was momentum lighting a fire underneath them, the outcome did not favor them. Sentinels held an answer to all of Envy’s defensive positions, making the game an uphill battle each time Team Envy attacked. After beating down their mental fortitude, Sentinels quickly won the best-of-five in a dominant 3 – 0 fashion.

Pop Flash MVP

During the event, one player rose above the rest in terms of team synergy, through entry fragging and overall consistency. Once the Overwatch MVP for 2019, Jay “sinatraa” Won took home the title of Pop Flash MVP. Analysts after the final match rewarded the title to sinatraa for his understanding of mechanics and his ability to open sites with amazing predictions. “He commands the hookah and B push,” Alexander “Lex” Deily said when discussing his plays on Bind.

With over twenty different events spanning the globe, VALORANT is ramping up as the next big esports. After an exciting weekend, North American teams proved they are not a force to be reckoned with. Pop Flash showed the best of the North American VALORANT teams. From Sinatraa’s consistent plays and entry frags to a rematch for the ages, there was much to enjoy from this tournament.

Written by Alana Thompson