Team Heretics is the Esports World Cup Champion in Valorant

Heretics vs. Fnatic - the Kings of Valorant fight for the throne in the Grand Finals of Esports World Cup. The biggest Valorant event on earth, 1.2 Million US-Dollar are on the line and Amazon Arena is boiling: Thousands of fans are screaming their lungs out - with every frag there is a wave of happiness on one half and a loud “noooo” on the other.

What a match - one for the ages. One with very different teams - very different play styles and strategies. Heretics as the aggressive attackers, Fnatics with their extremely tight team play - in synchronized movement with three guys close by laying out mass fire making them hard to approach. A brililant tactic - two attack, one scouts wider out and they rotate in and out when they have to reload, so the enemy can't just catch them off guard.

It forces the enemy to invest vast resources to take on those 3, allowing Fnatic to sneak around them and boy do these boys are good at doing this while Heretics is famous for those 2on1s and 3on1s - Boo is lining up headshots left and right from any distance. It’s 1500 IQ plays vs. brutal aim and efficiency at the Esports World Cup and really - if you’ve missed it - we’ll link the replay, this is one for the ages.

It’s such a tight fight on an extraordinarily high level - Heretics trying to force Fnatics into 1on1s, while Fnatics walls off their shooters, sneaks around - takes them out or slows them down always with that one goal - never be alone, always operate in 3 men squads and do everything you can to manipulate the enemies rotation.

Fnatic with IQ 1500 plays but Heretics lines up more triple headshots than even the Kings of Valorant can handle

It really is a Grand Final worthy of Esports World Cup kings and just incredible to see how different the teams encounter situations - Fnatic does, what Fnatics does best - these high IQ plays - they always manipulate rotations to the best of their ability, trying to boil down that clock to 30 seconds - throw a fake - which often works, because a lot of teams train on rotating at the 30 second mark.

Fnatic doesn’t rush - they play slow, manipulating rotations - trying to outsmart the enemy but that doesn’t work so well at the Grand Finals in Riyadh, because Heretics has clearly studied the opponent and does exactly, what breaks their strategy - aggressive rushes, going in hard. Since Fnatic is such a tactical finesse team, you create chaos, when you go in really aggressively - which is dangerous, because we are talking about Esports World Cup - everyone here is an aim god - everyone can frag with a headshot.

And Heretics does loose a good amount of fights, but it’s worth it for them because they break these high IQ plays Fnatic is so good in - Heretics plays Valorant, like Shroud plays Valorant fragging their way through. Often without backup. Which is exactly what surprises Fnatics all the time - Boo and Mini Boo especially just go in guns blazing - with no backup - if they attack and haven’t covered 360 - they are dead.

Fnatics map control game vs. Heretics pressing hard

Fnatics style is slow paced, super tactical - they always take map parts together - especially mid. They want to control the area - three guys lined up like a firing squad for anyone that comes through that door. Smart tactic, because it messes with the mind of your enemy - you wait for reinforcements, you don’t want to fall in their trap giving them time. But Heretics is quite a bit better mechanically in Riyadh - they win almost every duel - it’s an unstoppable force which surprisingly often wins the 2vs1s - Boo even lines up triple headshots multiple times. Every tactics has its trade-offs and because Fnatic doesn’t lone-wolf - it needs a bit more time to get their tactical plays in and this is what Heretics uses brilliantly to their advantage.

You wait against Fnatic - you are cooked, tactically they are the best team in Valorant. They always figure out ways to build mass firepower - going with 4 guys on one bomb spot after throwing a fake and walling off one or two shooters of the enemy team. No one can beat them in team play - they are absolutely world-class in this. But Heretics plays Valorant like Counter-Strike - their aim in Riyadh is out of this world - you have 500.000 US-Dollars for your team on the line in this match and not a lot of athletes can keep their nerves to a degree where they just line-up headshots. Boo had at least 2 Quad-Headshots - 4 headshots in under 1 Minute. Mini Boo 4 triple headshots.

We don’t know what these guys had for breakfast at Hilton Riyadh Hotel & Residences which is EWC Headquarter, but we want the same please. Congratulations Los Niños— affaf