KRÜ Esports Rise to Valorant Champions Semifinalists
Tags: Esports, Valorant, Valorant Champions Tour, Valorant Esports

Keznit and Mazino of KRÜ Esports celebrate their victory over Sentinels at Valorant Champions 2021.

In the heat of their celebration after KRÜ Esports defeated Sentinels, Keznit grabbed his teammate Mazino’s head and repeatedly peppered his head with kisses. It was a moment that captured the pure passion and joy for a team that has worked so hard over the last year to get to this position.

KRÜ Esports then defeated Fnatic in the quarterfinals and secured a spot in the semifinals at Valorant Champions. They’ve endeared themselves to Spanish speaking fans, and fans all around the world alike, many who are now proudly tweeting and shouting their catchphrase, Vamos!

After winning just one match at Masters 2 in Reykjavik, they now find themselves on the precipice of a spot in the grand finals at the final tournament of the year. The improvements they’ve made over the course of the year have enabled them to achieve greater heights than at any previous tournament this year. The addition and development of Keznit into the lineup after Iceland has proved to be key in the team finding its new form. KRÜ has also learned to overcome the nerves and stress that comes with playing official matches on stage against the best international competition in the world. Perhaps most importantly, the team has also learned to adapt in game and evolve within matches to counter their opponents and keep them on their toes.

KRÜ Esports are the sole representative of the LATAM region at Valorant Champions. They are the only team in the semi-finals not from the EMEA region, and they’re looking to continue their run and be crowned the first ever Valorant Champions. KRÜ have dominated their competition domestically, and have represented LATAM in all three international events in Valorant this year, but initially they struggled to find success on an international level.

A lot has changed since their appearance in Iceland, including the addition of the star of their match against Fnatic in the quarterfinals, Keznit. Keznit, who was not a part of the squad at Iceland, has been critical to the success of KRÜ. His teammates consider him to be the best player in their region. One of his teammates, Klaus, believes he’s one of the top 3 players at Valorant Champions, if not higher.

It’s easy to see why his teammates described him as a “monster” after his match against Fnatic in the quarterfinals. Keznit, who fills the secondary duelist role for his team posted 69 kills and only 46 deaths with an average damage per round (ADR) of 181.7 in a dominant performance to lead his team to the semifinals.

But Keznit’s tournament started off slowly, his team struggled in their first match of the group stages losing 2–0 to Team Liquid. Keznit struggled individually in that series, posting a -7 in first kill to first death differential, as well as an ADR of 112.2 across the two maps. At Masters 3 Berlin, without Keznit dominating the competition KRÜ was still able to find a moderate amount of success in reaching playoffs. They were ultimately stifled by G2 and eliminated in the quarterfinals, and in their first two matches at Champions KRÜ didn’t show anything to indicate they’d made significant improvements since then.

Keznit’s play started to improve during their series against Sentinels, and his dominance was on full display by the time KRÜ played Fnatic in the quarterfinals. Both matches went to Split for the deciding map of the series and Keznit posted a combined stat line of 42 kills and just 25 deaths. His +17 kill death differential across two elimination maps, against two of the most feared teams in the tournament is evidence of his improved play, and dominance. Over the course of their Champions run, KRÜ have made it clear that they are not to be underestimated.

In a post match interview Keznit said that he isn’t done, that he feels like his team is within reach, and prepared to become world champions. Part of that preparation has come in learning how to deal with the nerves and stress of playing in official matches on stage.

In an interview KRÜ’s Mazino mentioned that nerves affected his team and caused them to make poor decisions during matches in the past. Since then, his team has learned how to adapt and better deal with the stress and nerves on stage.

The team was open about the fact that nerves prevented them from playing their best in their opening match against Team Liquid. Against Sentinels, Nagzet revealed that he started their first map feeling particularly anxious, the map ended as a 13–7 loss on Fracture. After the map was over, his teammates calmed him down and encouraged him to keep playing his own game.

Overcoming the mental hurdles on stage was a goal all year long, and their ability to recover from it in the series against Sentinels is a testament to their growth. KRÜ players have also credited their coach, Onur, as being a big factor in their success. They said that they wouldn’t be able to achieve the success they’ve had without him.

Onur brings a lot to the table, and he was described by his players as being the heart and soul of the team. In order for them to find success they needed to improve not only their mental strength, but their in game strategies too. KRÜ players said a lot of their success comes from playing their own style and then adapting to their opponents.

KRÜ adapting to their competition was on full display in their first map against Fnatic on Haven. Fnatic displayed a unique retake style on Haven in a previous match against Vision Strikers in the group stage. Fnatic consistently had multiple players flanking and attempting to run coordinated retakes from two points, rather than just flooding the site. They had a good degree of success with this strategy against Vision Strikers, and KRÜ were prepared for it.

After going down 4–8 in the first half, KRÜ mounted an impressive comeback that propelled them to eventually win the map in overtime. They were ready for the Fnatic players coming on the flank and had players positioned in their own spawn and in different spots in A lobby to counter the Fnatic strategy. They were able to stifle the flanks enough times with excellent utility usage, trap plays and coordination to eliminate or at least delay the flanking defenders.

Klaus also credits the success of the team to what he believes is an unpredictable style of play. KRÜ showed some interesting strategies in their attack half on Split in the final map of their series against Sentinels as well. They played aggressively for mid control throughout the half, but their pistol round to begin the half stands out as an prime example of their unpredictability.

Sentinels start the round off with a toxic screen to block KRÜ’s vision in mid, and they send a guiding light out to flash and gain information behind the wall. KRÜ aren’t bothered by this and quickly counter by sending a guiding light of their own as well as a boom bot to push ShahZaM and Tenz out of mail and vents respectively, allowing them to gain mid control very early on in the round.

After gaining mid control Nagzet hides in mail, and Keznit hides in vents while the rest of the team regroup in garage. The KRÜ players in garage prepare to take the B site using their own toxic screen. The two KRÜ players hiding in mail and vents allow them to catch any potential rotations through mid, or to pressure B heaven later in the round.

All the Sentinels players rotate through their spawn which allows the KRÜ players hiding in mid to provide two layers of pressure into B heaven. Right as his teammates are entering B site, Nagzet swings into B heaven forcing Sick and Tenz, who are in heaven, to split their attention between him and the site hit. With their attention drawn elsewhere, this leaves Zombs without much support on the site and makes the site hit much easier for KRÜ as Zombs doesn’t contest the plant.

Nagzet isn’t able to get a kill, and eventually is taken down by Sick, but by then the spike has already been planted. After killing Nagzet, Sentinels players refocus on the site. The unpredictable element of this play is that Sentinels don’t believe it’s likely a second player will pressure them from mid.

Once Nagzet makes contact in heaven, Keznit starts to slowly move towards heaven himself. As the two teams trade players on site, Keznit takes out Sick in heaven and then throws a grenade deep into heaven pushing back the two remaining Sentinels players back.

From there he’s able to take out Dapr, and his teammate, Delz1k, takes out ShaZhaM to secure the crucial pistol round. This pistol round win started off the comeback that propelled KRÜ into playoffs, and it’s emblematic of what has made them such a formidable team at this event.

KRÜ will face Masters 3 Champions, Gambit Esports, in the semifinals today and they’ll look to upset another one of the tournament favorites. Regardless of the result, they have made their mark and endeared themselves to the fans who saw the passion spill out of them in the moments after their victories.

With a smile spread across his face, Keznit said that if his team defeats Gambit, that he expects Mazino to be the one peppering him with kisses in celebration this time.