Team Heretics reverse sweeps Fnatic to claim Valorant Esports World Cup title

Team Heretics took down Fnatic 3-2 with a reverse sweep in the Valorant grand final of the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Team Heretics' Mert "Wo0t" Alkan of Turkey claimed most valuable player honors for the event.

Fnatic won the first two games of the grand final decisively, claiming a 13-4 victory on Lotus and 13-1 decision on Sunset. Team Heretics rallied for three consecutive narrow wins, 13-11 on Icebox, 13-10 on Haven and 13-10 on Ascent to seal the victory.

Lithuania's Dominykas "MiniBoo" Lukasevicius helped take the deciding game with 21 kills and a plus-7 kills-deaths-assists ratio.

Poland's Kajetan "kaajak" Haremski led the match with 84 kills and a plus-23 kills-deaths-assists ratio. Russia's Timofey "Chronicle" Khromov (plus-17) and American Austin "crashies" Roberts (plus-20) also held positive K-D-A ratios for Fnatic, while Team Heretics featured no players with a positive K-D-A.

Team Heretics advanced to the grand final with a 2-0 victory over BBL Esports in the quarterfinals and 2-1 win against Gen.G Esports in the semifinals.

Fnatic beat Paper Rex 2-1 in the semifinals, setting up a third-place match between Gen.G Esports and Paper Rex. Gen.G Esports prevailed in a 2-0 sweep, winning 13-10 on Sunset and 13-8 on Ascent.

The Valorant portion of the Esports World Cup, which featured 25 tournaments in 24 games, ran from July 8-13. The group stage featured four groups of four teams, which each played a best-of-one opening match. All other matches were best-of-three, until the best-of-five grand final.

The top two teams from each group advanced to the eight-team playoffs.

Prize pool:

1. Team Heretics, $500,000 (1,000 Club Points)

2. Fnatic, $230,000 (750)

3. Gen.G Esports, $130,000 (500)

4. Paper Rex, $70,000 (300)

5-8. Sentinels, Karmine Corp, NRG, BBL Esports, $40,000 (200)

9-12. Bilibili Gaming, DRX, Rex Regum Qeon, EDward Gaming, $25,000

13-16. G2 Esports, XLG Esports, Titan Esports Club, 100 Thieves, $15,000

--Field Level Media