Ghost Gaming go undefeated to win Nerd Street Champs

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The last team eliminated from contention for the VALORANT Champions Tour North America Last Chance Qualifier was also the last team standing at VALORANT Nerd Street Champs. Ghost Gaming beat TSM Academy on Sunday to win the summer season of VALORANT Nerd Street Champs.

Ghost came into the Nerd Street Champs finals this weekend via the Nerd Street Champs Last Chance Qualifier, which took place on Thursday. They went 2-0 in the LCQ to advance to Day 1 of the finals. Ghost dropped one map but once again went 2-0 to advance to Day 2. On Day 2, it was more of the same as Ghost Gaming went 2-0 with only one map dropped to advance to the playoffs.

Ghost Gaming turned their level of play up a notch on Sunday as they went undefeated and didn’t drop any maps to be crowned Nerd Street champions. From the LCQ through the playoffs, Ghost went 9-0 with a map record of 18-2.

Among players who competed in at least 200 rounds during the Nerd Street Champs finals, Gianfranco “koalanoob” Potestio led all players with a 262 ACS and 1.63 K/D. Alex "aproto" Protopapas was not far behind in K/D. He finished third among all players with a 1.46 K/D.

Photo credit: David Patlut / Nerd Street

“We came in here with a lot of confidence,” Marc-Andre "NiSMO" Tayar said in a postmatch broadcast interview following the grand final. “We came in here thinking we were gonna win and we did it.”

Overall, it was an excellent tournament run by Ghost Gaming, the highest ranked team in North America that competed at Nerd Street Champs this weekend. Ghost are currently ranked No. 5 in NA by VLR.gg. They’re just behind OpTic Gaming, XSET, 100 Thieves and FaZe Clan.

Despite being the highest ranked team in the tournament, it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that Ghost would win Nerd Street Champs, especially since they had to start their run on Thursday in the LCQ. Ghost beat three other top 20 ranked teams along the way: Soniqs, ex-SoaR Gaming and TSM Academy. Ghost Gaming’s matchup against Soniqs on Saturday was their closest match this weekend. Each team won a map by 13-11 scores, and Ghost took the deciding map on Pearl 13-5.

As for what’s next for Ghost Gaming, their 2022 VCT season is over, but they likely will compete in some third-party tournaments over the next few months in preparation for the 2023 VCT season.