Esports Vainglory8

Vainglory 8 Spring Breakdown: SEA Split 1 Challenger Battles

Fluffy Chickens, One Piece 101 and Liberation X successfully battled their way back into the Vainglory 8 yesterday in impressive and close sets. However, North America and Europe weren’t the only regions with teams fighting for their lives. While these battles raged on, SEA had its own challenger series with highs, lows and intense games. Join us and read on for the full breakdown of the SEA Challenger Battles results on Broken Myth!

Silver vs The Erudite

While Silver banning Reim was questionable, giving The Erudite a Taka due to that ban was even moreso. Skye has also not shown a strong success rate in any competitive settings thus far, but was a solid pickup here to counter Catherine’s Stormguard. It was hard to say who won the draft as both teams let solid counters pull through, but the winner of this game came down to gameplay and serious mistakes by Petle, The Erudite’s Jungler. Notably, diving to reach Vox unsuccessfully, or as the commentators lamented constantly attacking the Captain instead of the damage doers. Despite an early lead, these mistakes resulted in The Erudite losing the match.  

Game two saw Silver respecting Petle’s Taka, but making a questionable choice in a Jungler themselves. Alpha diving into the fray allowed Lance to not need an early War Treads purchase as they always had a target to converge on and quickly blow up. The Erudite learned from their mistakes in the previous game. Taking the first two turrets in under eleven minutes, keeping a kill and gold lead as well as controlling team fights all led The Erudite to maximizing their early game advantage and turning it into a win.

After bringing in laykieng to replace RasenShuriKen as Carry for Silver, the game three draft began. The reason Ozo is banned so often in SEA became very apparent in this match. The Erudite maintained a phenomenal kill lead and looked to have all the momentum running their way. Even Reim, while not the strongest Ozo counter, was making things work. However, it took one solid team fight from Silver to make every ounce of momentum change. Unable to truly pin Ozo down, The Erudite suffered Ace after Ace, unable to stay alive long enough for the Kraken to be able to enter the Halycon Fold.

Silver took the upperhand thoroughly in the game four draft. Making sure Petle’s win with Fortress could not be repeated, and taking away St0ned’s comfort pick in Gwen, they forced The Erudite to try an entirely new composition. Only Erudite did the opposite and banned Samuel, a hero that had not been picked. This gave laykieng his comfort pick — Vox. Unfortunately for The Erudite, their choices were poor. Krul was unable to lock down Skye with Vox now as their mobility, and Catherine’s Merciless Persuit shut him down whenever he tried. Silver was able to take a dominant victory in the final game, maintaining their spot in the SEA Vainglory 8.

The Exorcists vs Glacier Axe

On the surface, Glacier Axe looked like they had come out on top in the game one draft. A squishy Skaarf in lane could be locked down by Lance, chased by Alpha and have Gwen Skedaddle away from any Goop she encountered. With early game aggression, it looked like Glacier Axe would be taking the game. However, this was not the case. llBaby was able to expertly position with Skaarf, buying Travel Boots early and relying on Kalua to use Vanguard to help him escape sticky situations. The Exoricists were able to secure twice the kills of Glacier Axe, not drop a single turret and slowly eat away at their opponents until they found the win.

Glacier Axe did not learn their lesson from game one. The Exorcists were not only allowed the exact same team composition that destroyed them previously, but the ineffective Alpha was chosen again. They were decimated, unable to put up a true fight at any turn. llBaby was able to have 20% more CS than DarkSaigon’s Vox. The team only suffered two deaths, and The Exorcists came out with a staggering gold lead.

Glacier Axe looked to make major changes going into game three. Finally banning the Skaarf, Exorcists surprised by not picking the expected Celeste, but going for Skye instead. They also went for a position change; ThunderRock taking Samuel as Carry and DarkSagion taking Blackfeather to the Jungle. With a double Crystal Power build to boot, Glacier Axe hoped these major changes could bring victory. However, it was too little too late. The Exorcists were able to provide another solid onslaught — racking up 24 kills, only two deaths and dominating the Halycon Fold.

PH Alliance vs Team Popeyes

While the previous two challengers may not have made it into the SEA Vainglory 8, this wasn’t the case for Team Popeyes. PH Alliance unfortunately forfeit their match, resulting in the default win for the challengers. Still, Team Popeyes, top team from the SEA Challenger Series, looks to make a major impact starting this week.


The SEA Vainglory 8 resumes this weekend with matches beginning at 6 PM SGT. Matches will be streamed live from Tesseract eSports on Mobcrush with VODs of the challenger battles available here. Be sure to tune in and see what Team Popeyes can do, and if Team Exorcist and Silver can start a turn around in Split 2!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *