Bren Esports proved once again that it's second to none when it comes to Valorant in the Philippines.
Bren gunned down ArkAngel, 3-1, in the grand finals of the second Philippine Challengers on Sunday night, February 21, and punched the first ticket to the Southeast Asia Masters Stage 1 of the Valorant Champions Tour 2021.
After dropping 10-13 in the first map Ascent, the black and yellow squad found its groove with a dominant 13-5 victory in Haven before proceeding to crush ArkAngel in Icebox, 13-4, and Bind, 13-8.
With the lopsided victory, Bren emerged as the first team to qualify for the Southeast Asia Masters Stage 1 featuring teams from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia/Singapore and Hongkong/Taiwan.
Bren also pocketed the P120,000 champion's prize in the tourney organized by Riot Games.
It was the second straight Challengers title for the team led by former CS:GO standouts Jayvee "DubsteP" Paguirigan, Jim "BORKUM" Timbreza and Kevin "Dispenser" Te.
The Gilbert "Gibo" Sales-coached squad, which also has ex-Dota player Jessie "JessieVash" Cuyco and Mark Anthony "whoME" Roque, cruised to a perfect seven-game run in the previous tournament.
Bren's winning streak came to an end when it lost its first game against Org Not Found, 8-13 in Bind, but still came out victorious, 2-1, with 13-9 and 14-12 wins in Split and Icebox, respectively.
The defending champion then swept Oasis Gaming, 2-0 (13-4 in Haven and 14-12 in Icebox), before taking down ArkAngel in the finals.
Still, it was an impressive run from ArkAngel which suffered a first round exit in the inaugural stage. The team secured its spot in the Challengers 3 on top of the P50,000 runner-up prize.
Oasis Gaming and Hashira also got their seats to the next Challengers and bagged P20,000 each for finishing at the 3rd-4th place.