The 2022 VALORANT Champions Tour Stage 2 is coming to its conclusion as Masters Copenhagen approaches the final stage of competition.
With the group stage and the first half of playoffs over, all that’s left of the tournament is the last few matches. Only four teams remain: OpTic Gaming, Paper Rex, FunPlus Phoenix and Fnatic. From July 22-24, four will become one as the top team is crowned the Masters 2 champion.
If you haven’t been able to keep up with Masters Copenhagen, here is a rundown of everything that’s happened at the tournament so far.
The storylines
The Masters Copenhagen group stage started with some massive upsets. In the opening matches of Group A, both LOUD and OpTic Gaming — the two finalists from Masters Reykjavík — were sent to the lower bracket. They met there, and OpTic narrowly prevailed. From that time onward, though, OpTic have only gotten stronger. They’ve knocked down everyone in their path, including XSET and DRX.
FunPlus Phoenix also have had a glow-up since the start of the event. Ever since Dmitry “SUYGETSU” Ilyushin secured his visa and caught up to his team, they’ve looked unstoppable. A 2-0 sweep of DRX in the playoffs was one of the more shocking results this event.
A third team story thread to keep tabs on is the rise of Paper Rex. This is undoubtedly the strongest that the Asia-Pacific team has looked at an international event. The controlled aggression and free-flowing style of play is catching even top teams offguard.
Top players
These are the top 10 players at Masters Copenhagen by Average Combat Score according to VLR.gg.
- Ardis “ardiis” Svarenieks (FunPlus Phoenix) — 263.5 ACS
- Jing Jie “Jinggg” Wang (Paper Rex) — 262.3 ACS
- Saif “Sayf” Jibraeel (Guild Esports) — 260.9 ACS
- Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto (Paper Rex) — 252.3 ACS
- Matthew “Cryocells” Panganiban (XSET) — 249.6 ACS
- Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev (Fnatic) — 249.3 ACS
- Zachary “zekken” Patrone (XSET) — 241.6 ACS
- Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker (OpTic Gaming) — 239.3 ACS
- Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen (OpTic Gaming) — 238.2 ACS
- Nikita “trexx” Cherednichenko (Guild Esports) — 237.7 ACS
Sayf, Cryocells and trexx have already been eliminated from the competition as XSET and Guild were sent home. That leaves seven players, all of whom have had lights-out performances at Copenhagen. Paper Rex’s Jinggg and FPX’s ardiis both look like early contenders for tournament MVP if their teams can secure the trophy.
Two other players not included in the top 10 by ACS, but still deserving of recognition, are Fnatic’s Emir Ali “Alfajer” Beder and Paper Rex’s Aaron “mindfreak” Leonhart.
Published: Jul 20, 2022 11:53 am