Paper Rex beat OpTic in Copenhagen upper bracket semifinals

The VALORANT Champions Tour Stage 2 Masters has its first grandfinalist, as Paper Rex just toppled OpTic Gaming 2-1. The winners of the semifinals go on to the Masters Copenhagen grand final where they await their competition. Meanwhile, OpTic have been relegated to the lower bracket; they’ll have one last chance to make the grand final there.

Paper Rex have become the first ever Asia Pacific team to make the grand final of an international VCT event. They continue to make history with their dominant run in Copenhagen.

“Every time we come into the tournament, we always tell ourselves, ‘Don’t expect too much,’” Paper Rex’s Aaron “mindfreak” Leonhart said in the post-match interview. “This Masters, we did our goal already. We qualified to Copenhagen. We qualified to Champions in Istanbul.”

Paper Rex are the Masters Copenhagen semifinals winners

Paper Rex stormed into OpTic’s map pick of Haven. Outside of the opening pistol and the follow-up round, the game was all Paper Rex. Not only did Paper Rex’s Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto have an absolutely dominant performance, he also netted himself the first ace in front of a Masters crowd. Overall, the 13-3 loss was the worst defeat that OpTic have ever taken on the international stage.

THE FIRST ACE IN FRONT OF A #VALORANTMasters CROWD 🔥 @jasonsusantoo pic.twitter.com/ebq7xVzd06

— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) July 22, 2022

Map 2 went to Bind, which is as close to a Paper Rex home ground as it gets. The team was 8-0 on the map during Stage 2 of the VCT prior to the game. OpTic came out too strong with a seven round lead before Paper Rex could mount any kind of a response. Even a late comeback wasn’t enough to keep Paper Rex’s Bind streak alive. They also took their first map loss at Masters Copenhagen after sweeping their first two series.

Map 3 was Fracture. It started more hotly contested, but Paper Rex quickly took the advantage. From there, there was nothing OpTic could do.

“We’re feeling really great,” mindfreak said. “It’s [grand final] time, baby.”

In spite of a fantastic series from OpTic’s star Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker, the rest of the team simply didn’t show up. With that said, OpTic go on to the lower bracket finals on July 23. They play the winner of the match between Fnatic and FunPlus Phoenix.

If OpTic can survive long enough to find themselves a rematch against Paper Rex in the grand final, there’s no telling whether the result will be the same. The North American juggernauts have a grown a reputation for never losing the revenge match.