Day 4 of the VALORANT Champions Tour 2022 Stage 2 Masters Copenhagen wrapped up Wednesday, with all the group stages completed and the VCT playoff knockout stage about to begin. With the final teams from groups qualifying to the top eight, we also know the matchups heading into the knockout stage.
Pulling out the drip for Day 4 💧 #VALORANTMasters pic.twitter.com/rHg7WdUUCN
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) July 13, 2022
The first match of the day was the decider for Group B between FunPlus Phoenix and Northeption. While some fans hoped for another underdog team from Japan to make a run, FPX swept Northeption 2-0 to make it to the knockout stage. There were plenty of moments where both teams showed their skills as top VALORANT teams, but FPX pulled ahead. Throughout the series, both Ardis “ardiis” Svarenieks and Andrey “Shao” Kiprsky pulled out key rounds wins to put FPX in the knockouts.
The second and final match of the day was OpTic Gaming vs. KRÜ Esports. OpTic dug themselves out of an early hole by defeating LOUD on Tuesday, while KRÜ just fell short against Guild Esports on Monday to set up the Group A decider match. In the end, OpTic won 2-0 and made it through to the playoffs thanks to a strong second half on Split from Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen, who stood out on Haven as well.
Masters Copenhagen playoff bracket set
With these wins, the matches for the playoff knockout stage of this tournament are set. To start, XSET will face OpTic Gaming once again, with the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds out of North America squaring off in the first round. The second match is Leviatán vs. DRX, the top of Latin America versus the best in South Korea. The third match is another regional rematch in Fnatic vs, FunPlus Phoenix. Then, last but not least, the first round ends with Paper Rex vs. Guild Esports.
The knockout stage is double-elimination, so whoever loses these four matches will only have one more shot to continue.
Play of the day
While FPX made their mark in their win against Northeption, the best moment of the day revolved around Marved, a key player in the second series of the day. It almost felt as if no matter what KRÜ did, someone on OpTic would win the round anyway. This was no clearer than the map Marved had on Haven, with this 1v3 clutch as a key example.
HE'S TOO COLD 🥶 @Marved6 pic.twitter.com/T9L02ihlmX
— OpTic Gaming™ (@OpTic) July 13, 2022
This whole map was full of clean flicks and one-taps from Marved, but this one was a back-bracker and just stopped KRÜ from gaining any momentum.
Masters Copenhagen Day 4 MVP
The player of the day is easily Marved, who was the catalyst in the two-map win over KRÜ. On the first map of Split, he had 10 more kills than anyone else in the lobby. For that map, he was a +17 and rocked a 381 average combat score and had a 90% KAST (kill/assist/survive/trade).
On the second map, his form didn’t dwindle a bit. He once again led the lobby in kills, plus/minus and ACS. Ending the series with a combined 327 ACS and 48 kills, Marved was the key cog in the OpTic machine in their attempt to get back-to-back Masters titles.
