Asia and North America's teams to determine second Semi Final - Masters Reykjavik Day 6 Preview

The last upper bracket quarter final games will take place today with Paper Rex going up against DRX and The Guard facing OpTic Gaming. VCT 2022 - Stage 1 - Masters Reykjavík competition continues without stopping!

Match 1: Paper Rex vs DRX VS at 7:00 PM CEST / 10:00 AM PDT

The first matchup of the day will host Paper Rex’s first-ever VCT 2022 - Stage 1 - Masters Reykjavík game. They have shown their true potential by winning the VCT 2022 - APAC Challengers trophy, taking down XERXIA in the grand finals. It is hard to predict their current form as XERXIA had a great start to the tournament but failed to keep their performance up and Paper Rex had a fairly hard win against them in the grand final. The game ended in five maps and two of them were totally one-sided in favor of the Singaporean representatives. They won all four of their Icebox games during the regional grind and they may pick the map again today. However, DRX’s Icebox gameplay is also dangerous so the team may also come up with a different strategy today. Jason "f0rsakeN" Susanto is the most important piece of this five-man roster with his great mechanics and aim with Jett in his hands. The Indonesian player has held a 1.24 rating for the last month and a solid 1.31 K/D to help his team qualify for the international stage.

On the other side of the competition, DRX will try to keep their group stage performance. After acquiring Vision Strikers, DRX’s first-ever international tournament started incredibly well. The South Korean organization looked like the best team in the group stage with confident sweeps, including both great teamwork and individual superiority. They have picked Breeze and Haven in their first two games and didn’t make any huge mistakes, winning both maps in style. However, DRX’s Icebox looked even better, even though the map was picked by their opponents in both games. As mentioned above, Paper Rex’s statistically-best map is Icebox so the South Korean organization comes one step ahead in map picks. Myeongkwan "MaKo" Kim has put on a show during the group stage games, topping the statistics board with a solid 1.49 rating and a 2.34 K/D. He has definitely been the best performing player on the roster and interestingly, he played Viper and Omen.

Match 2: The Guard vs OpTic Gaming at 10:00 PM CEST / 1:00 PM PDT

The Guard have proved their worth and capabilities during VCT 2022 - North America - Stage 1 - Main Event. The North American organization came out of nowhere and pulled out incredible surprises against the biggest teams in the region. After beating OpTic Gaming in the regional final, they got their tickets to Iceland, taking a bye from the group stage as the first seed of NA. They had time to analyze their opponents and work on their weak sides but they also lacked stage experience. That might be an issue for the team. The Guard’s most played map is Haven as they got six wins and faced one loss. Besides, they are on a five-game winning streak on Icebox so we might see these maps from them. Moreover, we have seen these two teams compete on these maps and The Guard won both games in the grand final. Trent "trent" Cairns had the best rating on the roster with 1.15 but Ha "Sayaplayer" Jung-woo holds the best ACS with a solid 237.5 on Jett and Raze. OpTic should watch out for these two!

The number one team in North America in our rankings, OpTic Gaming haven’t had the best start to the tournament but managed to bounce back in no time to represent their region in the playoffs. Despite losing to XERXIA in the opening game, OpTic managed to put their things together and came from the lower bracket of the group stage. Their first win was against KRÜ Esports and then they took their revenge from XERXIA to face their fellows, the top-seeded NA team The Guard. We haven’t seen them perform against the top-tier teams of the tournament but looking at their last two wins, it is possible to say that OpTic are capable of upsetting any team in the tournament. Their most played map in the tournament is Ascent with two showings, losing one and winning one. Moreover, OpTic’s Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker holds the third-best rating in the tournament with a solid 1.28. The North American Jett and Chamber player is also sitting at 262.3 ACS and 1.44 K/D. He is truly the most important piece of the roster.

The winners of today’s matchups will advance to the upper bracket semi finals to face each other and the losers will meet in the lower bracket quarter finals. The competitions will be streamed live on the official VALORANT Twitch channel.