First Grand Finalist to be determined after today’s games - Masters Reykjavik Day 10 Preview

LOUD will challenge OpTic Gaming in the upper bracket semi finals and the winner will be the first grand finalist of VCT 2022 - Stage 1 - Masters Reykjavík. Secondly, ZETA DIVISION and Paper Rex will face each other to decide the second lower bracket finalist who will face the first game’s loser.

Match 1: LOUD vs OpTic Gaming at 7:00 PM CEST / 10:00 AM PDT

The Brazilian team’s journey started right from the playoffs bracket thanks to their regional success. Firstly, LOUD took down Team Liquid in the upper bracket quarter finals to face another European team in the semi finals, G2 Esports. Unlike Team Liquid, G2 Esports failed to grab a single map win against the Brazilian giants and got swept. LOUD’s regional supremacy continues in Iceland and they are one round away from the grand finals. In their first game against Liquid, their map choice was Haven but it ended in a disaster with TL winning the map with a score of 13-3. However, LOUD won both Icebox and Ascent 13-10, granting them the win in the end. Secondly, LOUD made a great start to the semi final series with a one-sided 13-5 win on Ascent. Lastly, G2 picked Breeze but the winning side didn’t change. Until today, LOUD have won two games on AScent, one on Icebox and one on Breeze. Erick "aspas" Santos has been playing out of his mind since the start of the tournament, holding a 1.24 rating on the top of the 264.8 ACS and a solid 1.37 K/D but there is another player on the Brazilian roster that stepped up the most, Gustavo "Sacy" Rossi. The ex-League of Legends pro has only played Sova and carried his team holding a 1.27 rating, 1.41 K/D, and 248 ACS since the start. These two are LOUD’s most important pieces and their performance will be important for the Brazilian team.

OpTic Gaming are on the opposite side of the upper bracket semi final series. Unlike LOUD, they came a long way starting from the group stage. Keeping their first game performance against XERXIA out of the equation, OpTic Gaming have proven themselves in every series throughout the tournament. Lastly, we saw them compete against the other North American team, The Guard. OpTic took their revenge from The Guard, closing out the series in three games. Their last matchup was against the South Korean team, DRX. DRX VS had one-sided performances before facing OpTic and failed to impress their fans, losing the series in three games. OpTic picked Ascent as the first map of the series but lost the game. Fortunately, they kept their hopes alive by winning the second game which was DRX’s pick, Icebox. Lastly, the North American side showed their dominance on Split, closing the series with a solid 15-13 overtime win. Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker has been the main firepower source for OpTic. The Jett and Chamber player holds a 1.18 rating, 247.2 ACS, and 1.30 K/D. He is also right behind Wang "Jinggg" Jing Jie in the Kills Per Round leaderboard with a 0.88 contribution.

Match 2: ZETA DIVISION vs Paper Rex at 10:00 PM CEST / 1:00 PM PDT

Unfortunately for ZETA DIVISION, they had to face the dominant DRX VS team in the group stage but made up for it by winning two games in a row. ZETA failed to get past G2 Esports in the first round of the playoffs. After getting pushed to the lower bracket, ZETA bounced back with two wins against Team Liquid and DRX. The Japanese powerhouse are still in the competition even though they had the longest road out of every other team that have made it to this stage. Surprisingly, ZETA had no luck on their map picks but managed to upset their opponents after the third maps especially. ZETA had the privilege to pick six maps so far and they lost three of them, one on Icebox and two on Split. They won both of their Fracture picks and moreover, they also won another Fracture in the tournament. It is possible to say that they are one of the best teams on Fracture in Iceland. They are yet to win on Ascent, Haven and Bind. Shota "SugarZ3ro" Watanabe holds the best rating on the roster with 1.26, ninth-best in general. The Japanese player is also eighth on the K/D leaderboard with a solid 1.18 ratio. What differentiates him from other players is that SugarZ3ro has been playing since the start of the tournament but most of the other players on the leaderboard have started their run from the playoffs which puts the Japanese player in a tight situation but somehow he manages to outperform other players.

Lastly, Paper Rex are the latest competitors in the lower bracket semi finals. The Singapore-based organization’s journey started from the playoffs unlike ZETA, where they lost to DRX and continued their way from the lower bracket. PRX had to overcome The Guard and G2 Esports before reaching the lower bracket semi finals. Luckily for the fans, the Asian esports organization grabbed two fairly-easy 2-0 wins on both rounds and pleased everyone in the region with their dominant gameplay for sure. They are undefeated on Split and Haven, winning four games on these two maps, two wins on each. The only map that PRX failed to win in Iceland is Bind. We haven’t seen them on ZETA’s comfort pick yet, Fracture. Looking at the roster quality, Paper Rex’s most important player is Jason "f0rsakeN" Susanto without any doubt. He is one of the best duelists in the tournament and when he performs the performance we are used to, he is definitely the biggest threat on the roster. He holds a 1.20 rating and a solid 1.23 K/D. Other than him, Wang "Jinggg" Jing Jie has also been one of the leaders of the squad, holding a 1.19 rating since the start of the tournament.

The competition will be streamed live on the official VALORANT Twitch channel. Everything you need to know is on our events page. Let’s see which teams are going to stay in the competition and keep their trophy hopes alive!