Paper Rex and OpTic Gaming reach Upper Bracket Final

Paper Rex picked up another sweep win, this time against Fnatic, to reach the Upper Bracket Final. OpTic Gaming will face them as they are the second team to win in the Upper Bracket Semi Finals.

Paper Rex vs Fnatic

VCT 2022 - Stage 2 - Masters Copenhagen

Paper Rex

2

X

0

Fnatic

Upper Bracket Semi Final, Best of 3 - July 17, 2022 - 3:00PM

13

Ascent

11

13

Bind

10

Paper Rex

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

mindfreak

1.34

247

43/29/16

+14

1.48

78.7%

159.9

39%

100%

2

0

Jinggg

1.27

292

46/38/9

+8

1.21

74.6%

175.5

20%

62%

13

8

f0rsakeN

1.26

260

45/31/9

+14

1.45

67.9%

171.2

33%

44%

7

9

d4v41

0.95

153

24/28/27

-4

0.86

78.7%

93.0

20%

80%

4

1

Benkai

0.86

165

25/30/23

-5

0.83

74.5%

114.1

31%

0%

0

3

Fnatic

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

Alfajer

1.39

270

46/35/15

+11

1.31

81.0%

178.0

36%

54%

7

6

Boaster

1.07

204

32/34/21

-2

0.94

72.3%

132.6

12%

33%

2

4

Enzo

0.89

172

29/36/13

-7

0.81

64.0%

107.6

25%

38%

3

5

Derke

0.87

198

32/41/5

-9

0.78

68.0%

133.8

18%

58%

7

5

Mistic

0.51

115

17/37/11

-20

0.46

68.1%

80.5

22%

25%

2

6

Paper Rex managed to pick up a very important win against Guild Esports in the first round of the playoffs and today, they faced another European team, Fnatic. Fnatic were very dominant in the regional challenge and they picked Ascent against Paper Rex to continue their dominance. Thanks to the English duo, Jake "Boaster" Howlett and James "Mistic" Orfila, Fnatic won the pistol round and the second round to start the game strongly on defense. Paper Rex started a winning streak that lasted 4 rounds but the first half ended in a tie. Both sides won 6 rounds and failed to break the tie. Aaron "mindfreak" Leonhart had a magnificent Astra performance on the attacking side, grabbing 15 kills and holding a 1.73 rating. The second half started with another successful defense but this time it was Paper Rex grabbing the win. Khalish "d4v41" Rusyaidee’s KAY/O came in handy for the APAC team as he grabbed 3 kills to defend the bomb sites for his team. Both teams won consecutive rounds but Paper Rex managed to reach the 12-round point. Fnatic did not give up and they won their 11th round to force overtime. In the last round, Fnatic’s stars, Emir "Alfajer" Ali Beder and Nikita "Derke" Sirmitev failed to contribute and Paper Rex won the first map of the series after a great competition, 13-11. mindfreak’s dominance continued also on defense as he finished the game with 28 kills and a 1.70 rating.

The second map of the series was Paper Rex’s choice, Bind. They had a very solid chance to sweep the EMEA giants as they held the map advantage in their hands. Paper Rex started the second map with a great team effort, taking down Fnatic players one by one on defense. Fnatic had a better showing in the middle stages of the competition but then Paper Rex sat behind the wheel once again and won the last 4 rounds of the first half. The APAC representatives led the half with a score of 7-5 with their great defensive efforts. Wang "Jinggg" Jing Jie had a great performance with Raze in his hands as held a 1.65 rating and led his team with 14 kills. Jason "f0rsakeN" Susanto was his biggest helper with 12 kills on Yoru. On Fnatic’s side, Alfajer was the only player with double digits on the killboard. Paper Rex kept their streak alive in the second half by winning the first two rounds on the attacking side. Fnatic looked decent, mainly thanks to Alfajer’s great Viper performance, but they failed to keep their performance up in the later stages of the half. Paper Rex only needed 6 rounds in the second half to win it all and they accomplished it in 11 rounds. The APAC team became the first organization to reach the VCT 2022 - Stage 2 - Masters Copenhagen Upper Bracket Finals. Jinggg had 8 first bloods at the end of the map as he led his team to glory.

OpTic Gaming vs DRX VS

VCT 2022 - Stage 2 - Masters Copenhagen

DRX

1

X

2

OpTic Gaming

Upper Bracket Semi Final, Best of 3 - July 17, 2022 - 6:00PM

13

Fracture

4

4

Breeze

13

11

Bind

13

DRX

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

Zest

1.07

213

46/37/14

+9

1.24

70.1%

142.0

26%

0%

0

4

MaKo

1.02

218

43/41/15

+2

1.05

68.1%

136.6

20%

44%

4

5

stax

0.92

174

37/42/16

-5

0.88

64.0%

106.8

39%

50%

4

4

BuZz

0.83

184

35/39/6

-4

0.90

59.0%

112.8

26%

42%

5

7

Rb

0.75

184

36/48/8

-12

0.75

64.0%

121.4

29%

32%

8

17

OpTic Gaming

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

yay

1.45

304

62/41/9

+21

1.51

78.2%

188.6

21%

80%

20

5

Marved

1.25

239

52/42/18

+10

1.24

80.7%

146.7

32%

100%

5

0

Victor

0.93

197

39/42/19

-3

0.93

73.7%

134.1

19%

53%

9

8

FNS

0.78

136

27/34/23

-7

0.79

75.2%

80.7

21%

25%

1

3

crashies

0.70

136

27/38/20

-11

0.71

75.7%

96.2

20%

29%

2

5

After losing the regional final to XSET, the last Masters winners had to start their way from the Group Stage in Denmark. OpTic Gaming came to the Upper Bracket Semi Finals from the longer route, the Lower Bracket of the Group Stage. Today, they had one of the biggest tests of the tournament so far. The North American representatives picked Fracture to start things off in the series but DRX VS were on a different level, especially in the first half. The South Korean team dominated every inch of the map on the attacking side and won 11 rounds whereas OpTic Gaming only had 1. Kim "Zest" Gi-seok held a 1.78 rating and picked up 15 kills and also Yu "BuZz" Byung-chul held a 1.75 rating while grabbing 15 kills. The first map was not very hard for DRX VS to win as they only needed 2 more in the second half. OpTic Gaming only won 4 rounds in total, 3 in the second half.

It was time for DRX VS to conclude the series after their dominant performance on Fracture. The South Korean team picked Breeze to complete the sweep, at least it was what the fans expected after seeing their dominance. Interestingly, the same scenario happened but this time the roles were reversed. OpTic Gaming had a powerful first-half performance and won 10 rounds on the attacking side. Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker was the protagonist with 14 kills on Chamber. OpTic Gaming did not lose a single round until the 10th but they still managed to pick up another win before the first half ended. Just like the DRX VS’ situation on Fracture, they only needed a few rounds in the second half to win the map. OPT won 3 more in the second half and lost 2, taking down DRX VS with a score of 13-4 on Breeze. Seeing both teams winning the maps 13-4 on the opposing picks was pretty interesting. yay finished the game with a solid 1.75 rating and 22 kills.

Lastly, the deciding map was Bind. OpTic Gaming started the last map with a solid defense. The North American team had a consistent performance on defense as they picked up 8 rounds and lost 4, looking decent with their agent picks. Victor "Victor" Wong had a 1.75 rating at the end of the first half and Jimmy "Marved" Nguyen followed his steps with a 1.55 rating. It was expected for DRX to win around 4 rounds as they were meant to perform better on defense and keep in mind that both teams had the same agent composition. Despite losing the opening rounds, DRX VS sat behind the wheel and completed a 6-round winning streak. The later stages of the map were very tense as both teams tried their best to win the game. OpTic Gaming managed to reach 12-round-point despite being behind in terms of economy and kept their good form also in the upcoming round to close out the series after a very close map 3. yay and Marved had great performances in the last map. Marved held a 1.48 rating and yay grabbed 8 first bloods.

DRX VS and Fnatic’s chance will continue as they will face FunPlus Phoenix and Leviatán in the Lower Bracket. OpTic and Paper Rex will try to win against each other to become the first Grand Finalist of VCT 2022 - Stage 2 - Masters Copenhagen. More information about the event is on the events page.