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OpTic and XSET move onto the Upper Bracket Semifinals

We’re done and over with the upper bracket quarterfinals of Valorant Champions 2022. To the demise of Team Liquid of Fnatic, OpTic Gaming and XSET have qualified for the upper bracket semifinals. However, good news is there’s still hope left as they’ve conceded to the lower bracket.

Day 2 of Upper Bracket Quarterfinals

On day 2 of the upper bracket quarterfinals, it was NA vs EMEA in both the matches. The representatives of NA, OpTic and XSET faced the sides from EMEA, Team Liquid and Fnatic respectively. Let’s find out how the action went!

OpTic vs Team Liquid

OpTic Gaming vs Team Liquid was our first NA vs EMEA matchup of the night. This was the first time the two sides have met each other in competitive Valorant.

Rosters

OpTic Gaming
  • Pujan “FNS” Mehta (IGL)
  • Victor “Victor” Wong
  • Austin “crashies” Roberts
  • Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker
  • Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen
Team Liquid
  • Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom (IGL)
  • Dom “soulcas” Sulcas
  • Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen
  • Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom
  • Dmitriy “dimasick”  Matvienko

Map Picks

  • TL ban Fracture
  • OpTic ban Haven
  • TL pick Breeze
  • OpTic pick Bind
  • TL ban Pearl
  • OpTic ban Icebox
  • Ascent remains

The Series

Map 1 (Breeze)

Team Liquid’s first map pick, Breeze started off the way they wanted. They picked up the two pistol rounds but conceded the bonus as expected. TL pretty much bulldozed the rest of the first half under the leadership of ScreaM. The half ended 9-3 in their favor. OpTic started the second half with new vigor winning the first three rounds. But Team Liquid responded soon picking up three straight rounds for themselves, soon ending the first map 13-7.

Map 2 (Bind)

Picked by OpTic, they needed to make a statement on Bind if they wanted to stay in the upper bracket. They surely did by picking up the first five rounds straight thanks to brilliant team efforts. But TL responded right after by winning the next five rounds and leveling the score. But the half ended 9-5 in favor of OpTic. The second half saw yay go wild picking up five first kills on Chamber. OpTic continued to dominate on Bind as they easily picked up the map 13-8.

Map 3 (Ascent)

Ascent was what was left to decide who makes it to the upper bracket semifinals. From the start of the third map, it was yay who was at the top of his game on Chamber yet again. He picked up 19 kills in the first half and spearheaded the team to be up by 10-2. The second half started with OpTic winning the first round but TL showed some strong determination after. They won six straight rounds giving their rivals something to worry about. But the boys from NA recollected themselves and picked up two rounds to seal the deal.

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XSET vs Fnatic

XSET vs Fnatic was the second NA vs EMEA encounter of the day. These two teams have never faced each other before competitively.

Rosters

XSET
  • Rory “dephh” Jackson (IGL)
  • Zachary “zekken” Patrone
  • Matthew “Cryocells” Panganiban
  • Jordan “AYRIN” He
  • Brendan “BcJ” Jensen
Fnatic
  • Jake “Boaster” Howlett (IGL)
  • James “Mistic” Orfila
  • Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev
  • Enzo “Enzo” Mestari
  • Emir “Alfajer” Ali Beder

Map Picks

  • XSET ban Bind
  • FNC ban Haven
  • XSET pick Pearl
  • FNC pick Fracture
  • XSET ban Icebox
  • FNC ban Breeze
  • Ascent remains

The Series

Map 1 (Pearl)

The series began with XSET’s pick of Pearl. Fnatic did well to put the plant down on several occasions in the first half but XSET’s retaking capability proved to be superior. They won four rounds just by retaking the site and defusing right in time. The first half finished 9-3 in favor of the American team. Fnatic started the second half of the map winning the pistols as well as the bonus round. But it seemed to be a matter of time before XSET got back into the game. AYRIN stepped up big time with Astra and XSET wrapped up the first map 13-8.

Map 2 (Fracture)

Fnatic needed a response and they were hoping they could pull it off with their pick of Fracture. They started the map accordingly picking up the pistol rounds but XSET won the bonus. Fnatic kept on putting the plants down but XSET had quite a few successful attempts at defuses. The first half ended 8-5 in favor of Fnatic. Derke put up an amazing show in the second half but fell short to XSET’s strategic outplays. The two teams were neck and neck but XSET walked out the arena as victors.

Who is OpTic and XSET facing next?

Unfortunate news for NA Valorant fans because OpTic and XSET are facing each other in the upper bracket semifinals. The match is set for tomorrow after DRX face LOUD. The losers of those two matches will be sent to the lower brackets.

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Faze Clan Fails To Qualify for Masters Copenhagen

XSET faced FaZe Clan this weekend at the lower bracket finals of NA VCT Challengers 2. The winner gets the final NA spot at the Copenhagen Masters 2022. To the demise of the clan, that spot was clinched by XSET. How did the matches turn out and how did Faze miss out Masters Copenhagen? Keep reading to find out more!

Well, how crazy can a match go? Two teams fight, they go guns blazing against each other. Someone wins map, the other wins the next one and on and on, right? But not this match. Something super out of the ordinary happened in Map 4 of this series.

What happened in Map 4?

After losing Map 3 to XSET and losing the first round to them on Map 4, more bad news awaited. At the start of the 2nd round, four of Faze’s players got disconnected. Poised, supamen, Flyuh and babybay just stood still in front of B Main. A technical pause soon ensued as the players got disconnected. While the official stream initially stated that it was a small gear issue, that wasn’t the case.

The stream went back to the casters, SideShow Gaming and BrenCasts where the pair let the viewers know that there has been a power outage. Plenty of pauses and advertising breaks went back and forth till the match returned after almost two whole hours. In the mean time, the team had relocated to a different facility. By that time, it had already been decided that the 2nd round will not be replayed as damage had already been dealt before the players disconnected. Questions then arose with fans asking, “Where’s Faze playing from?”.  A tweet from Poised soon cleared the air:

The tweet has been deleted by Poised hours after it was posted.

How did fans react?

Unsurprisingly, there were mixed reactions on the incident all over Twitter. While some fans were willing to do anything to help the org, others were quick to criticize the clan. Some couldn’t digest the fact that players of a team like Faze Clan are having to play from an internet cafe. Faze Clan are yet to make an official statement regarding this entire situation as of yet.

Map Results

Map 1:  11-13 win for Faze at Split

Map 2: 13-10 win for XSET at Breeze

Map 3: 14-16 overtime win for XSET at Icebox

Map 4: 13-4 win for XSET at Ascent

As you can pretty much see from the score lines, the first three maps went neck-to-neck. None of the teams held back from going all in and it certainly showed.

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XSET dephh must be on top of the world. XSET’s IGL had this to say before the game:

I know everyone is thinking that we’re a top-4 finish only (team) , but I think this is the stage that we break through and say, ‘F**K Y’ALL.

Masters Copenhagen

True to it’s name, the VCT 2022: Stage 2 is taking place at Copenhagen. The competition begins on 10th July and the finals will take place on the 24th July. Masters Copenhagen will be the first international Masters event to feature a live audience and tickets are up for grabs!

Participating Teams

  • Fnatic
  • FunPlus Phoenix
  • Guild Esports
  •  DRX
  • OpTic Gaming
  • XSET
  • Paper Rex
  • XERXIA
  • Northeption
  • Leviatan
  • Loud

There is still one spot left which will soon be decided. Only one between Ninjas in Pyjamas and KRU will be taking that final ticket. That match will take place this Thursday. If you’re interested in betting for that event, do head out to our recommended Valorant betting sites.

All in all, you have to admit that this was a worthy matchup for the lower bracket finals. But for now, fans are surely waiting to see what goes down at Copenhagen next month. See you then!

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