Day 10 of VCT 2022 Stage 2 Masters Copenhagen featured the Upper Bracket Final and the Lower Bracket Semifinal. At the end of the day, both series saw a third map, with Paper Rex and FunPlus Phoenix picking up their respective wins. Also, Fnatic bid farewell to the tournament, while OpTic Gaming has to continue their journey from the Lower Bracket Final.

Paper Rex vs OpTic Gaming

In the Upper Bracket Final of Masters Copenhagen—where the Grand Final ticket was on the line—APAC representative Paper Rex defeated defending champion OpTic Gaming in fashionable manner. Despite losing 1 map point, they managed to dominate their opponents in the remaining two maps.

• Haven: Paper Rex 13:3 OpTic Gaming
• Bind: Paper Rex 9:13 OpTic Gaming
• Fracture: Paper Rex 13:5 OpTic Gaming

Haven

With both teams battling for the first Grand Final ticket in Denmark, Paper Rex’s star Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto got off to a great start, as expected. He positioned himself offensively on A and managed to score an ACE in the first international VALORANT match played in front of a crowd.

The APAC representatives’ strategies were spot on, as were their individuals. Losing his team after setting up the Spike on A Bombsite, Khalish “d4v41” Rusyaidee had a spectacular 4-kill 1v3 clutch in a tough moment.

Bind

After the disastrous loss, what OpTic needed was a good start on the second map. Austin “crashies” Roberts gave his team what they needed in the first round with his Skye flash and individual play on B Long.

While OpTic gradually increased their advantage in the first half, a show of excellent individual defense came from Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen. Positioning himself on B Elbow, he hunted down opponents from both B Window and Garden.

After falling behind 7:0, Paper Rex had to step up on their offense. In their fast attack on B Bombsite, Aaron “mindfreak” Leonhart jumped from B Window and got 3 kills, giving his team their first round on the map.

Even though they started the game very poorly, Paper Rex did their best to make a comeback. On OpTic’s map point, d4v41 pulled a massive 4 kill out of his pocket and brought the score to 12:8.

Fracture

Although he failed to live up to expectations in the first two maps, Marved burst onto the scene in the opening moments of the last game of the series. The controller player won the 1v2 clutch despite being in a difficult situation in a post-plant scenario.

After mindfreak and f0rsakeN, Benedict “Benkai” Tan was the name that stood out for Paper Rex on the last map. In addition to his smart use of Breach’s utilities, he also made a great contribution to his team in terms of firepower. In one of those moments, he showed an outstanding defense on B Tower when OpTic were on the full-buy.

FunPlus Phoenix vs Fnatic

Despite losing every series against Fnatic all season long, FunPlus Phoenix managed to get a much-needed win when it mattered most in Masters Copenhagen. After losing the first map, they dominated the rest of the series, knocking Fnatic out of the tournament and making it into the Lower Bracket Final.

• Split: FunPlus Phoenix 13:15 Fnatic
• Bind: FunPlus Phoenix 13:7 Fnatic
• Fracture: FunPlus Phoenix 13:5 Fnatic

Split

FunPlus Phoenix got off to a better start in the first game as they were left in a do-or-die situation. They first won the pistol and then the bonus round. However, Fnatic’s IGL Jake “Boaster” Howlett slowed down his opponent’s momentum with 3 kills.

Shortly after, Enzo “Enzo” Mestari showed outstanding defense at A Ramp. One by one, he picked off his opponents who were trapped in A Ropes and prevented the score from widening any further.

Enzo wasn’t the only one to put on a show at A Ropes. Dmitry “SUYGETSU” Ilyushin extinguished the hopes of Fnatic, who were stuck in Mid and looking to attack A. All with a phenomenal show of aim.

The best move of the match came from the Russian player SUYGETSU. Trapped under B Heaven, he managed to single-handedly shred Fnatic and take the ACE despite being in a difficult situation with no help on the way. 

This game proved that there is a great relationship between overtime and Enzo. He miraculously won a 3-kill clutch in A Bombsite where he was alone and put his team ahead.

Over the years we have seen different ways of using Raze’s double satchel. But we’ve never seen one this useful. Pontus “Zyppan” Eek used his exploding satchels in the overtime round, when they were down in points and player number, to delay the plant and win a seemingly impossible round.

Bind

SUYGETSU carried his performance from the first map into the second match and started things off with superb defense. First he took 2 kills on the A site, then he rotated to the B Bombsite and took 2 more kills to end the round.

Fnatic’s strategies mostly faltered in this match. At these times, the team’s stars had to step up. In one of those moments, Emir Ali “Alfajer” Beder completed his streak from A Short with 4 kills and gave his team hope in the half.

Andrey “Shao” Kiprsky put the finishing touches on the first half that FunPlus Phoenix led. The player who started the rotation from the CT side in the retake scenario dealt the final blow with 3 kills.

Fracture

In the third game, where there were signs of fatigue and focus issues, there was one player who performed as if it was the first game of the day: Shao. Despite being alone in front of B Bombsite, he pulled off an extraordinary 1v3 clutch to bring the score to 6:0 for FPX.

Fnatic experienced the same problems on Fracture as they did on Bind. They couldn’t strategically outplay their opponents. Luckily, Enzo‘s 1v2 clutch in Viper’s Pit gave them some breathing room.

Ardis “ardiis” Svarenieks delivered the final blow of the match. Despite getting stuck on B Main, he got out of there with 2 kills, then got his last kill on bombsite to finish the round with 4 kills.

Stay tuned to Run It Back for updates on all the VCT circuits and the ongoing Masters Copenhagen coverage. Also check out all of our latest news, interviews, and features in the world of VALORANT!