The second week of the North American Stage 1 Challengers Main Event is complete. Huge matches led to huge victories and the representatives for NA at Masters 1 have been decided. OpTic Gaming confirmed their spot in Iceland by defeating The Guard. The Guard then fought back through the Lower Final to meet OpTic once more in the Grand Final, but with their tickets booked to Reykjavik as well.

It was the Grand Final that Run It Back predicted. Read ahead for a look at the weekend’s results and to see how Masters 1 is shaping up.

NA Stage 1 Challengers Main Event Week 2 Overview

North America's representatives headed to Reykjavík:@OpTic @TheGuard #VALORANTMasters

— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) March 26, 2022

The bracket is completely filled in and the competition is over. The second weekend of Main Event action saw the following series take place:

• Lower Round 2: XSET defeats Luminosity Gaming
• Lower Round 2: Cloud9 defeats Version1
• Upper Final: OpTic Gaming defeats The Guard
• Lower Round 3: Cloud9 defeats XSET
• Lower Final: The Guard defeats Cloud9
• Grand Final: OpTic Gaming defeats The Guard

The matches went how many expected. The biggest surprises came from the Upper Final and the Lower Final. It isn’t a shocker that OpTic Gaming beat The Guard in the UF, but a two map sweep was slightly unexpected. When it comes to the Lower Final, no one thought The Guard would turn it up to beat Cloud9 three-maps-to-none in a best-of-five.

We spoke to Trent “trent” Cairns after losing in the Upper Final. He said the team will only get better over time and was confident the team would win the Lower Final game, no matter how nervous the young players were. He was right.

TG got their revenge on C9 from the Group Stage and were ready to do the same against OpTic in the Grand Final. It was another best-of-five series that saw both teams give it their all. The series went the distance with every map being fairly close aside from a 13:2 beatdown by The Guard on Breeze, the third map.

A marathon match up went in favor of the young up and coming stars from The Guard, giving them a free pass through the Group Stage of Masters 1 while OpTic Gaming will have to start their journey through the tournament earlier with many more potential roadblocks in front of them.

Current VCT 2022 Masters 1 Outlook

As of writing this, all but two teams are locked in for Masters 1 of the 2022 VALORANT Champions Tour. The LATAM Challengers tournament still needs to wrap up and then a final spot will belong to the winner of the LATAM vs. BR Playoffs. The level of competition coming to the most important tournament of the year thus far is astounding.

Here are all of the current teams lined up for the event:

• FunPlus Phoenix (EMEA)
• G2 Esports (EMEA)
• FNATIC (EMEA)
• DRX (Korea)
• OpTic Gaming (NA)
• The Guard (NA)
• Paper Rex (APAC)
• XERXIA (APAC)
• ZETA DIVISION (Japan)
• LOUD (Brazil)

Right now, the Grand Final of LATAM Challengers will send either KRÜ Esports or Leviatán to Masters 1. Whoever losses that meeting will take on Ninjas in Pyjamas, the runners up of Brazil Challengers, for the final Masters 1 spot by way of the LATAM vs. BR Playoffs. Soon enough, we will know every region’s representatives and can start dreaming of the amazing matches that will happen in Iceland.

Stay tuned to Run It Back for more VALORANT Champions Tour coverage as Stage 1 begins to wind down!