Stage 2 Masters Copenhagen Preview

Zoran Papak -

Three months after Masters Reykjavik, Valorant is back to international competition with Stage 2 Masters. Teams across the globe competed in regional VCT Challengers to book their tickets to Copenhagen.

Twelve teams from seven regions will take the stage in Copenhagen Forum across two weeks of competition.

  • EMEA: Fnatic, FunPlus Phoenix and Guild Esports
  • North America: XSET and OpTic Gaming
  • APAC: PaperRex and XERXIA
  • Brazil: LOUD
  • Japan: Northeption
  • Korea: DRX
  • LATAM: Leviatán and KRÜ

Tournament Format

Stage 2 Challengers champions from EMEA(Fnatic), NA(XSET), APAC(PaperRex), and LATAM(Leviatán) are seeded teams and directly qualified for the Knockout stage.

Meanwhile, the rest of the teams start the tournament in the Group stage. Eight teams are split into two groups of four, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the Knockout stage. All the Group stage matches will be best of three series.

Source: Riot Games

The Knockout stage will be a double-elimination bracket featuring four seeded teams and four teams that qualified from the Group stage. All matches in the Playoffs will be best of threes except Lower Final and Grand Final, who are set to be Bo5's.

Group Stage

Group A features both finalists from Stage 1 Masters in Reykjavik OpTic Gaming and LOUD. While OpTic didn't manage to win back-to-back Challengers in NA, Brazilian champion LOUD is coming in hot, losing only one map throughout the entire Stage 2.

When you add the biggest surprise of EMEA Stage 2 Challengers, Guild Esports, and LATAM's KRÜ, who has plenty of international experience, you get a stacked group where anything can happen.

Group B features EMEA powerhouse FPX, who lost only to Fnatic in playoffs. DRX is dominating Korea in 2022, while looking to take another step further on the international scene.

Source: Riot Games

Finally, we have Thai giant XERXIA, who is back on the international stage for Stage 2, and Japanese sensation Northeption, who took down ZETA Division against all odds.

To kick off group A, LOUD will square off against KRÜ, while Guild faces Stage 1 Masters Champions OpTic. In Group B, DRX play vs. Northeption, and FPX faces XERXIA.

The VCT 2022 Stage 2 Masters Copenhagen kicks off on Sunday, July 10th, and you can watch all the action live on Twitch and YouTube.