VCT Champions 2022 quarterfinals results

XSET, OpTic Gaming, DRX, and LOUD dominate the first round of VCT Champions 2022 playoffs and move one step closer to the championship title. 

With the 8 top Valorant teams in the world competing against one another in a double-elimination bracket, the VCT Champions playoffs got off to a hot start. The winners of the first round of the playoffs—XSET, OpTic Gaming, DRX, and LOUD—moved on to the upper bracket semifinal, while the losing sides will continue their journey in the lower bracket.

DRX takes down Fun Plus Phoenix

On the opening map of the series, DRX surged out to a commanding 7-5 lead that they later increased to 12-8. The DRX were unable to keep up the momentum as the FPX consistently applied pressure to their defense through coordinated counterattacks. After throwing away the lead, DRX fought tooth and nail until the game went into overtime. The team won the map 19-17 at the end of the overtime slaughter, which featured two outstanding clutches from DRX’s Kim “stax” Gu-taek and FPX’s Ardis “ardiis” Svarenieks.

While both teams played brilliantly on the first map, which made it an absolute thriller, DRX’s choice of Breeze was notably lopsided. DRX handily won the map with a score of 13-5, earning a spot in the upper bracket semifinal matchup against LOUD.

LOUD pulls off a 2-0 upset on Leviatán

With Leviatán leading 12-6 after the first half of Icebox, it appeared that Leviathan would dominate the map. However, LOUD retaliated and won the following eight rounds in a row to take the map. The team’s victory after a brilliant comeback, handed them a 1-0 lead right away along with a huge confidence boost to go with it.

LOUD’s momentum from the first map was evidently carried over to the second in the series, Haven. Before halftime, they utterly decimated the Leviatán’s defense and took over the entire map. As LOUD spewed fire for the remainder of the map and won Haven 13-6, the momentum train never veered off the tracks. With this 2-0 victory, LOUD advanced to the semifinals of the upper bracket, where they will play DRX. On the other hand, Leviatán will now attempt to get to the championship final via the lower bracket.

OpTic Gaming overcomes the EMEA kryptonite

Team Liquid kicked off the playoffs with a 13-7 victory on Breeze over former Masters: Reykjavik champion OpTic Gaming. However, OpTic rebounded on Bind to extinguish Liquid’s flame, taking an early 5-0 lead. It took a few rounds of thrifty play and clutches from Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker and Austin “crashies” Robert for OpTic to pull away with the 13-8 equalizer.

As Liquid continued to lose important team battles, OpTic kept the ball moving and began Ascent with a 9-0 advantage. OpTic were able to hold on to the momentum of a thrifty round to close out the map 13-8 despite Liquid’s heroic efforts in the second half.

XSET carry the North American region to the semifinal with a 2-0 upset over Fnatic

With a commanding 9-3 lead, the North American team XSET got off to a fast start on their choice of map, Pearl. Matthew “Cryocells” Panganibant of XSET delivered the decisive blow to close the map with a 13-8 victory before Fnatic came close to leveling the score. In the second map, Fnatic rebounded and took a respectable 7-5 lead before the half.

With his outstanding performance on Chamber, Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev was the only player to bring Fnatic back into the contest. However, in the second half, Croyocells and the team flipped the script. After leveling the score at 10-10, XSET continued to play well enough to win 13-11 and knock Fnatic into the bottom bracket. The Cryocells’ wave propelled XSET straight to the semifinals, where they will meet its North American rival OpTic. He posted an impressive 48/25 KD on Chamber across the two maps.

Header: Riot Games