2022 VCT Stage 2 Masters Copenhagen to feature fresh faces, format, teams
The 2022 VALORANT Championship Tour’s Stage 2 Masters will be held on July 10-24 in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is the sequel to Stage 1 Masters Reykjavik held in April this year, which featured 12 top teams competing for this year’s title.
The battleground in Copenhagen will feature the same number of total teams, and its champions will be given a spot in the 2022 VALORANT Champions in Istanbul in September.
Below is the information regarding the Stage 2 Masters in Copenhagen, from the format, teams participating, and more.
Stage 2 Masters’ format and teams
Stage 2 Masters will feature two stages, namely Group Stage and Playoffs. Group Stage will play a double-elimination format with eight spots for low-seed groups.
Each group consists of four teams where all games are a best-of-three. Only two teams from each group will be qualified for the next stage.
Playoffs will have eight teams, four of which are high seeds, and the rest are low-seed teams.
Playoffs will play a double-elimination bracket, and all games are a best-of-three, with an exception being made for the lower bracket final and grand finals since both stages are best-of-five.
As for teams participating, a complete list of 12 teams is provided below alongside each of their regions:
Fnatic (MEA Stage 2 Challengers)
XSET (NA Stage 2 Challengers)
Paper Rex (APAC Stage 2 Challengers)
Leviatán (LATAM Stage 2 Challengers Playoffs)
DRX (Korea Stage Challengers)
Northeption (Japan Stage 2 Challengers Playoffs)
LOUD (Brazil Stage 2 Challengers)
FunPlus Phoenix (EMEA Stage 2 Challengers)
OpTic Gaming (NA Stage 2 Challengers)
XERXIA (APAC Stage 2 Challengers)
KRU Esports (LATAM Stage 2 Challengers Playoffs)
Guild Esports (EMEA Stage 2 Challengers)
KRU Esports is the most recent addition to the list after the team had successfully taken over victory from Ninjas in Pyjamas on June 30. Ahead of the matchup, both teams were placed second in LATAM and Brazil regions, respectively.
Moreover, Group Stage will have two groups in total. Details are provided below:
Group A: OpTic, Guild, LOUD, and KRU.
Group B: FunPlus Phoenix, XERXIA, DRX, and Northeption.
The top two performing teams in each group will be seeded to join the remaining teams in Playoffs.
Fresh faces in Stage 2 Masters
Prior to the list of team announcements for Stage 2 Masters, VCT Japan, VCT LATAM, and VCT NA have introduced new faces to compete in Copenhagen. Northeption has become one of Japan’s greats after defeating ZETA DIVISION.
After a series of unfortunate events in the previous year, this is the year for Northeption to bounce back. The team had missed out on 2021 and ended up second in APAC’s LCQ, and they weren’t exactly in tip-top shape back in Stage 2 this year. Victory over ZETA is hoped to be the start of their redemption arc.
Also joining Stage 2 Masters is XSET, who, like Northeption, had unfortunately missed out on quite a number of international competitions in the past few years. XSET took over NA’s first seed from OpTic Gaming and defeated them back in Stage 1.
