Last week was an exciting one for die-hard Valorant fans. We had the pleasure of watching the group stage winners meet up with the top four seeded teams in the VCT Masters Copenhagen playoffs. Needless to say, the brawl that ensued was nothing short of spectacular.

Paper Rex, the APAC Challengers, showed an outstanding performance so far and managed to topple both EMEA favourites in this event. Guild Esports were first to fall in the quarter-finals, and then Fnatic soon after in the semi-finals. With two clean 2-0 victories, Paper Rex looks like a prime candidate for this event’s title.

Let’s not forget OpTiC Gaming who also won both of their matches – first the 2-0 sweep against XSET and then a 2-1 victory against the Korean representatives, DRX. Despite their rather shaky start in the group stage, OpTiC continues to push onward.

Paper Rex vs OpTiC Gaming

The road so far has led Paper Rex and OpTiC Gaming into the upper bracket final, and the two teams will now have to battle to decide which one will proceed into the grand final.

On paper, both have an equal shot at winning, with the GG.Bet odds slightly tilting in OpTiC’s favour with 1.63. OpTiC is an incredible team that always delivers in major tournaments such as this one, with a great track record behind them. As such, the crowd and the bookies favour them more. Not to mention that they represent one of the more popular regions, if not the most popular right next to EMEA.

However, we’d argue that there’s a very real possibility that Paper Rex will win here. They’ve already conquered the APAC region completely, having won both Challengers and both Malaysia & Singapore Challengers as well. You also have to take into account their 4th place in this year’s VCT Stage 1 Masters in Reykjavík, where they got caught up in ZETA DIVISION’s miracle run and ended up losing right before the lower bracket finals. All of this suggests that Paper Rex is a real threat to OpTiC and they should not be underestimated in any circumstance.

This matchup will be an interesting one since neither team qualifies as a safe betting pick. If that’s the case, we’ll be a bit adventurous and choose Paper Rex with the great esports betting odds of 2.19 on GG.Bet. If our hunch is correct, you can expect a major payout.

Guild Esports and XSET are Out

Let’s switch the discussion to some of the underperforming teams in the VCT Copenhagen playoffs. Guild Esports and XSET have both been hyped for this esports tournament, and they both failed to deliver when it mattered the most.

This was XSET’s first major event, which is why the fans were so excited to see how far they’ll go. It turns out, it’s not that far. Immediately after stepping foot into the playoffs, they were demolished by OpTiC. They really didn’t show much in this match and the 2-0 score for OpTiC reflected that pretty accurately. They then faced the LATAM representatives, Leviatán, and the hope was still there.

However, it turned out XSET bit more than they could chew and Leviatán claimed the 2-1 victory, sending XSET home early.

Guild Esports found themselves in a similar position. Their opening match against Paper Rex was a disaster, and after a quick 2-0 defeat, the EMEA challengers found themselves in the lower bracket. In different circumstances, this wouldn’t have been such a dire situation for Guild Esports. In this case, however, they were facing the loser between Fnatic and FunPlus Phoenix, which ended up being FunPlus Phoenix.

Guild Esports put up a good fight against FunPlus Phoenix, but it was simply not enough. The final score was 2-1 for FunPlus Phoenix and Guild Esports were eliminated.

Fantastic Lower Bracket Matches

If you’re interested in more Valorant esports action, you have some great stuff coming your way! The lower bracket turned out to be much more interesting than was initially expected, which means there’s also plenty of Valorant betting opportunities to be had.

Later today, you’ll be able to select two fantastic matchups. The first between DRX and FunPlus Phoenix, and the second between Fnatic and Leviatán. DRX and Fnatic are both favoured here, but with elimination looming over everyone’s head, we expect some major upsets.