Lower Bracket Quarter Finals to decide which teams are heading home - Masters Reykjavik Day 7 Preview

The losers of the upper bracket quarter finals will compete against each other in the first round of the lower bracket. The Japanese powerhouse ZETA DIVISION will face the European side Team Liquid and Paper Rex will try their luck against The Guard.

Match 1: ZETA DIVISION vs Team Liquid at 7:00 PM CEST / 10:00 AM PDT

The only Japanese esports organization in the entire event, ZETA DIVISION made a questionable start to the event, getting destroyed by DRX. It turned out that the South Korean team were just so good and they were performing above expectations so we had to see ZETA compete against two more teams in the group stage. They used [team=]’s shortcomings superbly and reached the decider match. Lastly, they pulled out another miracle and took down Ninjas in Pyjamas to reach the playoffs. Unfortunately, ZETA failed to impress the Japanese fans against G2 Esports, getting swept in two games. Despite failing to win a single map in the first round of the playoffs, ZETA DIVISION players still showed promising performances both individually and as a team. They picked Split in their first playoffs game but only won 7 rounds. Until today, ZETA picked Split two times but they haven’t won any of them. On the other hand, their Fracture and Icebox seemed promising so we may see them pick one of these two maps today.

To be fair, Team Liquid had an awful performance in the first round of the playoffs. The European team couldn’t show their true potential against the top-seeded Brazil representatives, LOUD. No one expected such easy mistakes from them but TL somehow performed worse than ever. The positive side about this is that if they can perform like they used to, they are one of the best teams in the tournament. Team Liquid had a fairly easy opponent during the group stage and they wobbled against the first “serious” opponent. Yesterday, Elias "Jamppi" Olkkonen played his heart out and picked up 59 kills in three maps to keep his team in the upper bracket but his efforts weren’t enough. Interestingly, we see different players stepping up in different games for Team Liquid and if they find their consistency, then they will be a real threat for every team in Iceland. They picked Icebox yesterday but failed to win the game. On the other hand, Team Liquid are sitting at two wins and one loss on Ascent which looked like their best map in the tournament. With Jamppi and Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom showing their true performances, ZETA will face serious problems for sure.

Match 2: Paper Rex vs The Guard at 10:00 PM CEST / 1:00 PM PDT

Winners of VCT 2022 - APAC Challengers, Paper Rex have faced the best-looking team of the group stage in their first game in the tournament and the series ended in a 2-1 win in favor of DRX. We have seen DRX VS’ dominance in the group stage but it was the first time seeing Paper Rex compete internationally this year. Looking at DRX’s supremacy in the tournament, Paper Rex showed great resistance and consistency. If they can improve a couple of aspects of their gameplay, they are surely one of the contenders for VCT 2022 - Stage 1 - Masters Reykjavík. Jason "f0rsakeN" Susanto is the most important piece of the roster but he was far away from his previous performances yesterday, securing only 40 kills in three maps as the bottom fragger of the Asian team. He needs to perform better if Paper Rex are looking to win it all. Yesterday, their map pick was Bind but the map ended 13-8, in favor of DRX VS. We are not sure which they will choose against The Guard but we may see Fracture or Icebox which they were very comfortable with playing during VCT 2022 - APAC Challengers.

Lastly, the North American number-one seed will go up against Paper Rex. After yesterday’s loss, The Guard are probably aware of their mistakes and they will try their best to overcome them before the game. Despite losing yesterday’s game against OpTic Gaming, The Guard fought until the very end as the last map ended with a score of 13-11. As expected, Ha "Sayaplayer" Jung-woo had a blast-out performance with 68 kills in total and a 1.35 rating. Even though they lost the game, the South Korean player showed great performances in three maps as well as getting 15 first bloods. If he keeps his performance around this level, not many teams can hold his Jett dominance. Yesterday, they picked Icebox as the opening map of the series but faced a hard 13-7 loss. OpTic Gaming had warmer hands and The Guard played their first game but today, the scenario might be different as they are also used to the stage ambiance now. We may see another Icebox pick as they were very dominant on the map during VCT 2022 - North America - Stage 1 - Main Event.

The losers of today’s games will go back to their homes and the winners will advance to the lower bracket semi finals. You can find more information on the events page. All of the games will be streamed live on the official VALORANT Twitch channel.