ZETA DIVISION, Paper Rex wins at Masters ensure top six teams from six different regions

Saturday’s set of matches between The Guard and Paper Rex as well as Team Liquid versus ZETA Division shattered preconceived beliefs about region strength as 2022 looks to be one of the most competitive years in VALORANT’s young history.

Paper Rex defeat The Guard after playing Mario Kart the night before

To start their run at Masters: Reykjavík, Paper Rex matched up against DRX, whom they lost to in a close 2-1 series. As a result, they were knocked into the lower bracket.

“We got in the practice room in the morning and tried to not focus too much on preparation on The Guard,” Mindfreak said. “We didn’t really try to anti-strat them. All we did was try and get a decent gist of how they play.”

The talk and preparation were very brief according to Mindfreak. With extra time, Paper Rex used those extra hours to do unconventional pregame rituals that other teams may view as odd, but for them, it was what they believed was best.

“After our brief prep, we just played Mario Kart and focused on trying to have fun before our match,” Mindfreaked shared while laughing. “We don’t expect much, in all honesty. We just wanted to focus in and play our own game going into that match instead of overthinking it.”

Photo credit: Riot Games

In their previous series against DRX, Paper Rex spent their extra time receiving an automatic seed into the playoffs to prepare extra hard for DRX. In turn, it actually might have hindered their own game in that match.

“I feel like we could've performed a lot better against DRX,” Mindfreak said. “We were so focused on preparing as much as we could that we placed a lot of expectations on ourselves to win, but then it made us scared to go for plays we know we are strong in.”

The match between North America’s first seed, The Guard, and Asia-Pacific’s first seed Paper Rex was one where the expectations were heavily skewed toward The Guard. With little expectations, Paper Rex went into that series with nothing to lose, and focused on just playing their own game. As a result, Paper Rex looked more confident against The Guard, ultimately resulting in a 2-0 series win, eliminating The Guard.

Now, Paper Rex will move forward into the next series with an extra day to prepare, and once again, the plan stays the same as what worked for them Saturday.

“We just need to play our game and not overthink things. We want them to play our game instead of us playing theirs,” Mindfreak said. “Even if we lose [Monday] doing that, we do not care because now we are genuinely having so much fun.”

Paper Rex will play against the loser of the G2 Esports and LOUD match on Monday at 4 p.m. ET.

Team Liquid is out after ZETA Division loss

After finishing fourth at the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Stage 1 Challengers, Team Liquid were originally set to watch Masters: Reykjavík from their gaming facility. Instead, they found themselves on the stage at Reykjavík and went to the tournament with few expectations and saw it as more of an opportunity to play their game and grow.

“So going into the event, we planned to change things within our calling structure and compositions because our old structure was just all over the place,” Dom “soulcas” Sulcas said. “L1nk stepped up and said he wanted to try IGL, but when we started practicing on different maps, it started to get a bit overwhelming because we needed more time to get him used to call, so we opted for our usual structure within the team for this event.”

Ultimately, Team Liquid finished 7th-8th and earned 200 circuit points, ahead of Fnatic’s 125 circuit points and tied with Funplus Phoenix’s 200. Still, even with these few expectations, soulcas believes the team should have put up a better performance at this event.

“Three to four weeks ago, we were going to get no points, but I still think we should have placed a lot higher at this event,” soulcas said.

One of the primary reasons soulcas felt disappointed in their play is because he felt the team did not play like they normally play.

“I feel like we were going into this tournament with the mindset to play with full confidence and no expectations because we shouldn’t be there in the first place,” soulcas said. “But we noticed during the start of our game on Fracture, we were playing a lot slower and were so scared of dying. We are usually strong aimers, but we were playing slow because we were scared of losing instead of trying to win.”

Still, even with their shortcomings at Masters: Reykjavík, Team Liquid did not want to discredit ZETA Division’s victory.

“Even in the previous tournaments, they were always good, but I think it was always stemmed around confidence issues,” soulcas said. “They were one of the first teams we scrimmed and they were actually really good, so we knew that this tournament would be the best Japanese team at an international event.”

ZETA Division started their Masters run looking overmatches against Korea’s DRX 2-0. In that first match, they only managed to find five rounds in two games and looked like an early-exit team. However, since their 2-0 win against Fnatic, ZETA Division have progressively become stronger and more confident in their plays.

Photo credit: Riot Games

This first win is something that soulcas feels really gave them the confidence that they are not far behind the other regions.

“I think that first win against Fnatic really knocked down a huge barrier that was in front of them,” soulcas said. “Their play in their first match against DRX looked like they were hesitant to play how they normally play, and since Fnatic, it is the ZETA Division we saw in practice, which is a great thing for them. I hope they make a major run at this event.”

As for the future of Team Liquid, soulcas is not entirely sure what happens next after this tournament. According to head coach Connor "Sliggy" Blomfield, the plan was to use this event as an opportunity to transition L1nk into the in-game leading role. Though, after this event, things could possibly be different.

“I have no idea what is going to happen after this event,” soulcas said. “We are probably going to have a really long talk and, honestly, anything can happen before Stage 2.”

Both Team Liquid and The Guard have been eliminated from Masters: Reykjavík. Now, six teams from six different regions are left at the event vying for the Masters: Reykjavík title.

On Sunday, OpTic Gaming will match up against DRX, while G2 Esports will go up against LOUD with the winners going to the upper bracket final on Friday.

The losers of these two series will move into the lower bracket where they will go up against ZETA Division and Paper Rex on Monday.

Lead photo credit: Riot Games