Yesterday playoffs continued as usual in North America for the Valorant Champions Tour Stage Two, as rising talent Evil Geniuses took on current Masters One champions OpTic Gaming. The game was one of the most anticipated rematches after Evil Geniuses beat OpTic earlier on the same stage.
Sadly for Evil Geniuses, their ability to upset bigger teams didn’t hold up against the patient gameplay of OpTic, who are absolutely focused on defending their Masters title in Copenhagen starting next month.
The first map started off on EG’s pick of Breeze with an exactly mirrored operator composition, something we don’t usually see this time around. With Yay mostly playing his most comfortable operator Chamber after the conclusion of Stage One, Victor switched onto Jett for this specific map, a role he hasn’t played since way back in December of 2020. This change also meant a possible anticipated Chamber duel between Yay and Boostio, two of the best players with the operator in north america.
OpTic luckily took the first pistol round to some surprise, as EG had been consistently dominant on pistol rounds so far this stage. Crashies sealed the round for OpTic with three fast paced picks in the post-plant situation. Now for the second round, Victor was able to absorb the pressure on A site with three no-scope Marshal kills, showcasing how insanely cool under clutch plays they are up and down OpTic’s entire roster. The first half was still dominated by OpTic, with Yay playing the angle game really well to get huge value on pickups, and the team rotating efficiently to outplay EG at every moment. The half ended with a big 10-2 scoreline in OpTic’s favor.
EG came out of the half time with a pistol round win that they desperately needed to keep the map with a slight chance of victory. But once OpTic was able to get a full buy around round 15, things started snowballing heavily in the other direction. OpTic eventually won the map 13-5, with EG not being able to win a single round when both of the teams had full loadouts under their hands.
Next map would be Haven, OpTic’s powerful strategy on C site in the pistol round left Apoth absolutely alone to eventually be rushed off. OpTic would rapidly take the pistol round and follow one as well on their map pick. EG continued to try an aggressive approach to their defense section half, letting Boostio push up as much as possible through the middle of the map, but the strategy didn’t quite pay off for them. They finally won their first full loadout round of the entire series after calling a timeout in round eight, after two more rounds before the scoreline ended 13-3 in favor of OpTic.
With the quick and dominant victory over EG, OpTic are right on track to continue their winning ways in Copenhagen. The team also officially qualified for Champions with the previous result.
OpTic’s next match is a tough one, on June 24th at 3pm CT, where they will face XSET.
