OpTic Gaming vs XSET Headbutt in an Intense Series but Green Wall Prevails

Getting knifed in Valorant is always painful and shows disrespect. On 12th September, OpTic Gaming Victor "Victor" Wong got knifed by Rory "dephh" Jackson in the second map of the series. The best-of-three was a classic mano a mano that took place between the two North American (NA) teams at Valorant Champions 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey. It was one for the books as the best-of-three series was pushed to the limit by both XSET and OpTic Gaming. However, at the end of it, OpTic prevailed.

The upper bracket semi-finals between OpTic Gaming and XSET had the following results:

• Haven (13-9) won by OpTic

• Ascent (13-11) won by XSET

• Pearl (13-8) won by OpTic

The series was filled with electrifying plays and adrenaline-pumping moments and Victor was in a helpless state when he was knifed on Ascent.

XSET dephh melees Victor on Map 2

It was the 4th round on Ascent and OpTic was on the attacking side of the map. The round was a partial save for OpTic Gaming. Notably, Victor was playing KAY/O, Pujan "FNS" Mehta planted the spike while Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker was on flank duty, and Victor was on A site guarding the spike. After the spike got planted, XSET used its Killjoy ultimate for the retake and managed to pick off OpTic’s Fade, Chamber, and Sova. However, Victor on KAY/O traded a kill in return with his Stinger but unfortunately was caught in the Killjoy ultimate.

Killjoy’s ultimate Lockdown detains all enemies caught in its radius after a long windup. While Victor was detained, dephh jumped on his face and knifed him to collect the final kill of the round and then defused the spike. Following this round, the scores on Ascent were equaled as both teams went 2-2.

XSET brings up technical pauses during the series

Following the series defeat to OpTic Gaming at Valorant Champions 2022, XSET’s in-game leader (IGL) dephh and coach Don “SyykoNT” Muir accused OpTic of its usage of technical pauses at crucial moments in the series.

According to Dexerto, during the post-match press conference, dephh stated that OpTic’s only mind game is using technical pauses before or during big rounds and he added that there’s always a tech pause when the teams play against each other.

Meanwhile, coach SyykoNT added that the team had escalated the issue to Riot Games and believed it was intentional from OpTic. However, members of OpTic denied the accusations and said the pauses were unintentional.

However, XSET members have since apologized for their comments about OpTic’s way of playing the game and lauded the team’s win.

Click here to read more about Valorant Champions 2022 playoffs and to follow the scores and updates from the tournament.