Cover-Credits:
The elimination matches played on 17th April at Valorant Masters Reykjavik completely changed the landscape of the competition. The Guard, which was arguably the number one team to keep an eye on, was eliminated by Paper Rex. In the other matchup of the night, Japanese team ZETA Division eliminated Team Liquid from the event. With two tournament favorites out of the competition, it’s impossible to accurately predict which team will end its run as the Stage One champions.
ZETA Division vs Team Liquid recap
There was a lot of contrast between both teams heading into the matchup. While Team Liquid entered the playoffs stage confidently after dominant wins, ZETA Division struggled to make it to the playoffs. But both teams faltered in the upper bracket and ended up facing each other. Solid performances from Tenta “TENNN” Asai and Shota “SugarZ3ro” Watanabe made it an interesting matchup.
ZETA Division had a comfortable start to the night on Fracture with a 13-7 win but Team Liquid quickly responded with a 13-4 victory of its own. It came down to the third and final map of the night and both teams went neck and neck against each other. After a 6-6 first half on Split, ZETA Division put on a dominant performance in the second half with a 7-1 scoreline, giving the team a 13-7 victory.
Paper Rex vs The Guard recap
The Guard was the top-rated North American team in the competition and it stole the spotlight from everyone in the region by completely dominating some of the best teams in the world on its way to Masters Reykjavik. But the team faltered and it found itself against Asia Pacific’s best team Paper Rex.
Jason “f0rsaken” Susanto and his teammates at Paper Rex put on an impressive performance and knocked out The Guard with a clean 2-0 victory. Wang Jing "Jinggg" Jie proved that the APAC region is not to be taken lightly as he helped his team knock out the tournament favorites on the back of one of his best performances ever in an international event.
