OpTic Gaming was primed to be the primary group in Valorant Champions Tour historical past to win back-to-back Masters titles, however their run ended at third place in Copenhagen.
Whereas the group, and by extension North America, could be upset with the outcome, OpTic managed a high three end with some clear elements in opposition to them.
The Inexperienced Wall, proper after their championship run at VCT Stage 1 Masters, got here again to North America wanting like they hadn’t missed a beat.
They disbursed of their regional competitors with ease within the group stage after which solely misplaced one map en path to Stage 2 Masters Copenhagen qualification.
However behind these wins, OpTic was beginning to really feel the wear and tear and tear of competing in tournaments consecutively whereas making deep runs each time.
“It’s at all times one thing by way of the schedule the place we’ve got to play, principally, each single day and if we’re not enjoying, we’ve got to apply to be able to get and keep forward of the meta,” OpTic’s IGL Pujan “FNS” Mehta stated in a press convention early on at Masters Copenhagen.
“It’s not simple to constantly have the ability to do this.”
FNS additionally revealed in the course of the occasion that he and his group have solely had a few week or two of downtime since January.
It’s powerful on the high
OpTic has saved the identical roster since mid-2021
As the highest group coming into the occasion, OpTic had loads of eyes on them. From followers and analysts awaiting a possible double championship run, or an eventual fall from grace, to different groups dissecting their methods, OpTic needed to consistently reinvent themselves to maintain keep their profitable methods.
“It’s very simple once you’re the No. 1 group to sort of have everyone watch you on the identical time,” FNS stated after OpTic’s loss to FunPlus Phoenix. “So there was a slight drawback there. However that’s superb and all simply so long as we doubtlessly may have had time however we simply didn’t. So there was no reinventing on our finish.”
However even with little time to iterate on their success, OpTic nonetheless managed to maintain with their profitable methods, breaking by way of the group stage after a, traditional, opening loss to Guild Esports.
What actually could have stymied their potential at profitable this occasion was their general underwhelming play based on FNS.
“There’s loads of video games that we simply may have misplaced, that we sort of scraped by that I really feel, at our greatest, we should always have the ability to win cleanly,” the OpTic IGL stated.
FNS has led OpTic to 4 main worldwide tournaments in 12 months.
Individually a lot of the OpTic gamers performed nicely, with Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker and Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen exhibiting up within the high 10 at Valorant Masters in Common Fight Rating, Kills/Deaths ratio, and Kill/Help/Survive/Commerce proportion.
However general, outdoors of some nice particular person performances, OpTic was not enjoying on the identical degree they had been at Iceland.
Reinvention and a taking a break
Now, OpTic Gaming could have one thing that may assist them enhance and raise their ceiling for Valorant Champions in September, a break.
With the event greater than a month away, and the group shedding out earlier than the Grand Ultimate, the groups ought to have sufficient time to recuperate and hit the server once more to iterate on their playstyle.
Whereas they gained’t have the ability to get the month-long break that FNS stated he desires after their loss to FPX, it’ll be extra time than that they had between the Iceland and Denmark tournaments.
If this event run, the place they defeated DRX, XSET, LOUD, and KRÜ Esports, is OpTic on the finish of their rope, then Valorant Champions groups must be nervous about what they will do in Turkey.
“I believe if we had new stuff or possibly extra new stuff, issues would have been a bit of bit completely different however yeah, I believe we had been a bit of burnt out,” FNS stated.
