OpTic Gaming recovered from their upper bracket stumble with a dominant 3-0 showing against ZETA DIVISION in the lower bracket final of VCT Masters Reykjavík today, ending the Japanese team’s magical run and setting themselves up for a grand finals rematch against LOUD.
ZETA came out firing on OpTic’s opening pick of Haven, jumping out to a 5-0 start and taking a 7-5 lead into halftime after their attacking side. But despite holding an 11-5 lead on defense, an absolutely mesmerizing second half from Marved drove the OpTic comeback train into overtime. After splitting the first set, OpTic overwhelmed on attack in the second OT period to cap off the comeback and secure their map pick, 15-13.
With momentum on their side, OpTic put on a strong defensive showing on Fracture, taking a 7-5 lead after a back-and-forth half. But while map one was the story of an OpTic comeback, the NA championship hopefuls didn’t give ZETA an inch after switching to attack, going a perfect six-for-six in the second half to steal away ZETA’s map pick with a dominant 13-5 scoreline.
With a 2-0 lead heading into another of their map picks, OpTic looked clean and clinical on their attacking side of Bind, winning virtually every gun round commandingly and only giving away a few rounds to a couple zany ZETA thrifty rounds. Another stellar showing from Marved gave way to an 8-4 OpTic lead at halftime. Starting with the bonus round, ZETA almost mounted a comeback on their own attack side, but a back-breaking thrifty off a yay triple with the Headhunter put OpTic on 12 rounds and slammed the door on ZETA 13-8.
The win today means OpTic will advance to their second Masters event grand final after having previously reached the Masters Three Berlin final as Envy before falling to Gambit. Unlike when they faced Gambit, OpTic have already faced LOUD in this event, squandering a dominant Fracture win in the winner’s final with two straight losses on Ascent and Icebox.
OpTic’s second chance against LOUD, in the grand final, is scheduled for 12pm CT on Sunday, April 24. ZETA exit the event with a third-place finish, far beyond the expectations anyone had for the team from Japan.
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