Masters Copenhagen's sixth day wrapped up today with the final two quarterfinal matches. DRX DRX Korea Rank #5 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Athan Na Ha-jun (나하준) freeing No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) advanced over the debuting LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN Latin America South Rank #1 Demon1 Max Mazanov tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena aspas Erick Santos C0M Corbin Lee in a tight series, while OpTic Gaming OpTic Gaming Inactive came out on top in the North American derby against XSET XSET Inactive .

DRX pose in Copenhagen Photo: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

Leviatán vs. DRX (DRX 2-1)

In the first match of the day, DRX DRX Korea Rank #5 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Athan Na Ha-jun (나하준) freeing No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) faced up against LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN Latin America South Rank #1 Demon1 Max Mazanov tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena aspas Erick Santos C0M Corbin Lee , a fresh face to Valorant's international scene. After KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #3 keznit Angelo Mori Mazino Roberto Rivas adverso Benjamín Poblete mta Nicolás González Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro secured their Copenhagen ticket in the South American Last Chance Qualifier, Leviatán were granted a bye into the playoffs, where they would now face the kings of Korea in their first match. The stakes were additionally high for Leviatán, as they could secure a direct invite to Champions over KRÜ by winning just one game in the playoffs.

Leviatán surprised in the veto by picking Ascent as the opening map, a map their opponents held an undefeated 15-0 record on in the past year. However, Leviatán backed up their bold map choice in style by winning the first seven rounds in a row. A 1v2 clutch from MaKo got DRX their first round on the board, but it would prove to be just a blip in an otherwise dominant half for Leviatán. Four more rounds to Leviatán closed out a statement 11-1 half for the Chilean squad.

A DRX pistol round started off the second half and extended their lease on life in the first map. Off the back of shutting down the Leviatán bonus, DRX managed to decrease their deficit down to 11-5. Leviatán righted course afterwards and eventually closed out a 13-6 scoreline to deliver DRX their first Ascent loss since Champions 2021.

kiNgg had no trouble mopping up DRX on Ascent.

After nearly being shut out on the first half of Ascent, DRX kicked off Breeze with a strong start of their own, taking the first six rounds on the trot. After round seven, Leviatán slowly regained their footing, taking two of the next four rounds. By winning the final two rounds of the half, Leviatán ended the half with an 8-4 deficit, opening a window for them to potentially come back in the map.

DRX started the second half by slamming that window shut. With four rounds in a row, they swiftly got themselves to match point, and after giving up one last round to Leviatán, DRX closed out their own map pick 13-5. By winning a dominant second map, DRX proved that they weren't going to go down without a fight, and they extended the series to go to a deciding third map.

stax has been putting in the hours on Duolingo.

Leviatán got out of the starting blocks first on Haven by taking the first two rounds. However, after converting their bonus in round three, DRX went back to being large and in charge. With a streak of rounds lasting to almost the end of the half, DRX built themselves a massive 9-2 lead. Leviatán finally ended their drought in round 12, putting the halftime score at 9-3.

On their attack, Leviatán started closing the gap and won three out of the first four rounds to decrease the DRX lead down to four at 10-6. However, with two wins in round 17 and 18, the Koreans put themselves on match point. Round by round, Leviatán started closing the gap, until they eventually found themselves at 12-11, with a chance to secure overtime. Despite their best efforts, it was not to be, and DRX shut them down in the final round to claim victory in the series.

Behold a DRX masterclass in retaking.

Despite ultimately losing their match, Leviatán were very successful in their opening duels. As a team, they went +15 in first kills to first deaths, including a 12-2 score from adverso on a supporting role. Another eyebrow-raising stat courtesy of DRX was MaKo's 51 assists across the series, 24 of which he racked up on Breeze alone. Partially due to this average of over one assist per round, MaKo managed a perfect 100% KAST on Breeze.

The coaches of both teams reflected on their challenging match today.

“I knew that Leviatán would be a strong team because we've played them in scrims and I thought they looked good,” DRX coach termi said. “Because I knew this would be a difficult match, winning against them didn't really impact my expectations for this tournament much, and I am still confident that our team has the potential to go very far in the bracket.”

“This is a bittersweet moment for us,” Leviatán coach BeTony said. “We started off the first game playing really well, like we did in scrims, but it got just a little harder. When we got to Haven, it didn't really go as we planned, but I really feel comfortable with what happened in the end, because even in the face of adversity, every player gave it their all and we were just one round away from possibly winning. I do believe it's something really good that this happened today, it's the first international event for all of my guys, so I'm really positive for tomorrow, we are really strong and we will win everything tomorrow.”

XSET vs. OpTic Gaming (OPTC 2-0)

Rounding out the day, XSET XSET Inactive and OpTic Gaming OpTic Gaming Inactive faced off for a North American derby. This was the third time this stage these teams faced off against each other. OpTic took victory in their first encounter in the North American upper bracket final, but XSET crucially defeated OpTic in the grand finals rematch to secure the number one seed and a bye into the playoffs.

OpTic opened the scoring with the first four rounds on Haven. XSET managed to get their first on the board in round five, to which OpTic responded with another two rounds. After an XSET timeout, they found a second round to put the score at 6-2. However, they could find no answer to OpTic in the remaining four rounds of the half, as FiNESSE and co. stormed towards a 10-2 score at halftime.

XSET started mounting a comeback by winning four rounds to start off the second half, forcing an OpTic timeout. Both teams got a round each, but an OpTic half buy got them to match point. After an XSET timeout, OpTic closed out the first map with a 13-7 victory.

BcJ , you thief in the night.

OpTic took the opening pistol on Bind, but XSET's response was swift as they won the subsequent two rounds. XSET looked poised to take the OpTic bonus as well, but a 1v3 from crashies denied them this luxury. A late round site hold from dephh granted his team their third round, but four OpTic rounds in a row put them in the lead at 6-3. XSET broke their streak in round 10, but two more rounds to OpTic closed out an 8-4 half.

OpTic further extended their lead by winning the second pistol, but yet again XSET responded quickly with a thrifty. After both teams took a round, OpTic got to double digits at 10-6. XSET took a timeout ahead of round 17, but a flawless from OpTic sent XSET down to an eco, which allowed OpTic to take match point with relative ease. The final round came down to a 1 HP duel between both IGLs, which FNS came out on top of to wrap up Bind 13-6 and secure his team a spot in the next round of playoffs.

Quick reactions and a couple of fumbled shots from XSET allowed crashies to win an unlikely round.

XSET coach SyykoNT noted the impact of the stage nerves in his team's debut match.

“The big thing today was just getting settled in on stage,” he said. “We didn't get started quick enough and we didn't adapt quick enough, it was just a matter of finding our footing. Going into the second map, we really felt a lot more comfortable. Tonight we'll take a breather, we'll reset a bit, get the mental straight, and then coming back on stage tomorrow, the boys will know what to expect and we'll be ready for ‘em.”

FNS reflected on yet another rematch victory for OpTic.

“The last time we played [XSET], myself and crashies had COVID, and both of us had pretty bad symptoms and it was really hard to focus on that match,” FNS said. “Going into this match, I personally had something to prove, I didn't want to lose to them again and I wanted it to be set in stone that we are the better team when we're all healthy and good to go, and I think we proved that today.”

Looking ahead

In tomorrow's lower bracket matches, four teams will be playing for their tournament lives as the first two playoff teams will be eliminated from Masters Copenhagen.

Saturday's matches are: