The much-anticipated return to LAN has finally arrived. Masters Reykjavik began today, featuring three 2-0 results.

DRX DRX Korea Rank #4 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) and Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #22 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kamyk Maks Rychlewski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak found comfortable 2-0 victories over ZETA DIVISION ZETA DIVISION Japan Rank #2 Dep Yuma Hashimoto SugarZ3ro Shota Watanabe CLZ Hikaru Mizutani SyouTa Shota Aoki Xdll Yuto Mizomori and 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 in their inaugural matches. OpTic Gaming OpTic Gaming Inactive , on the other hand, suffered a second loss to the hands of XERXIA Esports XERXIA Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #27 , formerly known as X10 Esports X10 Esports Inactive Vera Rodman Yap Tempz Pierre Heng RedKoh Danial Hakim wayne Wayne Chang Egoist Javier Chua .

DRX vs. ZETA DIVISION (DRX 2-0)

The Korean and Japanese representatives opened up 2022's first LAN. Both sporting wildly different rosters compared to the last time they faced each other, a lot of excitement had grown around DRX and ZETA DIVISION.

But that excitement was soon shattered.

DRX took full control of today's match. They started by going 5-0 up, at which point ZETA finally won a round. DRX pressed on, reaching double digits with a 4K from Goo "Rb" Sang-min (구상민). A B hold from Ushida "Laz" Koji gave his team one more point before the half concluded at 10-2, with DRX quickly wrapping it up afterwards 13-2.

ZETA started Haven, their opponents' pick, by winning the pistol round, but that small lead quickly degraded. DRX won the next 12 rounds, reaching map point in a blitz. ZETA force-bought after dropping the second pistol round, awarding them with two rounds, but DRX closed Haven out in devastating 13-3 fashion.

“DRX's set plays and teamwork were very polished. We weren't able to play as well as we had hoped for in terms of the smaller bits, in terms of our set plays and individual plays,” said Laz.

Kim "MaKo" Myeong-gwan (김명관) looked extremely comfortable on the server today. On Icebox, by the time the first half had ended, his KDA sat at 20/5/2. MaKo killed three more before ending the game with a 3.71 KDA and 87% KAST.

And just when everything was looking good for ZETA…

KRÜ Esports vs. Team Liquid (TL 2-0)

Next up were KRÜ and Team Liquid. The former are the only squad to be present at every international Valorant LAN. The latter shouldn't even have been here. But they were, and hungrier than ever.

“No pressure on our shoulders. We know we didn't really qualify for this event, but we're really grateful to be here and we try to enjoy every single second,” Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom said.

Expecting a weaker map from Liquid, KRÜ decided to pick Fracture first. Nicolas "Klaus" Ferrari said his team had been working on Fracture a lot the past week and had become much more comfortable on the map.

KRÜ got off to a 2-0 start on Fracture, but once Elias "Jamppi" Olkkonen got his hands on a rifle he replied by eliminating four players on an A take. The LATAM representatives managed one more round, but their advantage soon fizzled out. After reaching 5-4, Dom "soulcas" Sulcas took down three to tie the score at 5-5. Travis "L1NK" Mendoza put in his own 3K to place his team ahead and Liquid finished the half up by just two rounds.

“I think it was a mental thing. Anxiety, if I can say it, on the attack side,” Klaus said. “I wouldn't say we played well on the defense but it was okay, it was a good defense. But on the attack, we were peeking more than we should and I think that was the problem.”

Liquid's sharp retakes were key for their spotless second half. After Liquid won the pistol, Nabil "Nivera" Benrlitom placed his team on double digits by striking down three players on an A defense. KRÜ attempted to salvage the map by timing out just after, but Liquid pressed on and found the 13-5 win on their opponents' pick.

Jamppi screams in celebration on stage Despite playing on Breach and not Jett, Jamppi still top fragged for Liquid.

Joaquin "delz1k" Espinoza opened up Ascent with a 4K on the pistol round, but the map soon entered a stalemate as both teams went back and forth. Jamppi clutched against two on an eco round to give his team the 1-1 tie. Liquid won one more round, but Angelo "keznit" Mori and Juan Pablo "NagZ" Lopez held back a B take to keep the result at 2-2. L1NK dropped four to put his team ahead by one point, but KRÜ bit back and found a 5-3 lead. Ultimately, after three rounds from Liquid that included a 1v2 from ScreaM, the half ended at 6-6.

KRÜ won their third pistol round of the match and used it to climb to a 10-7 lead, aided by a four-man takedown from Klaus on B. Team Liquid timed out and replied by chaining four rounds, but KRÜ were the first to find map point. At 12-11, Nivera took all of KRÜ down by himself to force overtime, where his team eventually won 16-14.

“I think KRÜ is one of those teams that rely a lot on their aim duels. They do a lot of fast-paced games and we're pretty good against teams who play fast, so we're pretty good against teams that want to play with aim,” ScreaM said. “Stylistically, I think they're a team that we manage to play against pretty well. Mentally, I think they might have a bit too much respect against us sometimes and get scared. When I watch them in other games, I feel like they just run over people.”

ScreaM lived up to his own nickname. The Headshot Machine finished today's match with a 42% headshot rate, the highest in the server. In general, though, Liquid's teamwork was key to today's win, as four of their five players all scored within 25 ACS of each other.

If Nivera says you're not winning, you're not winning.

OpTic Gaming vs. XERXIA Esports (XIA 2-0)

New names, same faces. This was the third time OpTic and XERXIA would face each other, previously playing under Envy and X10 CRIT, respectively. Both of their previous matches were in Champions' Group A. Envy won the first game 2-0, but X10 later got the 2-1 upset to advance to playoffs. Now, four months later, OpTic and XERXIA joined the server for another group opening match.

“We knew they were a good team, but their style is also the same. We just had to hit our shots and play our game. At the end of the match, we thought it was pretty much the same,” Thanamethk "Crws" Mahatthananuyut said.

XERXIA found the first three rounds of their Icebox pick, prompting a timeout from OpTic. It resulted in two spaced-out rounds, as XERXIA just kept climbing on their way to a 7-2 scoreline. Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker eliminated four of XERXIA's players to reach 7-3, following that up with the next two rounds for a 7-5 half.

yay nearly single-handedly saved the first half for OpTic, finishing it with a 2.28 KDA, scoring six more kills than the next best player for his team.

After switching sides OpTic tied the score at 7-7, but XERXIA punched back with two rounds that put them ahead at 9-7. Austin "crashies" Roberts clutched against two with his Hunter's Fury to try and keep OpTic in the game, but XERXIA comfortably climbed to match point. After letting up two rounds, Thanachart "Surf" Rungapajaratkul sniped three on A to give his team the 13-10 win.

“After playing them a couple of times, we know what's going to happen in the mid-rounds and in the early parts of the game, so it was a lot of help to play them,” Crws said.

yay smiles into the camera Even though he lost the series, yay was the third-best man in the server.

What should have been a comfortable run on Ascent soon turned into a dangerous map for OpTic. After winning the first two rounds, XERXIA began to put rounds on the board and put their opponents into a tough situation. Panyawat "Sushiboys" Subsiriroj took down three on an A hold to tie the result at 4-4. OpTic took a timeout at this point, but Crws didn't seem to care and sprayed down four on A.

Now with a 6-4 lead, Sushiboys stuck a full defuse in a 1v1 situation to give his team their seventh point, a play that broke OpTic's economy. That allowed XERXIA to win the half 8-4, a lead that was reduced to 8-7 after a good start from OpTic in the second half. XERXIA found three rounds to reach 11-7 and OpTic head coach Chet "Chet" Singh took a pause, allowing his team to recoup three rounds and bring the game to 11-10, which sunk XERXIA's economy.

With a credits disadvantage, XERXIA switched up the pace out of a timeout and a fast-paced B push took them to match point. The following round, on the same site, Itthirit "foxz" Ngamsaard took down three players to give his team the 13-10 win on Ascent that closed out the series.

“If we tried to heavy-execute on a site, they were over-rotating and having so many bodies and so much counter-utility that we could never really scale up on site,” yay said. “I think, mainly, it was a game plan issue where I don't think we adapted well enough to what they were trying to do the whole game.”

Newcomer Surf was a key player in XERXIA's win today. On Icebox, he and teammate foxz both scored 83% KAST, the highest numbers of the match. Across the whole match, he boasted a 78% KAST and a 1.57 KD ratio, good enough for a +15 differential.

What's bigger: the casters' expressions of horror or Sushiboys' courage?

Looking ahead

Masters Reykjavik continues tomorrow, but with only two games. Aside from hosting Group A's second opener, Group B will take its first team to the playoffs tomorrow.

Tomorrow's games are: