North America's two representatives at Masters: Reykjavik — OpTic Gaming OpTic Gaming Inactive and The Guard The Guard Inactive JonahP Jonah Pulice trent Trent Cairns neT Michael Bernet valyn Jacob Batio tex Ian Botsch — concluded the first stage of Challengers play in a thrilling best-of-five grand finals that resulted in a win for The Guard, giving them an automatic bid to the playoff bracket of Valorant's first international competition of the year.

Both teams had already met once in the upper bracket finals, where OpTic defeated The Guard 2-0 to secure their spot in the grand finals and guarantee an appearance at Iceland.

Ascent

The first map of the series — Ascent — began with chaotic fights from both teams. Despite The Guard winning the pistol, OpTic's eco buys were a constant thorn in The Guard's side throughout the first half. Neither team was able to gain enough momentum in the first half to chain more than three rounds together, and the half ended with an even 6-6 scoreline.

In the second half, The Guard came out the gates by winning the pistol round again. In this half, OpTic chose not to buy in the second round of the half, giving The Guard an easier second round to convert. Once OpTic had enough credits to purchase rifles and full utility, their defenses hardened enough to only allow The Guard to plant the spike three times in the second half. OpTic came out on top at the end of the match 13-9, sending the series to Icebox.

The first half of Icebox began with OpTic winning the pistol, but The Guard forced up. Their investment paid off, netting them the second and third rounds of the half. OpTic struck back with five straight rounds of their own, but a 1v2 clutch by Trent "trent" Cairns in round nine gave The Guard the needed second wind to secure the next four maps, evening up the map score at 6-6.

After the change of sides, the match continued at a slow and methodical pace, with neither team able to gain enough momentum to really take over the series. However, The Guard tightened up their defenses after OpTic collected two rounds in rounds 16 and 17, only allowing one more round to slip through their fingers before they closed out the map 13-9.

Breeze

With the map score evened up, the series went to Breeze, a map that neither team had played in an official match in 2022. The Guard came out in dominant fashion despite this series being the first series that Breeze had been picked. OpTic were allowed to pick up two rounds in the first half through defensive aggression that didn't allow their opponents any room to establish a comfortable tempo.

When asked about why Breeze was picked in the post-game press conference, Jacob "valyn" Batio said “we were saving [Breeze] for Iceland, but [we] had to beat OpTic so, [we] had to pull it out.”

In the rounds OpTic were able to secure, Victor "Victor" Wong put the team on his back in round 8, winning a 1v2 clutch and netting three kills, while Pujan "FiNESSE" Mehta and Jimmy "Marved" Nguyen claimed two kills each on their opponents in the last round of the first half, forcing Jonah "JonahP" Pulice into a tough position where salvaging the round for his team was highly improbable.

On their attacking side, The Guard showcased textbook executes onto the A site, uprooting the defensively planted OpTic players quickly and preventing reinforcements from the other side of the map to have much impact. OpTic's retakes were unsuccessful each time, and they ended up losing the map 13-2.

Split

With their backs against the wall, and opponents on series point, OpTic had to dig deep in the next map, Split. They had only won a single pistol — the first half of Icebox — and weren't even able to convert the following round, resulting in their first rifle purchase coming in round four rather than round three. However, OpTic had Victor pick Neon, which marked his first appearance on the agent in the series.

Split began with OpTic winning the pistol, which chained into multiple defensive round wins off of stout defensive play from Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker's Chamber and Austin "crashies" Roberts's KAY/O in A main and middle. The Guard eventually found two rounds — one of them off of a five-man push in round eight and 2v2 clutch win in the round after. The next round win that The Guard were able to secure was the last round of the map, and OpTic went into their attacking half with four rounds required to send the series to the fifth and final map.

OpTic began the second half with two round wins before The Guard struck back with four successful site retakes to bring the scoreline to 11-7. A thrifty round win in round 19 put them at map point, and OpTic worked up middle to get a pick onto JonahP in vents, giving them options for which site they wanted to attack.

However, valyn refused to let things crumble, and managed to pick off two OpTic players in garage, giving them control of the spike. A pinch play by Marved and Victor eventually allowed OpTic to regain control of the spike and plant it, forcing the remaining members of The Guard to retake from isolated positions. Marved eventually found individual picks on trent and Michael "neT" Bernet to finish the round with four kills and send the series to the fifth and final map, Haven.

Haven

On Haven, both teams ran nearly identical agent compositions. The only change was at the lone duelist slot, where Victor picked Neon once again, while Ha "Sayaplayer" Jeong-woo (하정우) took up Jett, a more traditional pick. The entire map saw exchanges of utility outside of A site at the start of the round, which occasionally resulted in picks on both sides. OpTic started the map by winning the pistol and the next three rounds afterwards, forcing The Guard to call a timeout to stop the momentum and regain their composure.

The Guard ended up securing the next round, but OpTic struck back by taking the round afterwards, resetting their opponent's economy. However, The Guard had amassed enough ultimates to give themselves enough of an advantage on the retake to defuse the spike and even recover yay's Operator.

After giving up a third round to The Guard, OpTic opted to gamble by doing a fast execute onto A site, which was a complete change of tempo from their previous rounds. Their change in tactics was successful, as they were able to convert the next two rounds, forcing a change in strategies from The Guard to claim another round before the end of the half. OpTic went into the second half with a four round lead and the first seed at Masters: Reykjavik in their sights.

OpTic once again secured the pistol off of a 3k from FNS, but a garage rush from The Guard with only Sayaplayer's Sheriff as a bought gun caught the OpTic players flat footed, which The Guard were able to capitalize on and convert into a round win. With OpTic forced to save credits, and Vandals in the hands of many, momentum was now in the hands of The Guard.

A round 17 timeout from OpTic following a 4k from Sayaplayer attempted to put a stop to The Guard's momentum. It ended up being unsuccessful, as The Guard continued to accrue rounds, and eventually took the lead in the series by round 20, which was headlined by a 4k from trent.

With their opponents two rounds away from winning the map, OpTic needed to force buy rifles to keep themselves in the fight. Their gamble paid off, as they won the 21st round, only losing a Spectre purchased by Victor. The Guard struck back in the following round, forcing OpTic to save rifles after losing just two players in the round. With their opponents at match point, OpTic had to remain alert to what tactics The Guard were going to throw at them.

The Guard chose a full team execute onto A, which OpTic were ready to intercept. Their only casualties were FNS and Victor in their defense, putting themselves one point away from forcing overtime. It was at this point that The Guard would call a timeout to formulate a strategy for the final round of regulation.

In what would soon be the final round of the series, The Guard showed a fast execute onto B to bait FNS's Breach ultimate, which was a key ultimate for OpTic to send the map to overtime. The Guard soon made a dash towards C, looking to catch any players in typical defensive positions that could be easily cleared with utility like Omen's flash.

However, to their dismay, yay was posted at long with an Operator, ready to tear The Guard's well-thought out strategy to pieces. He was able to secure three picks before teleporting out to safety, leaving Sayaplayer as the last member of The Guard standing. Unfortunately for OpTic, Sayaplayer remained calm and composed in the midst of all the chaos, and wasn't letting a dire situation deter him from pulling off a 3v1 clutch to close out Haven for The Guard, which he did. By pulling off the 3v1, he automatically qualified The Guard for the playoff bracket for Masters Reykjavik as North America's first seed team.

The Guard and OpTic will both be representing North America at Masters: Reykjavik in two weeks beginning on April 10. As a result of their first place finish in Stage 1 Challengers North America, they will get an automatic bid to the playoffs, and not have to face off against other international opposition in the group stage.

They join FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #2 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder , FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix Inactive SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin Zyppan Pontus Eek ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky ardiis Ardis Svarenieks , G2 Esports G2 Esports Inactive , LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #2 pANcada Bryan Luna saadhak Matias Delipetro tuyz Arthur Andrade cauanzin Cauan Pereira , DRX DRX Korea Rank #7 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) , ZETA DIVISION ZETA DIVISION Japan Rank #2 Dep Yuma Hashimoto SugarZ3ro Shota Watanabe CLZ Hikaru Mizutani SyouTa Shota Aoki Xdll Yuto Mizomori , XERXIA Esports XERXIA Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #31 b3ta Puwadon Jaisuekul Siraww Siraphop Honghirun bnwgiggs , Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov , and the winners of the LATAM playoffs and winner of the LATAM/BR LCQ match in Valorant's first international competition of 2022.