Best players to watch during VCT Masters Copenhagen 2022

The top VALORANT teams in the world need to bring their best to VCT Masters Copenhagen, one of the final stops on the road toward the world championship at Champions 2022 in Istanbul. The teams in attendance are looking to lock in higher seeds at Champions or secure spots themselves, and a deep run in Copenhagen would make all the difference in those endeavors.

Naturally, the best teams are going to be fueled by the best players, and the field in Denmark is stacked with incredible talent, rising stars, and firmly established superstars. If you’ve fallen behind on keeping up with VCT during Stage Two, we’ve put together a list of players to keep a close eye on, sorted by the position they play.

Here are the VALORANT players you need to watch at VCT Masters Copenhagen.

Voted on by Scott Robertson, Jessica Scharnagle, and Nadine Manske.

Duelist: LOUD’s aspas

LOUD’s Erick “aspas” Santos has been one of Brazil’s best players during all of Stage Two. He led in virtually every major category across group stage and playoffs: K/D, average combat score, average damage per round, and clutch percentage. He’s no one-trick either. Aspas put up these impressive numbers across consistent Jett, Raze, and Neon games, and even put on a couple of stellar Chamber performances.

• Other duelists to watch: DRX’s Rb, Paper Rex’s Jinggg, OpTic’s Meteor, Northeption’s Meteor, KRÜ’s Keznit.

Initiator: LOUD’s Saadhak and Sacy

As impressive as aspas was in the duelist role, he wasn’t solely responsible for LOUD’s flawless Stage Two run. He had plenty of help from LOUD’s dynamic initiator duo in Matias “Saadhak” Delipetro and Gustavo “Sacy” Rossi. The two selfless players thrive in creating opportunities for others and playing as a team. They finished top five in Brazil in kill/assist/survive/trade percentage and top two in assists per round. Need players to flash and find info? You can’t do better than Saadhak and Sacy.

• Other initiators to watch: OpTic’s crashies, Guild’s Leo.

Chamber: Fnatic’s Derke

Rather than discuss who’s excelling at the overall sentinel role, we decided to be honest with ourselves and focus on dynamic Chambers, given that the agent is such a massive aspect of the current meta. The other sentinels in Sage, Killjoy, and Cypher see use, but Chamber has become a staple because of the value he provides in pistol rounds, in getting first kills, and the weight he can lift off a team’s economy when he has Tour De Force active. Because of this, Chamber players are now some of the most impactful players on a given team, if not the most impactful.

The field of Chamber mains is stacked at Masters Copenhagen, but one name commands so much attention: Fnatic’s Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev. That’s right, we didn’t pick Yay. Why? Because a vengeful Derke looking to remind the world who he is after having to sit out in Reykjavík is far scarier. Since returning and forming a monstrous duo alongside Alfajer, Derke has excelled as a primary Chamber player. He was the K/D leader for EMEA Stage Two and finished top five in ACS, ADR, and first kills.

• Other Chambers to watch: OpTic’s yay, DRX’s BuZz, Guild’s Sayf, XSET’s Cryocells, Paper Rex’s f0rsaken.

Controller: OpTic’s Marved

While every capable controller player can impact the match with their utility, very few are relied upon so heavily for fragging as OpTic relies upon Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen. In the big matches late in OpTic’s Masters Reykjavík run, Marved stepped up in pivotal moments to push OpTic toward the trophy. Against other players in this category, his stats are far and away superior.

• Other controllers to watch: DRX’s MaKo, XERXIA’s sScary, LOUD’s pANcada, Fnatic’s Boaster.

Flex: XSET’s Zekken

Maybe it’s recency bias, maybe it’s bias toward North America, or maybe it’s an appreciation for the sheer volume of agents he plays, but look out for 17-year-old Zachary “zekken” Patrone to make an impact in Copenhagen. His flexibility is unquestionable. He’s played six different agents in the past seven maps. And in a match with Champions qualification on the line, zekken was the best player on the server against OpTic: 89 kills over only 40 deaths and +8 in opening duels.

• Other flex players to watch: Fnatic’s Alfajer, LOUD’s Less.

VCT Masters Copenhagen begins on July 10.