Who was the MVP of VCT Masters Copenhagen? Our award winners and best player picks

The best of the best shined the brightest on the big stage at VCT Masters Copenhagen. The top teams in the world collided in a terrific two weeks of VALORANT action, culminating in three days of red hot action in front of a raucous crowd. The weekend topped off with an exhilarating five-map grand finals between FPX and Paper Rex, which ended with FPX hoisting the trophy.

Several players across multiple teams stepped up in huge moments throughout the event, with many delivering consistently special performances during the entire tournament. With Copenhagen still freshly behind us, let’s honor the players who had the largest impact in one of the biggest international VALORANT tournaments to date.

VCT Masters Copenhagen award winners

MVP: FPX’s Shao

The most valuable player at VCT Masters Copenhagen is none other than FunPlus Phoenix’s Andrey “Shao” Kiprsky. His teammate Ardis “ardiis” Svarenieks was the superstar performer in the group stage, and the returning Dmitry “SUYGETSU” Ilyushin commanded a ton of attention during playoffs. But across the whole event, Shao provided the most value to the eventual champions in FPX.

Across the entire tournament, Shao stood third in kill-assist-trade-survive percentage (KAST), and first during the playoffs. He was also a top-five player in clutch percentage, and top 10 in K/D. Shao delivered when it mattered most; he was the most impactful player during FPX’s final two victories against OpTic and Paper Rex.

Clutch gods: KRÜ’s keznit and Paper Rex’s mindfreak

In clutch situations, no one delivered quite like KRÜ’s Angelo “keznit” Mori and Paper Rex’s Aaron “mindfreak” Leonhart. Each player posted a 35-percent clutch rating during Masters Copenhagen, with keznit winning seven out of 20 clutch attempts and mindfreak winning 12 out of 34.

But mindfreak’s clutch-winning percentage is more impressive, given that all of his took place in the playoffs while keznit’s were all during the group stage. Mindfreak’s most impressive individual series was Paper Rex’s win over Fnatic, where he won 50 percent of his clutches.

Best frag finders: Guild’s Sayf and XSET’s Cryocells

When it comes to finding kills, particularly at the beginning of rounds, two names stand tall in Guild’s Saif “Sayf” Jibraeel and XSET’s Matthew “Cryocells” Panganiban. Cryocells and Sayf finished first and second overall in K/D rating, and were each top three in average combat score (ACS) behind Paper Rex’s Jing Jie “Jinggg” Wang.

They were also eight and ninth in first kills per round among players who finished with more first kills than first deaths. Sayf also produced an impressive clutch rating of 21 percent. Cryocells had the second highest first-blood success rate, winning 18 out of his 25 opening duels.

VCT Masters Copenhagen stat leaders

Here are the top five players in ACS, KAST, and clutch percentage at Masters Copenhagen.

Top five players in ACS at Masters Copenhagen

Top five players in KAST at Masters Copenhagen

*Numerous players finished with a KAST rating of 75 percent, but Cryocells finished with the highest ACS of all of them. Those players are: Fnatic’s Alfajer, OpTic’s Marved, FPX’s SUYGETSU, DRX’s stax, and Paper Rex’s mindfreak.

Top five players in clutch percentage at Masters Copenhagen

*XERXIA’s sScary and Leviatan’s kiNgg finished with a 25-percent clutch rating too, but Shao had more clutch wins and attempts than them combined.

VCT Masters Copenhagen dishonorable mentions

• Biggest disappointment: LOUD’s Gustavo “Sacy” Rossi—Sacy was one of the best players in all of Brazil during Stage Two; first in KAST, second in assists per round, and fifth in K/D among all player. But his numbers fell far below expectation in Copenhagen, though, and he finished with one of the worst tournament performances from an initiator as part of an overall poor showing from LOUD.
• Least clutch: Northeption’s Kohei “BlackWiz” Mikami—The big stage experience Northeption gathered in Japan didn’t do much to help BlackWiz in clutch situations. He lost all 19 of his clutch attempts and had the most amount of attempts without a success.
• No entry: XSET’s Rory “dephh” Jackson—Dephh had the worst opening duel experience of any player, losing 20 out of his 27 total first encounters, producing a 26-percent first-blood success rate.