VALORANT Champions playoff bracket predictions

The VALORANT Champions 2022 playoffs are set! Fnatic beating 100 Thieves in the last group match locked the European team to round out the eight-team double-elimination bracket. The VALORANT Champions playoff teams are:

• Leviatán
• LOUD
• DRX
• FunPlus Phoenix
• OpTic Gaming
• Team Liquid
• XSET
• Fnatic

With less than 24 hours to submit your pick ‘ems, here’s an analysis of the four upper quarterfinals matches and how I think the bracket will play out.

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Leviatán vs. LOUD

Friday at 7 a.m. ET

Photo credit: Riot Games

It’s hard to bet against LOUD when they’re not playing OpTic Gaming. Of the team’s four losses this year, three of them have come against OpTic. Their only loss against a team not named OpTic was vs. KRÜ Esports in their opening match of Masters: Copenhagen. That said, Leviatán have looked incredible at Champions in beating the Masters: Copenhagen runners-up Paper Rex and Champions playoff-bound Team Liquid. Fabian “Shyy” Usnayo has the third-highest K/D at Champions so far on Fade, the second-most played agent after Chamber. Leviatán have a great shot of honoring KRÜ’s legacy of being Brazilian slayers and replicate the success that their fellow Latin American team had at Champions 2021.

DRX vs. FunPlus Phoenix

Friday at 10 a.m. ET

Photo credit: Riot Games

These two teams faced off in the lower bracket of Masters: Copenhagen, where FPX won 2-0 to eliminate DRX and relegated them to their second consecutive 5th-6th finish at Masters. DRX have been carrying the weight of being good, but not quite good enough at international events. Can DRX beat FPX? Yes. Will they beat FPX? Probably not. DRX didn’t pull off any upset wins in the group stage, and they haven’t shown enough this year on the international stage to indicate they will beat a team of FPX’s caliber. Although FPX have not looked as sharp at Champions as they did in Copenhagen, they are the defending Masters champions and should beat DRX.

Read more: OpTic reach VALORANT Champions playoffs after beating Brazilian rival LOUD

OpTic Gaming vs. Team Liquid

Saturday at 7 a.m. ET

Photo credit: Riot Games

Will OpTic ever beat an EMEA team? It’s amazing that nearly two years into VCT and after competing at five international events and winning Masters once, they still haven’t beat a team from Europe. They’re 0-for-4 against four different teams. OpTic are very good at winning rematches, but unfortunately this isn’t a rematch, and this is a very good EMEA team despite the fact they got in via the Last Chance Qualifier. OpTic’s winless streak against EMEA will continue as Team Liquid wins this one. It will be a close matchup though, and it will feature a great Chamber duel between Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker and Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen who were the top two players in K/D during the group stage.

Read more: XSET beat reigning Masters champion FPX to reach VALORANT Champions playoffs

XSET vs. Fnatic

Saturday at 10 a.m. ET

Photo credit: Riot Games

After beating FPX in the group stage, XSET head coach Don “Syyko” Muir wondered both in the postmatch broadcast interview and in the postmatch press conference why people were still doubting XSET. They get better every event and Champions has been no different. Fnatic looked great against 100 Thieves, but XSET looked even better in their group matches. They will make believers out of more people in beating Fnatic in this one.

Image credit: Brian Bencomo

How will the rest of the bracket play out?

In their postmatch press conference following their game against FPX, several members of XSET spoke very highly of their scrim partner Leviatán and hoped to face them in the final. When they faced each other at Masters: Copenhagen, we saw some crazy plays and incredible clutches from Marco Eliot “Melser” Machuca Amaro. I think we’ll get an exciting upper final matchup here that Leviatán will win.

OpTic will finally beat a couple of EMEA teams -- Fnatic and FPX -- in the lower bracket but LOUD will get their revenge after losing three straight to OpTic. XSET will then beat LOUD to give us Leviatán vs. XSET Part III. Call it NA and XSET hopium, but I think they beat LOUD and win the rematch with Leviatán to become champions. Zachary “zekken” Patrone will continue his excellent tournament, Matthew “Cryocells” Panganiban will step it up and Brendan “BcJ” Jensen will come up clutch for XSET. Last year at Champions, the least heralded EMEA team won it all, and this year, I think XSET follow in their footsteps with a similar NA cinderella story. Plus, in keeping with how VCT international events have played out thus far, a new team will win this one.

Lead photo credit: Riot Games