All members of OpTic Gaming have recovered from their bout with coronavirus, star player Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker confirmed during Riot Games’ Masters Copenhagen pre-tournament press conference.

“We’re happy to be here,” he said. “We’re happy to finally be recovered from COVID-19, and to be back to practicing and working on ourselves.”

The North American roster played through COVID-19 in the VCT NA Stage 2 Challengers playoffs, qualifying for the second Masters event of the year while Pujan “FNS” Mehta and Austin “crashies” Roberts battled the coronavirus.

OpTic Gaming and yay are now COVID-19 free as they look to defend their Masters crown

OpTic Gaming at Masters Reykjavik 2022
Credit: Riot Games

OpTic have been the best and most consistent squad in this year’s VCT season. They have the most VCT circuit points at 900 and are the reigning Masters Reykjavik 2022 champions.

However, yay said that they were pushed to their limits on the way to qualifying for Masters Copenhagen. They eventually finished as the runner-up of VCT NA Stage 2 Challengers, falling 3-1 to XSET in the grand final, which means they will start their Copenhagen run in the group stage instead of the playoffs.

“To be honest with you, we’re happy to be here because we ran into a little snag with COVID-19,” he said. “It took all of our players to pull together, and trying our absolute hardest to try and qualify because we had guys on the verge of passing out.”

Fortunately, their recovery means fans will get to see OpTic show up in prime form in Denmark as they look to defend their Stage 1 Masters crown against stacked competition.

OpTic Gaming will begin their tournament run in the group stage when they face Guild Esports on July 11, 3:00 a.m. GMT+8 | July 10, 12:00 p.m. PT | July 10, 8:00 p.m. GMT. Fans can watch the Masters Copenhagen matches live on Riot Games’ official Valorant Twitch and YouTube channels.

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