KUALA LUMPUR – With the Swiss Stage of the Valorant Champions Tour’s (VCT) Masters Madrid drawing its curtains on Tuesday, only four teams are left to vie for the title of the S-Tier tournament.
Eight teams arrived in Madrid, but four were swiftly sent home, namely from China and the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region.
EDward Gaming (EDG), FunPlus Phoenix (FPX), Karmine Corp and Team Heretics had to take the early flight home to go back to the drawing board.
However, Pacific and Americas league teams have proven themselves to be among the best.
Gen.G, Paper Rex (PRX), Sentinels and Loud will enter the playoff stage to determine who is the ultimate champion.
A newly refreshed Gen.G – represented by Kim “Meteor” Tae-o, Kim “t3xture” Na-ra, Kim “Lakia” Jong-min, Byeon “Munchkin” Sang-beom, Kim “Karon” Won-tae – has been a revelation this season, with rookie standout Won-tae taking the lead.
With the guidance of senior players like Jong-min and Na-ra, this team has been dominant winning the Pacific League’s Kickoff tournament and is unbeaten in Madrid.
If chaos was a Valorant team, look no further than Paper Rex. Their trademark “W key” aggressive play and creative agent compositions have troubled the best teams in the world for the best part of two years.
But the roster of Malaysian Ahmad Khalish “d4v41” Rusyaidee, Indonesians Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto and Aaron “mindfreak” Leonhart, Cahya “Monyet” Nugraha and Russia’s Ilya “something” Petrov has had to make a change this year with Singaporean Wang Jing “Jinggg” Jie opting to leave after the conclusion of last year’s Champions tournament to complete his National Service.
In comes Cahya, but he has yet to fully step in for superstar duelist Jing Jie.
Other teams have also figured out how to deal with PRX’s aggression and during the Kickoff final against Gen.G, they were badly outplayed.
After suffering a shock defeat to EDG earlier in the tournament, the Singapore-based organisation seemed to have rediscovered their spark against Team Heretics and Karmine Corp by going back to basics and taking a more measured approach.
The two Pacific standout teams – Gen.G and PRX – will take on each other at the Madrid Arena at 11pm Malaysia time today. The winner will advance to the upper bracket finals.
Sentinels were the first Valorant major winners, triumphing at Masters Reykjavik in 2021. But they violently fell off and for two years disappeared in the Americas doldrums until landing in Madrid for their first international tournament in a while.
Americans Zachary “zekken” Jude Patrone and Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro, Brazillian Gustavo “Sacy” Henrique Rossi da Silva, Canadian Tyson “Tenz” Van Ngo and Morroccan Mohamad Amine “johnqt” Ouarid are on a mission to remind the Valorant fans who they are despite roster changes.
They head into the playoffs with a clean 2-0 record.
Brazil’s Loud are 2022 World Champions but the roster has undergone many changes since then except for one constant – their Argentinian in-game leader Matias “Saadhak” Delipetro.
Losing superstar Erick “Aspas” Santos was no problem for Delipetro as he picked up Gabriel “qck” Lima to fill the void and along with Felipe “Less” Basso, Cauan “cauanzin” Pereira and Arthur “tuyz” Vieira recovered from a defeat to Gen.G to put on impressive performances against FPX and EDG to book their spot in the playoffs.
The win against EDG was particularly spectacular as they shut down the Chinese League’s number one seed with a 13-2, 13-3 win.
Both Americas teams – Sentinels and Loud – will face off early Friday at 2am Malaysia time to determine who will make it to the upper bracket finals. – March 21, 2024
 Masters Madrid drawing its curtains on Tuesday, only four teams are left to vie for the title of the S-Tier tournament.){kind=link}