VALORANT Masters Reykjavík Preview

The first international offline event for VALORANT is just around the corner! In Reykjavík, 16 teams will face off against each other. We’ll be able to see Europe, Brazil, North America and Asia competing together for the first time ever. Which region and which teams will pull ahead in the end?

All teams can get a second chance via the Double Elimination bracket. However, there won’t be a Group Stage and the teams will already start off in this huge bracket. There will only be Best-of-Three matches with the exception of the Grand Finals, where the contestants will square off on five maps – provided they actually play a neck-and-neck game.

The tournament won’t feature Breeze. RIOT originally intended this map to be played in Reykjavík, but the pros pressured them to stay patient. Now, the players will get some time to actually prepare on the map before they have to venture into combat on it.

LIQUID AND FNATIC AT MASTERS

In an unexpected turn of events, the two teams were the ones who made their way to the biggest VALORANT tournament ever. No G2, no Heretics, no Acend… all these teams collapsed during the European Challengers Finals already. Liquid had actually severely underperformed for the past few months and had failed to qualify for a single Stage 1 event. Bringing in Elias “Jamppi” Olkkönen, however, they have been on a steady upward trend. Their journey to Masters Reykjavík is a promising sign. The same holds true for fnatic, who hadn’t really shown up ever since First Strike in December.

SENTINELS AS THE FAVORITES?

Unlike with the likes of Liquid, the NA scene has a top team, one which has been able to retain its top spot ever since the beginning. First, it was Jay “sinatraa” Wong who propelled their rise, and now it is Tyson “TenZ” Ngo. During the IGNITION Series, they traded first-place finishes with TSM, but at the Stage 1 Masters, they won decisively. At the most recent Challengers Finals, they stomped Version1 on an effortless 3-0 scoreline.

So Version1 already have weaker prospects than TenZ and his men, provided they haven’t improved massively. But Anthony “vanity” Malaspina has still brought his squad to the top of NA in the most amazing fashion. After all, they had to pass NRG, Envy, and Cloud9 on the way.

WHO IS COMING OVER FROM THE OTHER REGIONS?

Sharks and Team Vikings are hailing from Brazil, after both have made the top at the Challengers Finals. Vikings are ruling their region not unlike the Sentinels, dominating all national competitions since the start of the year. Before their victory at the Challengers Finals, they had already secured a comfortable 3-0 over Gamelanders at the Stage 1 Masters.

From Asia, NUTURN, X10 Esports, and Crazy Raccoons are coming over. KRÜ Esports are making their way to Iceland from Latin America. Traditionally, Asian teams have had a less prominent standing in shooter games, but Overwatch is the most recent exception to the rule. In that game, Korean players are dominating everyone else. So maybe things will be similar in VALORANT!

NO LAN EXPERIENCE

Sentinels, Liquid, and Vikings should be the favorites for this event. But we’re facing the problem that none of these teams have played at a LAN event so far. For the last 12 months, all competitions have taken place online. Additionally, we haven’t seen Sentinels face the likes of Liquid before. Without a proper comparison between the regions, there is no way of knowing which team and which VALORANT region may come out on top.

Even worse, many players haven’t played offline for quite a while – or simply never, for that matter. This adds more pressure on top and makes it even more difficult for young and inexperienced players to play to their usual level.

So it’s virtually impossible to determine which team will walk away with the trophy in the end. The national rankings may be working just fine, but our understanding of better and worse simply falls apart between the individual regions. For that particular reason, Masters Reykjavík will be the most exciting VALORANT tournament we have ever witnessed.