There are just eight teams left in Masters Tokyo, and four have already been eliminated in the past four days of group stage play. The final results will come into place over the course of the next week, as the final teams play the decisive double-elimination bracket between June 16 and 25.
EMEA took the largest blow in the group stage, dropping half of its entourage. Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #18 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky and FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #8 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan cNed Mehmet Yağız İpek qRaxs Doğukan Balaban were not able to reach the playoffs. The latter opened up space for EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #1 S1Mon Hsien Meng-Hsun (谢孟勋) ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) to stun the world and place China in the playoffs for the first time. T1 T1 Korea Rank #3 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Meteor Kim Tae-O (김태오) Sylvan Ko Young-sub (고영섭) BuZz Yu Byung-chul (유병철) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) and Attacking Soul Esports Attacking Soul Esports Inactive monk Wang Haoyu (王浩宇) Yuicaw Huang Yung-chieh (黃湧傑) YHchen Chen Yuhan (陳昱瀚) Zero1 Meng Zhen Ren (任梦真) also exited early, meaning the Americas is the only fully intact region remaining at Masters.
Despite both EMEA teams being eliminated, FUT are safe and have guaranteed their Champions slot. NAVI were eliminated a day prior to the Turkish roster, meaning the former will be the one heading into the Last Chance Qualifier next month.
Format
The top two teams from each of the two groups advanced to the playoffs. The playoffs teams from each group are:
Group A
- Top seed: NRG Esports NRG Esports North America Rank #6 FiNESSE Pujan Mehta s0m Sam Oh Verno Andrew Maust mada Adam Pampuch Ethan Ethan Arnold (Americas)
- Bottom seed: EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #1 S1Mon Hsien Meng-Hsun (谢孟勋) ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) (China)
Group B
- Top seed: Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #19 Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le (Americas)
- Bottom seed: DRX DRX Korea Rank #7 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) freeing No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) (Pacific)
These four rosters joined the four top seeded teams — the champions of each major region and, in EMEA's case, the top two squads. The top seeded teams are:
- Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov (Pacific)
- FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #2 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder (EMEA)
- Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #22 nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak (EMEA)
- LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #2 pANcada Bryan Luna saadhak Matias Delipetro tuyz Arthur Andrade cauanzin Cauan Pereira (Americas)
The eight teams were randomly drawn into a double-elimination bracket. The only rules to the draw were that teams from the same group may not sit on the same side of the bracket, and that a groups team must face a top-seeded team.
Like most VCT events, nearly every match in the event will be a Bo3. The lower bracket final and grand final are the only exceptions, played Bo5.
Prize Pool
Unlike previous VCT events, Masters Tokyo will not award points to its teams. Instead, Riot will dish out a $1,000,000 USD prize pool to the 12 attending organizations. This is the highest prize pool at a Masters event so far.
- 1st: $350,000
- 2nd: $200,000
- 3rd: $125,000
- 4th: $75,000
- 5th-6th: $50,000
- 7th-8th: $35,000
- 9th-10th: $25,000
- 11th-12th: $15,000
The winning team will also get their region an extra slot at this year's Champions, awarded through the LCQ.
Schedule (Playoffs)
Friday, June 16
- 8:00 PM PDT | 5:00 AM CEST | 12:00 PM JST - Upper Quarterfinals: LOUD vs. Evil Geniuses
- 11:00 PM PDT | 8:00 AM CEST | 3:00 PM JST - Upper Quarterfinals: Team Liquid vs. EDward Gaming
Saturday, June 17
- 8:00 PM PDT | 5:00 AM CEST | 12:00 PM JST - Upper Quarterfinals: FNATIC vs. NRG Esports
- 11:00 PM PDT | 8:00 AM CEST | 3:00 PM JST - Upper Quarterfinals: Paper Rex vs. DRX
Sunday, June 18
- 8:00 PM PDT | 5:00 AM CEST | 12:00 PM JST - Lower Round 1
- 11:00 PM PDT | 8:00 AM CEST | 3:00 PM JST - Lower Round 1
Monday, June 19
- 8:00 PM PDT | 5:00 AM CEST | 12:00 PM JST - Upper Semifinals
- 11:00 PM PDT | 8:00 AM CEST | 3:00 PM JST - Upper Semifinals
Tuesday, June 20
- 8:00 PM PDT | 5:00 AM CEST | 12:00 PM JST - Lower Round 2
- 11:00 PM PDT | 8:00 AM CEST | 3:00 PM JST - Lower Round 2
Wednesday, June 21
- 8:00 PM PDT | 5:00 AM CEST | 12:00 PM JST - Upper Final
- 11:00 PM PDT | 8:00 AM CEST | 3:00 PM JST - Lower Round 3
Thursday, June 22
- Dark Day (no matches scheduled)
Friday, June 23
- Dark Day (no matches scheduled)
Saturday, June 24
- 8:00 PM PDT | 5:00 AM CEST | 12:00 PM JST - Lower Final
Sunday, June 25
- 8:00 PM PDT | 5:00 AM CEST | 12:00 PM JST - Grand Final
PDT times prior to midnight refer to the previous day.
Broadcast
Masters Tokyo will have broadcast drops, which means that you can earn in-game rewards from watching official streams. If you connect your Valorant account with your Twitch or YouTube account, you may be awarded a title and player card.
The "Unpredictable" title can be earned by watching any match between June 11 and 25. The Masters Tokyo Player Card can only be earned during the grand final, on June 25.
English Broadcast Talent
- Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez (Host)
- Yinsu Collins (Host)
- Beatriz "Kaquka" Alonso (Analyst)
- Mimi "aEvilcat" Wermcrantz (Analyst)
- Seth "Achilios" King (Commentator)
- Clinton "Paperthin" Bader (Commentator)
- Arten "Ballatw" Esa (Commentator)
- Doug "EsportsDoug" Cortez (Commentator)
- Brennon "Bren" Hook (Commentator)
- Josh "Sideshow" Wilkinson (Commentator)
- Michael "hypoc" Robins (Commentator)
- Lauren "Pansy" Scott (Commentator)
- David "prius" Kuntz (Observer)
- Heather "sapphiRe" Garozzo (Observer)
- Felix "Synga" Regitz (Observer)
- Nicholas "Yehty" Tesolin (Observer)
Streams
- twitch.tv/valorant
- twitch.tv/valorant_tur
- twitch.tv/lvpes2
- twitch.tv/valleague_fr
- twitch.tv/leetesport
- twitch.tv/grunexcom
- twitch.tv/valorantmc_ua
- twitch.tv/esportsfinland
- twitch.tv/valorant_kr
- twitch.tv/valorant_jpn
- twitch.tv/valorant_id
- twitch.tv/valorant_ph
- twitch.tv/valorant_th
- twitch.tv/valorant_tw
- twitch.tv/valorantesports_cn
- twitch.tv/valorant_br
- twitch.tv/VALORANT_LA
- English YouTube
- Brazilian YouTube
- Turkish YouTube
- Korean YouTube
- Japanese YouTube
- Indonesian YouTube
- Filipino YouTube
- Thai YouTube
- Taiwanese YouTube
- Vietnamese YouTube
- Chinese YouTube
Coverage
VLR.gg is covering all of Masters Tokyo in our event hub, which includes our live match ticker and stats to comb over. The event also features pick'ems.