VALORANT Masters Tokyo: Ranking the teams

June 7, 2023

by Brian Bencomo

The first and only VALORANT Masters tournament of the year will take place in Tokyo starting Sunday June 11 (Saturday night for those of us in the Americas). The 10 qualified teams from across the three VALORANT Champions Tour international leagues -- Americas, EMEA and Pacific -- as well as two teams from China will compete to round out the field of 12.

Sign up for the next Nerd Street tournament!

Most of these teams and players have competed at Masters events before, but there will be five organizations making their Masters debuts and quite a few fresh faces competing in a premier international VALORANT tournament for the first time. Upsets are bound to happen, but this is how the teams appear to stack up heading into Masters Tokyo.

12. Attacking Soul Esports

Photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games

Somebody has to be at the bottom of these rankings. Given China’s still nascent VALORANT scene and the fact Attacking Soul Esports haven’t appeared at a VCT global event before, ranking this team No. 12 makes the most sense. Plus, they’re entering Masters with two losses in a row to conclude their run at China’s FGC Invitational Act 2. They were the champions of FGC Act 1 in which they beat EDward Gaming, so it’s not like this team will be a pushover. Dong “Life” Hao Qu (formerly with EDG) was the standout player for ASE as he finished among the top five in both rating and ACS among all players during FGC Act 1.

11. T1

Photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games

T1 had a solid season in the VCT Pacific league in which they went 6-3 and finished third and then finished third in the playoffs too. After Week 5 of the season, their place in the Pacific pecking order was clear as they beat everyone they faced except DRX and Paper Rex. They’re obviously below both of those teams heading into Tokyo, and also below everyone else in the VCT international leagues given the strength of the Americas and EMEA regions at previous global events. Ha “Sayaplayer” Jeong-woo and Son “xeta” Seon-ho both qualified for VCT international tournaments when they played in North America, and have now helped lead the preeminent Korean esports organization to their first Masters tournament.

10. EDward Gaming

Photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games

As China’s VALORANT scene gets more and more integrated with the international VCT circuit, EDward Gaming has led the charge. They qualified for Champions last year and were invited to LOCK//IN earlier this year. Now, EDG will be making their third appearance at a VCT event in Tokyo as they search for their first international win. EDG have been competitive as they took a map from Paper Rex at Champions and were at match point against 100 Thieves at LOCK//IN. Despite coming into Masters as China’s second seed, they only have two losses in China’s FGC competition since LOCK//IN. It just so happens that both of those were against Attacking Soul Esports and one of those was in the FGC Act 1 final. EDG have looked much better in FGC Act 2 as they finally beat ASE and ultimately won Act 2. Their better form of late and international experience is why they’re higher than ASE on this list, and their initial matchup at Masters against T1 will be a good test of whether they can finally beat a VCT partnered team.

9. FUT Esports

Photo credit: Hara Amoros / Riot Games

Much like Evil Geniuses in VCT Americas, FUT Esports exceeded expectations with a third-place finish in the EMEA playoffs after finishing fifth in the regular season. FUT’s signature win in the playoffs came against NAVI, a team they lost to in the regular season and who was considered one of the best teams in EMEA besides Fnatic. Konuralp “qw1” Şahin was the standout in that match on Neon and has been one of the few players in any of the VCT leagues to utilize the Neon a lot this year, so that’ll be something to watch for in Tokyo. It’s also worth noting that this Turkish roster is the first since SuperMassive Blaze in 2021 to qualify for a Masters event.

8. Evil Geniuses

Photo credit: Stefan Wisnoski / Riot Games

The way Evil Geniuses rose to the occasion in the VCT Americas playoffs after a mediocre 4-5 regular season, it might be foolish to doubt EG in Tokyo. At first it appeared as though their star Jett main Max “Demon1” Mazanov would not be able to travel with the team to Tokyo due to a lack of not only a visa but a passport. However, now that Demon1 is confirmed to be with the team at Masters, it raises the ceiling for this team from bottom four to their place here among the top eight. EG got better as the VCT Americas season went on with Demon1 in the lineup. They peaked in the playoffs with upsets over NRG and Cloud9 to qualify for Masters. This team will certainly be motivated to continue to rack up the upsets.

7. NAVI

Photo credit: Hara Amoros / Riot Games

This is the only team with a starting five consisting entirely of players who have been winners of either Masters or Champions in the past. With a core four of players formerly on the FunPlus Phoenix team that won Masters Copenhagen last year plus Mehmet "cNed" İpek who won Champions 2021 with Acend, this was a superteam heading into the season. For most of the year, NAVI have lived up to that billing as they finished top four at VCT LOCK//IN and finished second in the VCT EMEA regular season. However, they stumbled in the EMEA playoffs as they lost to both Team Liquid and FUT Esports to finish fourth. Given their history, they deserve the benefit of the doubt, which is why they’re ranked ahead of FUT despite losing to them in the playoffs. If NAVI play up to their potential, they should make the Tokyo playoffs, but they do have a tough initial matchup against NRG.

6. DRX

Photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games

DRX have finished top four at each of the last two global VCT events, so it wouldn’t be surprising if they did so again. However, two losses to Paper Rex in the VCT Pacific playoffs make it a questionable proposition to rank them within the top four heading to Masters Tokyo. Although they were the best team in the Pacific regular season, they fell just short of winning the league championship when they were reverse swept by Paper Rex in the grand final after jumping out to a 2-0 lead. For the first time in VALORANT esports history, the team formerly known as Vision Strikers, does not look like the best Asian team heading into a Masters/Champions event. However, maybe that grand finals loss will motivate DRX to achieve their best international result at the first global VCT event to happen in an Asian country.

5. Paper Rex

Photo credit: Paper Rex

Perhaps Paper Rex aren’t in decline after all. After back-to-back disappointing performances at global VCT events following a runner-up finish at Masters Copenhagen, Paper Rex won the inaugural VCT Pacific championship with two wins over DRX. The second win was particularly impressive as they came back from down 0-2 to win 3-2. Paper Rex have been much improved since adding Ilya “something” Petrov to the roster ahead of Week 3 in place of Benedict “Benkai” Tan. Something had the best rating and K/D and fifth-best ACS in the Pacific league and the second-best clutch percentage at 25% among players with at least 100 rounds played. According to something and Paper Rex, there is a chance the star duelist misses the start of Masters due to visa issues, which would seriously jeopardize PRX’s chances of making a deep run at the tournament.

4. NRG

Photo credit: Tina Jo / Riot Games

The bedrock of this team is a trio of former OpTic Gaming players who had so much success last year. The other two players are former FPX player Ardis "ardiis" Svarenieks and NRG veteran Sam "s0m" Oh who has emerged as a star this year. NRG got knocked out by LOUD at VCT LOCK//IN, and despite a slow start in the VCT Americas regular season, they got better as the season went on and made it all the way to the grand final. They lost to LOUD in that grand final but did beat them during the regular season. NRG are the only team besides Fnatic who have beaten LOUD this year, so they certainly can play at a high enough level to finish top four at Masters Tokyo and maybe even make a finals run.

3. Team Liquid

Photo credit: Hara Amoros / Riot Games

Team Liquid are the only team that have been able to beat Fnatic this year. Perhaps it was familiarity that paved the way to that victory, but Fnatic looked unbeatable and the fact TL beat them in the VCT EMEA grand final is a big statement by the team. Team Liquid added talented duelist Saif "Sayf" Jibraeel in the offseason as well as two former Masters champions in Igor "Redgar" Vlasov and Ayaz "nAts" Akhmetshin to play alongside team veterans Dom "soulcas" Sulcas and Elias "Jamppi" Olkkonen. After a slow start to the year, all the pieces seem to have come together to create a team that might be one of the best in the world now.

2. LOUD

Photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games

Of all the teams entering Masters Tokyo, LOUD have been the one team to continue to uphold expectations throughout the year. Unlike Fnatic and DRX, who were the best teams in their respective league’s regular seasons but then stumbled in their region’s grand final, LOUD never lost when it mattered. After a runner-up finish at LOCK//IN, the 2022 world champions only lost once in the VCT Americas regular season and then avenged that loss to NRG to win the inaugural Americas championship. Despite adding two new players in the offseason, Cauan "cauanzin" Pereira and Arthur "tuyz" Vieira, and a new coach, Daniel "fRoD" Montaner, this team hasn’t stopped winning. In fact, across the team’s history stretching back to the start of 2022, LOUD have an impressive 38-6 record with losses only to OpTic (three times), Fnatic once, KRÜ once and NRG once. A top four finish seems inevitable for this team unless they get an unlucky early elimination matchup with Fnatic or NRG.

1. Fnatic

Photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games

Despite losing the VCT EMEA grand final, Fnatic deserve to be the favorites heading to Masters Tokyo. Before that loss to Team Liquid in the EMEA final, Fnatic had not lost this year and looked head and shoulders above the rest of the competition throughout the EMEA season. They have one of the best in-game leader and coach combinations in the world in Jake "Boaster" Howlett and Jacob "mini" Harris, and four of the most talented players in the world in Nikita "Derke" Sirmitev, Emir "Alfajer" Beder, Leo "Leo" Jannesson and Timofey "Chronicle" Khromov. Of course, every team in the world will be gunning for Fnatic and intensely counter-stratting against this team, but Fnatic undoubtedly will be ready. No team has won more than one VCT international title, but Fnatic look as ready as any team before them to do so.

Lead photo credit: Riot Games