EMEA kicks off VALORANT Masters Toronto with two losses

The opening day of VALORANT Masters Toronto was a night to forget for EMEA fans as Team Liquid and Team Heretics suffered losses in the first two Swiss Stage matches.

Unpredictable team compositions and aggressive play styles saw EMEA’s representatives walk away empty-handed via defeats to VCT China’s Bilibili Gaming and VCT Pacific team Paper Rex.

Unsurprisingly, the second series of the day between VCT China’s Bilibili Gaming (BLG) and Team Liquid provided the most entertainment, leaving some VALORANT fans second-guessing their expectations.

Although VCT EMEA Stage 1’s third place team had to compete without its in-game leader (IGL), Ayaz ‘nAts’ Akhmetshin, Team Liquid nearly made a comeback in the 1-2 loss. Thanks in no small part to Team Liquid’s stand-in, Erik ‘penny’ Penny.

Given Liquid’s disadvantage, the EMEA squad attempted to demoralise BLG on Icebox with an attack-sided triple-controller team composition. Despite losing the pistol round, Team Liquid ended its attack half 7-5. However, the gamble quickly revealed its weakness on defence, where BLG made a scrappy comeback. Fuelled by consistent frags from Wang ‘whz’ Haozhe on Jett, the Chinese roster took its map pick 13-10.

On Haven, it was BLG’s turn to crumble after a dominant 8-4 half on attack. Liquid’s double-duelist composition proved its value in the second half. Throughout many chaotic rounds, Penny stayed consistent and helped secure the map in overtime (16-14). The last-minute stand-in delivered a 30-18 kill-death ratio and 289 ACS on Phoenix.

The series concluded with another back-and-forth game on Sunset. This time, however, BLG successfully converted its 7-5 half-time lead into a victory. Despite several multi-kills from penny on Omen and Maikls ‘Serial’ Zdanovs on Cypher, Team Liquid was ultimately overwhelmed by its opponent’s relentless aggression, with BLG walking away with a 13-10 victory.

Prior to Team Liquid’s defeat, EMEA fans had already witnessed Team Heretics being, perhaps surprisingly, crushed by the Paper Rex (PRX) train.

The third place of VCT Pacific Stage 1 looked well prepared on Pearl and Icebox, earning the squad all pistol rounds of the series and a dominant 2-0 victory.

On Pearl, in particular, PRX established its dominance with a double-duelist composition and the first knife kill of the tournament, secured by Ilia ‘something’ Petrov on Yoru. Meanwhile, Heretics only won the anti-bonus round in the first half, suffering a 1-13 loss.

Icebox seemed more promising for VCT EMEA Stage 1’s runner-up. In spite of a rough start, Team Heretics ended its attacking half with a 7-5 lead. However, PRX’s attack was even more convincing. The Pacific team converted its bonus round, winning Heretics’ map pick 13-9.

Today’s teams will move on to the second Swiss Stage round, with PRX and BLG heading to the winner’s bracket (June 9th). Meanwhile, Team Heretics and Team Liquid will play their loser’s bracket matches on June 10th. However, the exact team match-ups have not been drawn yet.

Tomorrow (June 8th), the remaining four Swiss Stage squads must conclude their round of round one matches. Starting at 5 pm BST, North American organisation Sentinels will face off against Chinese underdog Wolves Esports. Afterwards, Pacific’s Gen.G and Brazilian team MIBR will wrap up day two.

Fans can tune into tomorrow’s action through VALORANT’s Twitch and YouTube broadcasts.