Paper Rex and Nongshim RedForce win first VALORANT Masters Santiago Playoffs matches

VALORANT Masters Santiago kicked off its Playoffs stage yesterday with victories from Masters Toronto champion Paper Rex and fellow VCT Pacific team Nongshim RedForce.

The teams’ opponents, FURIA (Americas) and Gentle Mates (EMEA), have now dropped to the lower bracket.

The first Playoffs match in Santiago saw Masters Toronto champion Paper Rex claw its way to a 2-1 win against a fairly inexperienced FURIA roster.

FURIA had a rough start on Haven, struggling against the relentless aggression from Paper Rex’s signature Phoenix, Yoru and Chamber agent combination. However, thanks to huge plays from Daniel ‘eeiu’ Vucenovic as well as inefficient ultimate usage from the opponent, FURIA managed to even out the score 6-6. On its attack side, the VCT Americas first seed looked like the more composed team. Despite losing both pistol rounds, FURIA stole Paper Rex’s map pick 13-9.

On Breeze, Paper Rex looked like it was going to be out-aimed and out-traded again until the Pacific third seed swiftly rekindled its confidence and fragging power in the first half (9-3 to PRX). FURIA, on the other hand, found itself locked out of its favourite B site and unable to deny several clutches from Ilia ‘something’ Petrov. This trend continued in the second half, where FURIA only won one round before succumbing to its opponent (4-13).

The final map, Split, started with a back-and-forth half. Paper Rex was frequently punished for its risky plays while FURIA returned to its ice-cold decision-making from map one (7-5 in Paper Rex’s favour). In the second half, though, this composure wasn’t enough as Paper Rex tore through its opponent. In-game leader (IGL) Khalish ‘d4v41’ Rusyaidee also had a massive attack half in terms of fragging and calling, leading to a 13-7 win for his team.

The day continued with a clash between two teams that are making global VCT debuts at Masters Santiago. Nongshim RedForce’s first showing on the stage in Chile was a 2-0 sweep against Swiss Stage team Gentle Mates.

On the first map, Haven, Nongshim turned a 0-4 start into a 7-5 halftime lead. Gentle Mates had initially outsmarted the Pacific first seed through fake site-hits, but looked one-dimensional towards the end of the half. On Nongshim’s attack, Lee ‘Dambi’ Hyuk-kyu couldn’t be contained by Gentle Mates’ Cypher utility. The French team suffered several overheats and enemy clutches, losing its map pick 10-13.

Corrode followed a similar trajectory to map one. Nongshim had a tough time maintaining B-main control against Gentle Mates’ new Phoenix pick, but stabilised for a 5-7 defence score. In the second half, the Korean team then once again overwhelmed Gentle Mates with its explosive site-hits. A second-half pistol win for EMEA’s second seed and occasional misplays from Nongshim weren’t enough to change the tide back in Gentle Mates’ favour, resulting in a 13-10 victory to Nongshim.

Although Nongshim’s Dambi and Park ‘Ivy’ Sung-hyeon delivered amazing performances to help the team secure victory, Gentle Mates’ Martin ‘marteen’ Pátek was the highest-fragging player of the series. On Yoru and Phoenix, marteen scored a kill-death ratio (KDA) of 47/38/13 and an average combat score (ACS) of 299.

Following yesterday’s matches, FURIA and Gentle Mates have been demoted to the lower Playoffs bracket at Masters Santiago, to fight for survival on March 8th.

Meanwhile, Paper Rex and Nongshim RedForce are waiting in the second round of upper bracket matches for the teams’ next opponent, the winners of today’s games.

Starting at 5 PM BST on March 7th, regional first seeds All Gamers and BBL Esports will make VCT global debuts in Santiago, facing off against G2 Esports and NRG, respectively.

To stay up-to-date with the Masters Santiago Playoffs stage, fans can tune into the event’s official Twitch and YouTube broadcasts.