Vision Strikers stay undefeated and other VALORANT Masters results around the world

As we mentioned in our recap of the VALORANT Champions Tour North America Masters, champions were crowned all around the world this past weekend.

While we can’t cover every region in detail, jump on the Nerd Street globetrotting train with us to find out more about the champs from Europe, Korea, Japan and Brazil.

Europe

Both Team Heretics and Acend were at the top of their game in the EU Masters grand final. Team Heretics had a flawless run, only dropping one map to Ninjas in Pyjamas in the winners’ match. Even though Acend lost a match to NIP, they brought it back around in the decider match, defeating them 2-0. Even so, Team Heretics were the more experienced team, especially after their first-place finish at First Strike Europe.

Thus, the 13-7victory that Team Heretics pulled off on Ascent was somewhat expected. What wasn’t expected was for Acend to kick things into high gear and actually take Bind away from Heretics. The latter traded it back with a win on Haven, so it was on to the fourth map, Icebox. Acend took it into overtime and won Icebox 14-12. On Ascent, the fifth map, Acend started off with a strong 9-3 halftime score. Ascent looked to be a good map for Acend, and even though Team Heretics almost turned things around in the second half, it was too little too late as Acend won the series 3-2 and became the VCT kings of Europe.

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Korea

Korea almost had its own upset with the Vision Strikers vs. NUTURN Gaming match. In the Group A matches, Vision Strikers struggled with NUTURN Gaming but still defeated them 2-1. NUTURN Gaming won every single match after that to face Vision Strikers in the grand final once again. Even though NUTURN Gaming won two of the maps, taking one into overtime, Vision Strikers pulled ahead and continued their undefeated streak with a 3-2 victory over NUTURN Gaming.

They have not lost a single match since the team was formed last June. The only blemishes on their record are two draws, and they have an impressive record of 56-0-2.

Even though NUTURN Gaming lost, they were only established in January. The fact that they gave Vision Strikers such trouble in the grand final and are responsible for one of Vision Strikers’ two draws, likely means we’ll see more tight battles between the two teams in the future.

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Japan

Considering Absolute JUPITER’s flawless victories prior to VCT Japan Masters, it’s hard to imagine them losing to a team that placed fifth-eighth at First Strike Japan. But as we saw in Europe, upsets happen, and Crazy Raccoon pulled off one of the biggest upsets of Japan Masters.

Crazy Raccoon’s road to the grand final was unhindered until the upper bracket final when Absolute JUPITER sent them into the lower bracket with a 2-0 victory. Even though they lost one map to REJECT in the lower bracket, they bounced back and were face-to-face with Absolute JUPITER once again. What ensued convinced me that I shouldn’t be an analyst. Crazy Raccoon pulled off a 3-0 win, with two of them happening before Absolute JUPITER even got to double-digit round wins.

That said, ladies and gentlemen, Crazy Raccoon are your VCT Japan champions!

Brazil

The matchup between Gamelanders and Team Vikings was pretty similar to that of Team Heretics and Acend. Both teams had near-flawless runs in their respective VCT Masters region and one of them placed first at First Strike. Gamelanders came in to Masters with a first-place win at First Strike Brazil on their resume, while Team Vikings didn’t even make it past the First Strike closed qualifier.

The discrepancy in previous results wouldn’t be obvious if someone just looked at the scores though. On Haven, Team Vikings brought their A game and led Gamelanders 8-4 at the half. The score for the second half was tied, but all that meant was that Team Vikings won the first map 13-9. Bind was pretty much identical, right down to the 8-4 halftime score in favor of Team Vikings. The same was true for the final score, which was also 13-9, giving Team Vikings their second win over Gamelanders.

Icebox was a bit closer than the other two maps. Even though Gamelanders put up more of a fight in the first half, Team Vikings came back once again in the second half and won the map 13-11, making them the VCT Brazil Masters champions.

Overall, the international scene had a lot more upsets than our own North American region, with Team Heretics losing to Acend, Team Vikings winning over Gamelanders and Crazy Raccoon beating Absolute Jupiter. We can’t wait to see what happens when Stage 2 of the VALORANT Champions Tour rolls around and the top teams from every region meet in Iceland for Stage 2 Masters, and you can bet we’ll be here to talk about it!

Lead image credit: Riot Games Korea