Everything you need to know about VALORANT Masters: Berlin

Masters: Berlin starts Friday and teams have been arriving in Germany to take part in the last major event before VALORANT Champions later this year.

In this event, 15 teams will compete for prize money, bragging rights and points that will go toward qualification for the VALORANT Champions tournament.

This is the longest tournament in the VALORANT Champions Tour so far, featuring the most teams over the longest period of time for a tournament. Masters: Berlin tournament will be broadcast on Twitch and YouTube Gaming on Riot’s VALORANT channels. The matches start Friday at 9 a.m. ET.

Before taking a look at the teams in each group, a note on Bren Esports. Although Bren qualified for the Masters: Berlin tournament, they will not be in Berlin because of COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Fans, teams and players were understandably disappointed by this development. Gamers from the Philippines were excited to see their team take the stage after watching their team prove that they were talented enough to take the global stage. Bren Esports will have a chance to qualify for VALORANT Champions via the Last Chance Qualifier.

As far as the 15 teams that will be in Berlin, here’s a primer on each team and how they match up against the other teams in their group.

Group A

Vision Strikers -- Korea

When fans talk about who in the tournament has the best chance of winning, the discussion always seems to lead to any North American or European team or Vision Strikers.

In their Challengers events, they sailed through the tournament, pushing teams out of their way in easy 2-0 victories until F4Q were able to take a map off of them. But besides that one map, every other map they played in the Challengers Playoffs was a wash. They even started off the F4Q match with a 13-1 score on Icebox.

This team has a real chance at dethroning the NA teams, and fans are anticipating some close matches. Many fans think that they’re a shoe-in to make it into bracket play, but they’ll have to contend with Southeast Asia’s Paper Rex, Turkey’s SuperMassive Blaze and Europe’s Acend to make it through, with the latter two being strong contenders.

Paper Rex -- SEA

The teams who came from the SEA region to qualify for Masters: Berlin had a rough schedule to get through in order to qualify. They had to win their respective region’s playoffs, which for Paper Rex was Malaysia and Singapore, and then they had to go through another tournament with the winners from the other six subregions in order to qualify.

Paper Rex didn’t have an easy go through their tournament bracket. They were in the upper bracket for the entire tournament, but they almost lost in the upper bracket final, and then lost a rematch with Bren Esports in the final 3-0.

Paper Rex got unlucky in their group since they will match up with Vision Strikers first. If they can rise to the challenge and beat them, they’ll be in a great spot to qualify for the bracket stage.

SuperMassive Blaze -- EMEA

SuperMassive Blaze, often dubbed the “Turkish superteam,” are a favorite among fans in the EMEA region, and they defeated some serious competition to qualify for Masters: Berlin.

In Challengers Playoffs, they stayed in the upper bracket throughout the entire tournament until they lost to Gambit Esports 3-1 in the grand final.

They’ve beat Acend before, but the match was a close one, ending 2-1 in favor of SuperMassive Blaze, so they’ll need to stay on top of their game to ensure victory against them. They also might have to face Vision Strikers who are one of the favorites to win the group.

Acend -- EMEA

Acend have some work to do if they want to get out of groups. They lost to SuperMassive Blaze at Challengers Playoffs, and Vision Strikers might be the biggest obstacle for the entire group.

Figuring out how to beat SuperMassive Blaze will be the key to getting out of the group for Acend. If they use the knowledge that they have against the team and come out with the W, they will be in a better position to get out of the group.

Group B

Keyd Stars -- Brazil

In Brazil’s Challengers Playoffs, Keyd Stars had an impressive lower bracket run, beating Brazil’s previous Masters attendees Sharks Esports and Team Vikings followed by FURIA Esports to make their way to Germany.

In the grand final, they beat the other qualifying team from their region, Havan Liberty, 3-0, but despite the score looking like a wash, the maps were full of close scores and overtimes.

Group B is a toss-up group. Envy are the favorites to make it out of the group in the top spot, but any of the other teams have a good shot of making it out, including Keyd Stars.

Envy -- NA

The favorites to make it out of Group B are Envy. They were the last NA team to grab a spot at Masters: Berlin, but that doesn’t make them any less challenging for teams who don’t hail from the NA region. Envy’s own Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen even said that “there will be three NA teams in the top three in Berlin.”

Envy will also have more time and practice with Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker, who has already made a massive impact on the team’s success.

Their first matchup will be with Keyd Stars, one of two NA vs. Brazil first-round matchups in group play.

Read more: Envy’s Marved: ‘There will be three NA teams in the top three in Berlin’

KRÜ Esports -- LATAM

This is KRÜ Esports’ second appearance in a Masters event, and the team is preparing and hoping for a better placement in this tournament than for Masters: Reykjavík where they placed 7th-8th.

They are the sole team representing the LATAM region, which means they have all LATAM fans behind them. They almost lost their spot at Masters: Berlin to Australs, who beat them in the upper bracket, but they ended up making their way through the lower bracket and clinched the win in their rematch with Australs.

Their first match in the group is against ZETA DIVISION, with neither team heavily favored.

ZETA DIVISION -- Japan

In Japan’s Challengers Playoffs, ZETA DIVISION came from behind and took a victory from Northeption after a successful rematch against the team. They made a clean run through the lower bracket, beat Northeption in the lower bracket final and then went on to beat Crazy Racoon 3-2 in the grand final.

Looking at groups, they got one of the better draws. With the third NA seed in this group as well as one team from Brazil and one from Latin America, this is one of the “easier” groups.

Group C

Gambit Esports -- EMEA

In their path to qualifying for Masters: Berlin, Gambit Esports had to climb over fan-favorite Team Liquid in order to make it. The match was an intense one and it was close, but Gambit took the spot over TL and will now be the first CIS team to make an appearance in an international VALORANT tournament.

Their first match will be against Crazy Raccoon who appeared in the last Masters event and finished among the bottom two teams at 9th-10th. Along with NA team 100 Thieves, they are the favorites in this group.

Crazy Raccoon -- Japan

Crazy Raccoon are at it again and they’re coming to Berlin with four new players on the roster. They’re one of very few teams who have a seven-man roster. Armed with their new players, Crazy Racoon are looking to finish higher this time around after placing in the bottom two for Masters: Reykjavík.

Their first match will be against Gambit, which means that they’ll have to beat one of the best teams in EMEA. They do have LAN experience from competing at the previous Masters, but it’ll be tough for them to beat Gambit.

Read more: How Vansilli went from working in the corporate world to casting VALORANT

100 Thieves -- NA

Arguably the second best team in NA right now, 100 Thieves are looking to dominate Group C. They lost only to Sentinels at NA’s Challengers Playoffs. They did have a hard time against Team Envy, but they eventually made it into the grand final where they faced Sentinels again but lost 3-1.

Their first match is against Havan Liberty, who beat some of the best teams in Brazil to get there. Based on NA and Brazil’s performances at the previous Masters, 100T should win this matchup.

Havan Liberty -- Brazil

Havan Liberty got one of the tougher matchups to open the tournament in facing 100 Thieves. The Brazilian team came out of Challengers Playoffs as the second team to go to Berlin, but they were defeated by Keyd Stars in the grand final after a close 3-0.

If Havan Liberty want any chance of getting out of groups, they’d be better off focusing on the team they’ll play in the elimination match. Although they’ll want to be prepared going into the 100T match, their best bet of getting out of the group stage is to study up on any team they might face in the elimination match.

If they beat 100T, they’ll be in better shape to make it out of the group, but it doesn’t get any easier with a matchup against Gambit Esports or Crazy Raccoon next. Gambit are one of the favorites in this group, and although Crazy Raccoon had a poor finish at Masters: Reykjavík, they do have valuable LAN experience.

Group D

Sentinels -- NA

They haven’t lost a Masters tournament yet, and Sentinels surely don’t plan on it. IGL Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan has said that he wanted Sentinels to be the only team to hold the title of Masters champions, and they’ll aim to do that in the last Masters event of the year.

It’s no surprise that Sentinels are the favorite to win the entire event. They have already qualified for Champions, so they have nothing to lose here. With Bren Esports not being able to travel to Berlin, the number of teams in their group went from four to three, making their chances of reaching the bracket stage almost guaranteed. They only have Europe’s G2 Esports and Korea’s F4Q to get through in order to get to the bracket, and although they will be tough matchups, they should make it through.

G2 Esports -- EMEA

Getting drawn into the group stage with Sentinels was unlucky, but with only three teams in this group, getting out is a lot easier than other groups.

Their first match is against Sentinels, and it will be valuable experience for them in order to prepare for the next match against them since this group is a double round robin.

F4Q -- Korea

Korean team F4Q have been rising in the ranks, although they’re not quite on the level of Vision Strikers.

F4Q beat DAMWON Gaming, who had just beaten previous Masters attendee NUTURN Gaming, at Korea’s Challengers Playoffs. They did fall to Vision Strikers in the last game of the tournament 3-1, but they had already punched their ticket to Germany.

With Bren Esports no longer in this group, getting out of group play is a better possibility for them, but they have two very tough teams to get through before they make it out of groups. With North America, Europe and Korea considered the three best regions in VALORANT and Sentinels the reigning Masters champions, this might actually be the toughest group.

Lead photo credit: Riot Games