Legacy Meter: Biggest storylines heading into Masters Toronto

The return of fan favourites like Team Heretics and Paper Rex to the global stage at VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Masters Toronto 2025 sees the return of familiar storylines. To balance it out, however, the Masters event also boasts teams that are just starting to forge their legacy. Ranging from chances of redemption to highly anticipated rivalries, here are our biggest storylines to pay attention to at the first VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) tournament held in Canada.

G2 set their sights on a shot at redemption

G2 Esports were seen by many as the best team coming into the 2025 season with the addition of Champions winner Alexander "jawgemo" Mor to its well-established core, yet this roster fell short of meeting those expectations in a narrow 2-3 loss to T1 in the Masters Bangkok Grand Final. In VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Americas Stage 1, G2 continued to assert themselves as the best team in the region, yet their path to that elusive international trophy remains difficult especially with the return of powerhouses like Fnatic and Gen.G Esports.

Not only are G2 trying to redeem their loss at Bangkok, but Jonah "JonahP" Pulice in particular, as one of the few Canadian players in the tournament, will be eager to lift a trophy in front of his home crowd. Mostly on initiator throughout his career, JonahP saw himself on Breach this season to complement Trent "trent" Cairns' Tejo play, and while the sharpshooters on his team like Nathan "leaf" Orf and jawgemo tore through their competition in Stage One, JonahP was the silent enabler to setup G2’s star players to secure those easy kills. The effectiveness of JonahP’s utility is reflected in his 0.52 assists per round (APR), the highest APR in the region during Stage One by far with the next on the list being Sam "s0m" Oh at 0.45. Keeping up his supportive performance will be crucial for G2’s chances in lifting a trophy in front of JonahP's home crowd.

Fresh faces emerge from China

Arguably the biggest team in VCT, EDward Gaming had the longest streak in international tournament attendance with eight consecutive international showings ever since their debut at VCT 2022 - Champions Istanbul, yet Masters Toronto marks the reigning 2024 champions’ first international tournament absence. With EDG out of the mix, who are the new kids on the block representing China?

First-seed XLG Esports clearly looks like the best team in China, even more impressive considering that they are a newly Ascended team this year. Russian duelist main Arthur "Rarga" Churyumov is the player to look out for, sporting an impressive 0.91 KPR throughout the entire VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - China Stage 1, second to Bilibili Gaming’s Wang "whzy" Haozhe. Despite the withdrawal of XLG’s support player Yip "YoU" Man Ho due to past match fixing allegations, XLG still have a strong core that are looking to do damage in Toronto. Make sure to pay attention to China’s current strongest team who will face the survivors of the Swiss Stage with their bye into the playoffs.

BLG are the most experienced of these new challengers, infamously going 4-0 in maps against Pujan "FNS" Mehta-led NRG in what was probably the biggest upset in VCT 2023 - Champions. The same whyz that bullied NRG on Raze has been absolutely tearing through China, sporting the highest KPR and ACS in Stage One at 0.93 and 264.4 respectively. With new blood like Lu "Levius" Yinzhong and Marcus "nephh" Tan, this edition of BLG is hungry to reach the same potential they had at Champions 2023. BLG would be especially motivated to make it out of the Swiss Stage for a chance to play the only representative of that 2023 NRG roster, Austin "crashies" Roberts, who is eagerly waiting in the playoffs for his revenge.

Wolves Esports are the third seed coming out of China. As another newcomer to the international stage, little is known about them. Their most well-known player coming into Toronto is Liang "Lysoar" Youhao, primarily on the Sentinel role for Wolves. Lysoar is notable for his time on FunPlus Phoenix’s 2024 roster, the second best team China for the earlier part of the year which took Heretics, the eventual runner-ups of VCT 2024 - Masters Shanghai to a nail-biting 15-17 elimination map. Despite their potential, FPX still failed to find success internationally last year. All eyes are on Lysoar to see whether he can finally find success on a new team of young and passionate players like primary duelist Tyler "juicy" Aeria.

Team Heretics seek revenge against Paper Rex (and Monyet)

Team Heretics against Paper Rex in the Swiss Stage of VCT 2024 - Masters Madrid was probably one of the most entertaining matches from last year. Every round was a highlight reel on the final map of Split, yet the most memorable moments were Benjy "benjyfishy" David Fish’s A site Cypher setups, getting 3k after 4k against the attacking Paper Rex whilst taunting his opponents, specifically yelling across the stage at Cahya "Monyet" Nugraha. Emotions were at an all time high for the young Heretics roster, yet they only managed to win one round after being up 6-2 and was eliminated from the event altogether. At a meet-and-greet in London following their Champions run in 2024, Benjy joked about Monyet still lingering in his mind as he reflected on the season as a whole.

Benjy and the rest of Los Niños have a shot at revenge in Toronto. With how electric the series was between the two in Madrid, their opening matchup in the Swiss Stage is set to absolutely deliver. On the other side of things, Paper Rex have been stuggling ever since that same tournament in Madrid, yet completed a grueling lower bracket run in the VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Pacific Stage 1 playoffs to clinch the last seed for Toronto with the addition of newcomer Patrick "PatMen" Mendoza. Even if Heretics defeat Paper Rex, they will need to reach the playoffs to potentially face Rex Regum Qeon, where beating Monyet's new team would settle their unfinished business from Madrid.

Will Heretics get their sweet revenge? Will G2 finally lift their long-awaited trophy? Are we set to a surprise run from one of the three CN teams? To keep up with the latest Masters Toronto coverage, stayed tuned into THESPIKE.GG.