Masters Tokyo: EG makes playoffs, NRG sends NAVI to lower bracket, ardiis: "Would have felt a lot worse if we lost."

After the second day of the group stage in VCT Masters Tokyo, Evil Geniuses have booked their spot for the playoffs from Group B. On the second day, we got to witness two nail-biting matches:

• NRG Esports vs. Natus Vincere
• DRX VS vs. Evil Geniuses

The first match went the distance as NRG looked strong on the first map and the first half of the second map, but NAVI managed to come back from an 8-4 half on the second map. Finally, NRG managed to close out the final map of Spilt to move ahead in the Winner’s bracket. Whereas EG managed to close out a clean 2-0 against DRX in a dominant fashion to secure their spot in the Playoffs. Here is a brief recap of the second day of VCT Masters Tokyo:

NRG forces NAVI to make Lower Bracket run

The match between NRG and NAVI was very special as ardiis is a former star player of FPX, now the NAVI core team. NAVI picked Ascent as their first map, whereas Lotus was picked as the second map by NRG, and finally, Split was left over as the decider map.

The game looked balanced at the start, with a 6-6 half in the first map. Once NRG started on Attack in the second half, they looked comfortable running the game. There were no surprises from both teams in the comps, but individual plays and confidence were crucial for securing the first map by NRG with a scoreline of 13-8.

The second map took us to Lotus, where NRG took their momentum from the first map and managed to climb up 6-0 in the attacking first half. After NAVI secured their first point in round seven, they looked more confident and secured the first half with a dominant scoreline of 8-4. Lotus is regarded as an attacking map, and NAVI took advantage of it by taking the game into overtime. There weren’t any heroic plays until the overtime round 25, where Dmitry "SUYGETSU" Ilyushin clutched a 1v4 situation in a defending side with a last bullet securing scored match point for NAVI. The final round was pretty dominating as Mehmet Yağız 'cNed' İpek managed to pick off an Operator from Victor in C-Site, which helped NAVI to execute and win the map with a scoreline of 12-14.

The decider map was Split, where NRG chose to run a double Duelist composition where Victor 'Victor' Wong picked up Raze and ardiis took up Jett. NRG decided to attack first on the map and successfully secured a 10-2 first half. This dominant first half from NRG put NAVI on the back foot, but NAVI managed to win four consecutive rounds, making it a scoreline of 10-6. On round 17, NAVI tried to execute the same A site hit but unfortunately failed miserably, and NRG managed to win three rounds consecutively to secure the match with a scoreline of 13-6.

"I mean, it feels nice to beat them; it would have felt a lot worse if we lost, yeah I mean, free win, to be honest, I don’t know what else to say," said ardiis in the post-match interview.

VCT 2023 - Masters Tokyo

NRG

2

X

1

Natus Vincere

Group A - Opening Match, Best of 3 - June 12, 2023 - 3:00AM

13

Ascent

8

12

Lotus

14

13

Split

6

NRG

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

ardiis

1.14

236

55/43/15

+12

1.28

71.3%

158.5

17%

33%

6

12

crashies

1.13

181

44/40/33

+4

1.10

77.3%

113.5

29%

55%

6

5

s0m

1.09

188

43/38/34

+5

1.13

81.0%

124.4

26%

33%

3

6

Victor

1.08

215

50/48/19

+2

1.04

79.6%

138.3

20%

56%

10

8

FNS

0.89

173

42/41/18

+1

1.02

69.9%

119.3

22%

40%

4

6

Natus Vincere

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

cNed

1.11

248

55/55/13

0

1.00

68.4%

154.9

26%

67%

18

9

SUYGETSU

1.04

210

50/42/16

+8

1.19

71.9%

148.0

31%

38%

5

8

Zyppan

0.83

162

39/47/16

-8

0.83

71.3%

113.0

45%

67%

6

3

ANGE1

0.73

158

34/48/20

-14

0.71

64.6%

106.4

35%

44%

7

9

Shao

0.66

138

32/42/13

-10

0.76

65.7%

95.8

27%

50%

1

1

EG book their spot for playoffs by upsetting DRX

Both DRX and Evil Geniuses were one game away from securing their spot for the playoffs of VCT Masters Tokyo, and EG managed to do that in an unexpected and dominant fashion of 2-0.

EG picked Fracture, and DRX decided to Attack first on the first map, whereas DRX went with Ascent as their second map and EG decided to Defend first. Pearl remained as the decider map. Fracture started with quite dominant rounds from EG, making them up 5-0. In the sixth round, DRX scored their first point in Fracture with a Thrifty round, and again, the next round, EG showed their dominance with an excellent set play and won their Thrifty win against DRX. Finally, the first half of Fracture ended with a scoreline of 8-4. The attacking half from EG looked rock solid as they only lost one round and secured the map with a final scoreline of 13-5.

Ascent was the second map, and EG continued their momentum, and Max 'Demon1' Mazanov started to heat up. His performance on the second map was phenomenal, and his teammates successfully set him up for the early picks to get an advantage. EG closed the first half with a scoreline of 7-5, which looked close but not enough for DRX. In the second half of the match, Demon1 looked unstoppable, and this helped EG to secure their win and their spot for the playoffs with a scoreline of 13-9.

"In-game, you can just tell they had a playstyle they wanted to do, and we also adapted to counter their playstyle. Overall, they are a really good team, but I think we showed up better today." said Corbin "C0M" Lee

VCT 2023 - Masters Tokyo

DRX

0

X

2

Evil Geniuses

Group B - Winners Match, Best of 3 - June 12, 2023 - 6:45AM

5

Fracture

13

9

Ascent

13

DRX

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

Rb

1.09

240

32/32/7

0

1.00

73.0%

159.3

31%

80%

4

1

MaKo

1.08

199

25/30/27

-5

0.83

67.9%

127.5

38%

0%

0

5

Foxy9

0.88

208

27/30/8

-3

0.90

62.4%

141.3

24%

42%

8

11

BuZz

0.75

177

23/31/6

-8

0.74

66.4%

125.5

20%

44%

4

5

stax

0.59

110

12/32/20

-20

0.38

67.9%

82.8

24%

0%

0

2

Evil Geniuses

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

Demon1

1.35

247

36/21/14

+15

1.71

82.1%

167.9

39%

90%

9

1

jawgemo

1.34

241

36/26/14

+10

1.38

82.6%

164.4

17%

64%

7

4

Ethan

1.22

201

29/23/27

+6

1.26

78.0%

112.4

16%

20%

2

8

Boostio

1.12

226

35/24/4

+11

1.46

70.7%

141.9

25%

67%

4

2

C0M

0.82

157

19/25/20

-6

0.76

77.5%

111.9

15%

67%

2

1

Following matches at Masters Tokyo

Day 3 of VCT Masters Tokyo will see three matches be played out, and they are:

• NRG Esports vs. T1
• Attacking Soul Esports vs FUT Esports
• Natus Vincere vs EDward Gaming

Make sure to check out our Masters Tokyo event page to stay up to date on the elusive VALORANT event. And for all stats, make sure to go to our comprehensive VALORANT stats page where you can find Agent pick rates, most picked Agent compositions, and more!