Rising to the occasion: Players that dominated the playoffs in Masters Toronto

The eight days of high-stakes competition in the playoffs stage of VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Masters Toronto 2025 witnessed heartstopping clutches, gorgeous setplays, and players getting multikill after multikill to set the world ablaze. Old faces returned to their prime while new ones stepped up to make a name for themselves on the biggest stage so far this year.

Paper Rex's trophy lift after years of relentless pursuit, Fnatic's legendary lower bracket run to reach the grand finals, and Wolves Esports' Cinderella run culminated in one of the most memorable events in VALORANT history. Here are the five players with the highest ACS that dominated the playoffs stage to make these narratives come together.

All stats were taken from our very own VALORANT Player Stats page.

Alfajer reminds everyone of his domination in 2023

Emir "Alfajer" Ali Beder was the final boss of the playoffs. He put up ridiculous numbers on every map FNATIC played, singlehandedly carrying the team through the lower bracket and ending the playoffs stage with 257.9 ACS. Alfajer has always been one of the top riflers in the game, but Toronto saw him pick up and dominate with the Operator in tandem with his rifling. The sheer amount of Operator kills he was pulling off was especially prominent in the venue, where the ringing of each shot sent vibrations through the audience's bodies.

Alfajer was unstoppable in 2023 and was a key reason for FNATIC's dominance that year, yet his performance dipped in 2024. At his first event this year, Alfajer had a point to prove: that he was the same Turkish prodigy Jacob "mini" Harris scouted back in 2022, and he absolutely proved his point with his performance. Alongside his sharpshooting, Alfajer showcased his flexibility playing six agents in the playoffs, the highest number of agents played by an individual in this tournament.

The Grand Final hung on a knife’s edge until the very end, and had it gone to a Map 5, which it nearly did, Alfajer would have only needed 13 kills to break the international VCT kill record set by Zheng "ZmjjKK" Yongkang at 111. With Alfajer back in prime form this event, can FNATIC call upon it once more throughout VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - EMEA Stage 2 to bring the team to their fifth Champions appearance in a row?

t3xture retains his status as the one of the best Duelists in the game

Gen.G Esports were an interesting team to watch during Toronto: absolute domination in the Group Stage, yet they fell short of expectations after choking massive leads to Wolves and G2 Esports to be eliminated in 5th-6th place. Throughout it all, Kim "t3xture" Na-ra was the player that stepped up the most as one of the best and most consistent duelists in the game.

t3xture was utterly dominant on Jett and Raze all of last year, yet this year saw him opt a lot more into Neon. His sheer mechanical talent saw him pulling off the cleanest Neon movement of the year, and he combined this with his proficiency with the Operator, getting shots off on his opponents and instantly wiggling away with the Neon sprint.

t3xture's consistency in opening up sites on the attack while holding down key areas on defense is shown in his impressive 238.3 ACS. If he continues this performance in VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Pacific Stage 2, t3xture could absolutely lead Gen.G to another Champions appearance and make it deep into this tournament this year.

N4RRATE steps up big for Sentinels

Similar to Gen.G, Sentinels was also a team that slightly underperformed relative to the expectations for this roster, placing 5th-6th as well. Despite this, Marshall "N4RRATE" Massey was the player to watch on Sentinels, dropping the same numbers as t3xture with 238.3 ACS.

Brought in to fill the humungous shoes Tyson "TenZ" Ngo and Gustavo "Sacy" Rossi left, N4RRATE had to perform under enormous pressure from the get-go. It took time for N4RRATE to find his place on the team, being quite an inconsistent player, but this event brought back the shine of N4RRATE's standout showing from Karmine Corp last year. After countless role swaps at the start of the season, he exclusively played the initiator role for the team in Toronto and dominated on it. Another similarity to t3xture was N4RRATE's clutch percentage: both sat at 36%, tied as the highest in the playoffs.

Once a player driven by an abundance of emotion, it seems that N4RRATE has figured out how to stay calm in the biggest moments and deliver high impact plays to singlehandedly win Sentinels rounds.

Spring is coming

Wolves' run through Toronto was one of the most entertaining narratives of the tournament—how the third seed of China leveled up and managed to reach a podium finish at this Masters event was the talk of the town. While much of the team's success can be attributed to their charismatic IGL Pong "SiuFatBB" Ka Hei that won over everyone's hearts, Liu "Spring" Chun-ting was the one winning rounds all by himself and bringing Wolves back from extreme round deficits, ending the tournament with 236.7 ACS.

Primarily on the Viper, Spring was one of the best anchors and lurkers of the tournament, delivering a performance reminiscent of Wan "CHICHOO" Shunzhi's at VCT 2024 - Champions 2024. On defense, Spring was an immovable object, holding down sites all by himself, especially on the C site on Lotus. In the same vein, he found ridiculous timings on his lurks on the attack side that opened up entire sites for his team to capitalise upon.

As a newcomer to the Tier 1 scene, Spring's performance at this event has absolute made a name for himself as one of the top talents to emerge from the Chinese region. To claw their way to a Champions appearance, Spring will have to continue delivering high impact rounds for his squad. Everyone else in VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - China Stage 2 needs to be wary: Spring is coming.

Zekken continues to be Sentinels' star player

At his third year on Sentinels, Zachary "zekken" Patrone has solidified himself as the most important asset to the team. After dominating the 2024 season as one of the best Duelists in the game, Zekken has continued tearing it up in this tournament with 234.4 ACS, this time on more roles than before. The start of this season mainly saw him on Yoru, yet the recent meta changes put Zekken in a position to play the unorthodox duelist Waylay and pseudo-duelist Omen. While he didn't seem immediately comfortable with these new agents, Zekken was still lighting the world on fire on his comfort picks like Raze and Neon.

While Sentinels' run was slightly disappointing, the red-hot form of their players like N4RRATE and Zekken provide hope that the team will bounce back for Champions. Given more time, one of the best talents VALORANT has to offer in Zekken could absolutely master agents like Waylay especially with the incoming buffs, while retaining his world-class Raze and Neon.

Paper Rex?

Despite being the champions of the event, not a single player from Paper Rex made it to the Top 5, proving that their teamwork-oriented style sees all five players shine equally without a single player taking over. While Jason "f0rsakeN" Susanto bails the team out of dire rounds with his aggressive Omen outplays, the same fragging is kept up by Wang "Jinggg" Jing Jie or Ilya "something" Petrov—this winning roster doesn't rely on a single individual carry, making them especially scary when any single player can have a round.

Masters Toronto saw veterans keeping up their unreal form and rookies delivering breakout performances to carve a name for themselves. With Stage Two and Champions on the horizon, how will these star players fare against the menaces in their own regions that have had weeks to rest and prepare for them?

Tune in to THESPIKE.GG to keep up with how the latter half of the season all unfolds.