Valorant: Gen.G to rewrite entire strategy for Masters Madrid

It’s back to the drawing board for VCT Pacific Kickoff champions Gen.G as they will recalibrate their strategies ahead of their participation in Valorant Masters Madrid.

Speaking at a press conference after their win against Paper Rex (PRX), Coach Kang “Solo” Keun-chul said, Kickoff revealed “a ton” of Gen.G’s information to their rivals.

“I think changes are necessary. I think I think changes will be inevitable, especially on maps that we’ve struggled on, whether that be new strats or new, a new comp, or whatever. I think we’ll have to make some changes going into Masters Madrid. And honestly, yeah, I’d like to shoot for the stars and try and win the championship there, too,” Coach Solo told reporters.

Gen.G and PRX will both represent the APAC region in the first major global Valorant tournament of the year, which will happen from March 1-14 in Madrid, Spain.

They will be waiting now on the top 2 teams from VCT EMEA, VCT Americas, and VCT China to determine their opponents for the said international tilt.

Gen.G has also earned 3 Championship Points for winning VCT Pacific Kickoff, which will give the team a big headstart into the new competitive Valorant format for 2024.

 

COACH SOLO: METEOR’S SENTINEL SWITCH PAID OFF

 

Gen.G played brilliantly against the former Kings of the Pacific, 3-1, in which they were able to cruise control through different maps in a dominating fashion. 

Gen.G won Ascent (13-5), Lotus (13-11) and Bind (13-4), while Paper Rex only won Split (13-4) while the best-of-5 Grand Finals in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, South Korea.

The Kickoff champs – Kim “Meteor” Tae-o, Kim “t3xture” Na-ra, Kim “Lakia” Jong-min, Byeon “Munchkin” Sang-beom, and Kim “Karon” Won-tae, won convincingly, seemingly reading different attack and defensive moves by PRX.

One key factor that made the difference, Gen.G says, is Meteor’s switch to a Sentinel role after a long time playing Duelist.

“It was a coach HSK (Kim Hae-song) who convinced Meteor to role swap to Sentinel, and even though Meteor was rather reluctant at first, he’s now developed into an excellent Sentinel player, and he’s still very good on Duelist, so I think he’s become an extremely versatile player,” Coach Solo said. 

Proof of this was during the match, where Meteor picked Killjoy and Cypher, but also at times picked the time-tested Jett. His Cypher pick in the match-deciding Round 4 allowed him to pop off as a round MVP, with an 18/8/2 KDA.

Meteor said, being Sentinel was not his usual playstyle in Ranked. “At first it was definitely hard, but my teammates and my coaches all helped me out very much. They told me a lot of good tips and ways to play this position. So even though I still have a lot to improve on, I think that’s how I manage, I could transition to this new role,” he said.

T3xture also gave confident insight as to how they were able to turn Bind – a PRX map pick – into the map that won them the 2024 VCT Pacific Kickoff.

He says, they didn’t even think they would lose the map from the very beginning.

“I didn’t think about losing at all, because, even though PRX is a team that’s very good at skirmishing, right, that’s why they’re good at maps like Bind and Split, at least in my opinion. But we have players who are also extremely proficient at this playstyle – so we didn’t think we were lacking in in any way. At half time, basically, I thought we would go on to win,” t3xture said.

 

T3XTURE’S TITLE: WHAT IT MEANS FOR HIM AND FOR GEN.G

 

The 2024 Kickoff win was also a special one for t3xture – who has literally risen from the ground up to become one of the strongest players in Pacific Valorant.

The former Damwon Gaming mainstay was a fixture of the aforementioned team in its Valorant Challengers performances in 2021 and 2022, before moving to Global Esports in 2023 for LOCK//IN in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

He played for Global Esports up until mid-2023, where he and PRX’s Cahya “Monyet” Nugraha were both teammates. In what appeared to be a twist of fate, both ex-GE athletes now found themselves fighting on the opposite ends of the S Factory – and both will now represent the APAC region in Madrid.

Riot Games’ Head of Valorant Esports APAC Jake Sin even tweeted, “The real ones know he’s gone through so much to get to where he is today.”

As for t3xture, he said, he was overcome with emotions when the moment finally came – that he was part of a team that brought the Tiger Nation to a stunning victory.

“Honestly, I didn’t think I would cry, but taking the championship, yeah, just made me feel all these emotions. And obviously, I yeah, think a lot about a lot of of my fans because there’s a lot of people, fans who are aware of the adversity I had to overcome, the amount of time that I spent into practice. So I’m really grateful to all my fans who have shown me support through all that, all the time,” t3xture said.

This win also marks the first Pacific title for Gen.G, who finished 4th in VCT Pacific 2023. – PAOLO BARCELON, FRAGSTER.COM