Karmine Corp And Gen.G Pick Up Wins To Start Masters Madrid

The top seeds of the EMEA and Pacific regions have opened VCT Masters Madrid with victories over FunPlus Phoenix and LOUD. Karmine Corp and Gen.G are now 1-0 in the Swiss Stage. 

The first international Valorant tournament of 2024 is finally underway, and we had two banger matchups to start the event. Two Best of 3 matches will be played daily throughout the Swiss Group Stage.

Karmine Corp 2-0 FunPlus Phoenix

Four members of the new Karmine Corp roster made their international VCT debut today, and what a way to do it. 

Icebox was the first map of the series, picked by FunPlus Phoenix. The Chinese squad only took one map off EDward Gaming in the regional final, and it happened to be this very map; it was the best shot they had at what seemed to be an untouchable Karmine Corp.

KCorp began the game with a quick 7-0 start, and the match seemed done. However, thanks to an impeccable performance from FPX’s newest recruit, Life, they managed to string five rounds in a row to end the half 7-5. After winning the second pistol round and converting the anti-eco, the game was tied at 7-7. However, the comeback was all for naught, as Karmine Corp tidied their Attacking side to win the series 13-8.

Next on the cards was Lotus, one of the maps Karmine Corp depended on to qualify for Madrid. Being an Attacker-sided map, FPX won the first half on the offensive side, but they did it convincingly with an 8-4 finish. Though it looked like FPX built a big enough lead to win the map, KCorp destroyed all hope for Chinese fans, as they won 9 out of 11 rounds to win the series 13-10. 

The top performer in the series was KCorp’s US import, n4rrate, who was rated as one of the top performers prior to the event, going 47/28/20 and posting a 1.53 rating. 

Gen.G 2-1 LOUD

The South Korean roster of Gen.G stole Pacific’s first seed spot from Paper Rex and flew to Madrid to prove that it wasn’t a fluke. 

Right off the bat, the series between Gen.G and LOUD delivered one hell of a first map on Incebox, LOUD’s map pick. The Brazilian squad had a slow start to the map, but their top performer, Less, carried their defensive side with a 15/7/4 KDA to tie the score 6-6 at the half. 

However, struggles continued for LOUD, as Gen.G kept securing rounds on their Defense on many narrow occasions. At 12-10 in favor of the Pacific team, Less had an Ace round to bail LOUD out, but it wasn’t enough, as Gen.G closed out the series in the end, 13-11.

The second map, Breeze, was Gen.G’s best map by far. LOUD finally woke up and demolished the first half, ending it 9-3. Though Munchkin and company showed some resistance on their Attack side, the deficit from the first half was too much to cover, resulting in a 13-8 victory for the second seed of the Americas region. 

On the decisive map, Ascent, LOUD started on Defense on the Defender-sided map. Though saadhak’s squad of Brazilian boys were supposed to win the first half, Karon’s Omen had a lights-out performance. Finishing the first half with twenty kills and five deaths, Karon’s Omen helped Gen.G secure nine rounds on the offense. The game turned out to be a blowout in favor of Gen.G, who won after a dominant 13-5 performance on Ascent. 

FunPlus Phoenix and LOUD have their backs against the wall, as they are one series loss away from elimination. 

Header: Gen.G Twitter