VCT Americas Kickoff Playoffs: Matchups And Predictions

The first Valorant tournament of the year in the Americas region is coming to a close. We’re down to four teams; only two will claim tickets to compete internationally at Masters Madrid.

The remaining participants, Sentinels, NRG, Evil Geniuses, and LOUD, are placed in a single elimination Semi Final bracket. The two finalists will be rewarded with invitations to VCT Masters Madrid, and the overall winner will receive 3 Americas Points, which is crucial for teams to qualify for VCT Champions at the end of the year.

Playoffs Bracket

The matchups for the final phase of the Kickoff are already set in stone. Evil Geniuses will play against LOUD, while a North American derby between NRG and Sentinels will occur on the other side of the bracket.

Evil Geniuses vs. LOUD

The opening match of the Playoffs stage will feature the Champions-winning organization against a new LOUD roster without their former star player aspas.

The Brazilian squad had a respectable run to get to this point. LOUD had to find a new duelist capable of filling the big shoes Aspas left in the team and settled with ex-FURIA player qck. The boys started the season with a close 2-0 victory against Sentinels and defeated their new rivals, Leviatan, 2-1. 

Meanwhile, Evil Geniuses had their roster shattered before 2024, only retaining two members from its title-winning roster, JAWGEMO and coach potter. Thanks to their victory at Champions, Evil Geniuses received a BYE and only had to play one match against G2 to qualify for Playoffs. Though EG could win 2-0 against G2, it was a very scrappy series that came down to many mistakes and clutches.

From what we’ve seen so far, the new Evil Geniuses roster isn’t too convincing yet. Meanwhile, LOUD had already taken out two of the top teams in the league and looked great. Right now, Less is playing some impeccable Valorant, and unless something crazy happens, it’s hard to imagine that Evil Geniuses could beat LOUD in a Best of 3.

Sentinels vs. NRG

Sentinels had the most arduous path to the Playoffs, losing to LOUD but clinching a win against Leviatan to make it into the last-chance stage. In the Play-ins, Sentinels beat MIBR and still qualified for the Playoffs despite losing to G2. 

Honestly speaking, this team would not have made it this far if zekken hadn’t been playing out of his mind. The 18-year-old Duelist bailed Sentinels out of numerous situations and looks like the best player of the event so far. 

Meanwhile, NRG, the most-hyped 2024 roster globally, is performing to expectations. They have five champions and are yet to drop a single map after 2-0 victories against FURIA and Cloud9. Still, they have yet to face a team that can test them, and we’ll finally get to see how they’ll perform against a good team: Sentinels.

On paper, NRG is favored to win this series against a shaky Sentinels. If Sentinels want any chance of winning this series, zekken must continue displaying his MVP-level performance. If the “zekken go kill” strategy works, we can expect a very close matchup and potentially an upset. 

Header: NRG Twitter