VCT Masters Tokyo playoffs: Fnatic thrash PRX, EG beat Liquid to reach final

The VCT Masters continued today with upper-bracket semifinals, pitting four Valorant superpowers against each other with two going on to the next round. The first match pitted Team Liquid, the VCT EMEA Champions, against the new North American favorite Evil Geniuses, while the second match pitted Fnatic, the VCT LOCK/IN Champions, against Paper Rex, the Southeast Asian Valorant powerhouse. Here is how the match transpired:

Fnatic vs Paper Rex

Lotus:
Fnatic put on a dominating performance on the series opener Lotus, annihilating Paper Rex throughout the first half. Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev’s merciless blitz brought the South Asian team to its knees. Sirmitev recorded an incredible 19 kills to enable his team to take complete control with a 12-0 advantage. Emir “Alfajer” Beder also contributed heavily to Fnatic’s dominating showing, racking up 13 kills with an ADR of 187 in the first half alone.

Paper Rex attempted to recover from the loss with their own four-round win streak, but the damage was too severe to be repaired. Fnatic closed the map with a decisive 13-4 victory after securing the one round needed. Derke was the standout performer for Fnatic, finishing up with 24 kills while only conceding 11 deaths throughout the map. The only person who could have saved PRX during the entire game was Wang “Jinggg” Jing Jie, but even with 23 kills, he was unable to stop Derke and Alfajer’s relentless counterattacks.

Bind:
With momentum in their favor, Fnatic dominated the series’ second map Bind, going 4-0 up early on. Despite dropping the subsequent round, Fnatic managed to maintain its composure through another four-round streak that extended the team’s lead to 8-1. Despite finding a few rounds for themselves, PRX still trailed 3-9 and must be hoping that the 9-3 curse will miraculously put things right.  Timofey “Chronicle” Khromov, Alfajer, and Derke all recorded double-digit kill totals for Fnatic in the first half, giving the European squad enough offensive capability to keep the star Indonesian riflers at bay.

The second half began with Fnatic continuing where they left off, winning the opening pistol round and the two rounds that followed with ease to extend their advantage to 12-3. The match did appear to take a twist when Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto fueled  PRX’s attempt to make things right. By leveraging his fragging skills, PRX was able to penetrate Fnatic’s defense and regain some of the ground they had lost. The squad won four rounds in a row to reduce the deficit to 7-12, but it wasn’t enough to make a difference as Fnatic regrouped and outplayed the opponents 13-7.

With this victory, Fnatic moves to the upper bracket finals, where they will face EG. PRX, on the other hand, has been relegated to the bottom group, where a further loss will ensure the South Asian team’s return home. They will face the Chinease underdogs Edward Gaming today in the quarterfinals.

Team Liquid vs Evil Geniuses:

Fracture:
EG went off to a flying start on their own map pick Fracture, cruising through a quick 4-0 lead on the back of Kelden “Boostio” Pupello’s explosive performance in the opening minutes. After winning the fifth round, Team Liquid put an end to the bloodbath, but EG came back with a much more ruthless performance and shut down the European team’s defense for the remainder of the first half.

Boostio, EG’s premier fragger, continued to provide the team adequate firepower as the team went on to a dominating 7-0 run. Boostio’s efforts were very well supported by his fellow teammate COM, who appeared in brilliant form and racked up 13 kills for himself in the first half alone. With an 11-1 advantage to start the second half, Liquid lost the game’s second pistol round. Nevertheless, they wasted no time getting back on track and won the next two rounds to win the map 13-2.

Haven:
Liquid picked Haven to turn things around but a brilliant all-round effort from EG denied them any room for a comeback. The North American team easily won the pistol round before quickly taking the lead, 4-1. As the game grew tense, more blows were traded between the two teams, but EG still led 7-5 at halftime. Liquid finally managed to find a way through EG’s defense in the second half, securing three more rounds to equalize the score 8-8.

Alexander “jawgemo” Mor, who was quite silent on the first map, came to life and led an offensive charge to save the EG. Despite Liquid’s best efforts, jawgemo and his squad rallied for an incredible 13-9 victory to close the series 2-0 and clinch a spot in the highly-coveted upper bracket finals.

The North American team will compete against the European superpower Fnatic in the championship match tomorrow, with the victor taking home $350,000 in prize money and the coveted trophy. Boostio emerged as the top fragger for EG, racking up 39 kills across the top map with a K/D/A of 39/25/12 and ACS of 317.

Header: Riot Games