VCT Stage 3 Masters recap: Day 1

Day 1 of VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) Stage 3 Masters was an eventful start to the 10 day Berlin LAN tournament. With many vlr.gg Pick’em predictions down bad, let’s recap what happened today, some statistical highlights and the greater Last Chance Qualifier and Champions picture happening later this year.

Game Highlights

Today, the heavily favored teams won, signaling a strong start to the tournament for the most fearsome VALORANT regions.

Match A2 — Acend v SuperMassive Blaze (SMB) (2-0): Nothing screams dominance like giving the enemy two vandals for free. Acend blew through SMB on Bind with a nasty 13-5, managing to outpace the Turkish team with clever utility and several aim duel wins. Ascent, however, were much more contested, with SMB coming back from a 0-5 deficit to win the half at 7-5. After a close back and forth, Acend clutched it back with a 13-9, pushing SMB to the loser bracket in group A.

Match D1 — G2 Esports v F4Q (2-1): Ascent was a clean victory for G2. After winning 11-1 on attack, F4Q tried to get something going on their defending half, but G2 broke through on round 17 and F4Q could not recover. Bind was a different story. F4Q exploded on their attacking half with a 7 round win streak, ending the half with an 8-4 lead, finishing with a strong 13-9 on their defense. And so, the match ended on Haven, which both teams had a 70% cumulative win rate on leading up to Berlin. The first half was very close, with G2 winning 7-5, but G2 took the second half and ran, winning 13-8 and their first match at Berlin.

Match C2 — 100 Thieves v Havan Liberty (2-0): 100 Thieves blew past Havan Liberty on both maps, with this match being the closest to a clean sweep. On Ascent, 100 Thieves took 9-3 on their defending half and then took the next four rounds in the second half to win. Havan fought hard on Icebox, getting 4-8 in the first half, but 100 Thieves closed it out 13-6.

Stat Highlights

Stats provided by vlr.gg and runitback.gg.

Top five players based on Average Combat Score:

1. Acend’s Mehmet Yağız “cNed“ İpek: 293.0
2. 100 Thieves’ Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk: 280.5
3. 100 Thieves’ Ethan “Ethan” Arnold: 270.5
4. G2’s Cista “keloqz” Wassim: 260.7
5. Acend’s Aleksander “zeek” Zygmunt: 258.5

Top six agents pick rates:

(Killjoy and Sage tied, so there are six today)

1. Sova: 86%
2. Skye: 64%
3. Astra: 64%
4. Jett: 57%
5. Killjoy 50%
6. Sage – 50%.

Top 5 players based on Kill:Death ratio:

1. 100 Thieves’ Ethan: 1.95
2. 100 Thieves’ Hiko: 1.92
3. Acend’s cNed: 1.65
4. Acend’s zeek: 1.52
5. 100 Thieves’ Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella: 1.47

Group Standings

Group A

Acend: 1-0 (2-0)

Vision Strikers: 0-0 (0-0)

Paper Rex: 0-0 (0-0)

SuperMassive Blaze: 0-1 (0-2)

Group B

Vivo Keyd: 0-0 (0-0)

Team Envy: 0-0 (0-0)

KRÜ Esports: 0-0 (0-0)

ZETA DIVISION: 0-0 (0-0)

Group C

100 Thieves: 1-0 (2-0)

Gambit Esports: 0-0 (0-0)

Crazy Raccoon: 0-0 (0-0)

Havan Liberty: 0-1 (0-2)

Group D

G2 Esports: 1-0 (2-1)

Sentinels: 0-0 (0-0)

F4Q: 0-1 (1-2)

The day’s impact

With Acend winning their game today, they have locked in a minimum of 12th place at VCT Stage 3 Masters. This means they garner enough points to push Team Liquid out of second place in EMEA, so Team Liquid goes to EMEA LCQ.

Meanwhile, here are the teams still waiting to see if they make it to Champions automatically or go to their regional LCQ. The names in bold are currently at Berlin:

Team Envy, 100 Thieves, Fnatic, Gambit Esports, Acend, G2 Esports, SuperMassive Blaze, Team Vikings, Shark Esports, Havan Liberty, Vivo Keyd, Crazy Raccoon, Zeta Division, NUTURN Gaming, Vision Strikers, F4Q, X10 Esports, Bren Esports, Paper Rex.

Finally, here are the teams who need their respective regional team to win Berlin to make it to LCQ:

TSM (North America), forZe (Europe, Middle East and Asia), NOORG 2.0 (Brazil), Northeption (Japan), DAMWON Gaming (Korea), Alter Ego (Southeast Asia), Border Monsters (Latin America)