VCT Stage 3 Masters recap: Day 3

Day 3 of VALORANT Champions Tour Stage 3 Masters Berlin was even more of a banger than Day 2. These matches went to all three games as teams pushed themselves to the limit and stars arose in unexpected places. From the glorious trash talk to the inconceivable outplays, here is everything that happened in Day 3.

Game Highlights

Every game went to Map 3, and each one was an absolute nail-biter. Like days previous, it has left many viewers, analysts and casters reconsidering the other regions as they showed up on Sunday.

Match B2 — KRÜ Esports v ZETA DIVISION (2-1): An absolute banger of a game. On Ascent, it looked like KRÜ was going to take it easy with a 11-1 half. But then ZETA came back and made it a 13-8. Split was a similar case, ZETA started with a 7-0 lead, but KRÜ came back with a 7-5 half. KRÜ looked like they had the momentum on their side, but ZETA shut them out, winning the next six rounds and taking the match 13-5. So it came down to Bind, where ZETA had a 75% win rate on during Japan’s Stage 3 Playoffs, and KRÜ had a 100% win rate on during Latin America’s Stage 3 finals. This is also the second match to go to the third map (G2 Esports v F4Q was the first). This map was close in the first half, with KRÜ taking it 7-5. Unfortunately for ZETA, KRÜ Esports took that and ran, finishing 13-7. However, one cannot stress how incredible Japan did, winning their first map ever at an international VALORANT LAN tournament.

Right place at the right time for @no960fps! #VALORANTMasters pic.twitter.com/ULHY1BFAcD

— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) September 12, 2021

Match D2 — Sentinels v G2 (2-1): This is the event match of the day, by far, with over 200,000 viewers on the main Twitch channel alone according to Esports Charts. G2 Esports and Sentinels social media have been memeing each other for weeks leading up to this match, so the community was hyped for this. Split was somewhat one-sided, with Sentinels taking the first half 8-4, then winning the map 13-6. Icebox, though, sung a different song. G2 burned through Sentinels’ defense 8-4 as the momentum felt on their side. They forced Sentinels into several hard positions and brought the game to 13-8, killing Sentinels’ LAN win streak. And so, on Haven, the third Map 3 of Berlin. It felt as though G2 awakened some angry beast in Sentinels. Sentinels slammed G2, going 11-1 in the first half. G2 made a valiant effort to come back, but Sentinels was having none of it, ending the map 13-8.

The trash talk from @Sentinels is scary pic.twitter.com/sVytYVafeU

— Geo (@geometric) September 12, 2021

Match C3 — 100 Thieves v Gambit Esports (2-1): This is was a hyped-up North America versus Europe, Middle East and Africa match that the community craves for sweet narratives, and what a game it was. On Ascent, Gambit seemed to outpace 1oo Thieves at every step. Gambit Esports’ Nikita “d3ffo” Sudakov cracked 100T open with a 4v1 knife ace, and swept the map 13-5. Icebox had the same momentum, with Gambit taking 9-3 on the attack. But 100 Thieves was not going down without a fight as they fought their way back to take it 13-11. For the third time that day, fans were treated to a Map 3, this time on Split. 100 Thieves took the first half, shutting down Gambit’s star Duelist at every turn. From there, the 9-3 curse ended, with 100 Thieves winning 13-10. Gambit was strong at the start, but it felt as though their paced slowed as the game went on.

Stat Highlights

Stats provided by vlr.gg and runitback.gg.

Stats are based off of VCT Stage 3 Masters Day 3 performances.

Top five players based on Average Combat Score

1. 100 Thieves’ Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk: 301
2. Gambit Esports’ Bogdan “Sheydos” Naumov: 265
3. ZETA DIVISION’s Koji “Laz” Ushida: 258
4. KRÜ Esports’ Angelo “keznit” Mori: 254
5. G2 Esports’ Žygimantas “nukkye” Chmieliauskas: 253

Top 5 players based on Kill/Death Differential

1. Sentinels’ Tyson “TenZ” Ngo: +22
2. Gambit Esports’ Bogdan “Sheydos” Naumov: +19
3. ZETA DIVISION’s Shogo “takej” Takemori: +15
4. Sentinels’ Hunter “SicK” Mim: +15
5. ZETA DIVISION’s Koji “Laz” Ushida: +13

Berlin Overall

Top five players based on Average Combat Score

1. Vivo Keyd’s Olavo “heat” Marcelo: 302.0
2. Paper Rex’s Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto: 294.0
3. Acend’s Mehmet Yağız “cNed“ İpek: 293.0
4. 100 Thieves’ Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk: 270.6
5. Team Envy’s Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker: 261.0

Top 5 players based on Kill/Death Ratio

1. Gambit Esports’ Bogdan “Sheydos” Naumov: 1.71
2. Sentinels’ Tyson “TenZ” Ngo: 1.69
3. Acend’s Mehmet Yağız “cNed“ İpek: 1.65
4. Vision Striker’s Goo “Rb” Sang-Min: 1.64
5. Acend’s Aleksander “zeek” Zygmunt: 1.52

Top 5 players based on First Kill/First Death Differential

1. 100 Thieves’ Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk: +11
2. Vivo Keyd’s Olavo “heat” Marcelo: +11
3. KRÜ Esports’ Juan Pablo “NagZ” Lopez Miranda: +10
4. Sentinels’ Tyson “TenZ” Ngo: +9
5. SuperMassive Blaze’s Baran “Izzy” Yılmaz: +8

Top five agents pick rates

1. Jett: 82%
2. Sova: 70%
3. Astra: 59%
4. Skye: 52%
5. Sage 50%

Group Standings

Group A

Acend: 1-0 (2-0)

Vision Strikers: 1-0 (2-0)

Paper Rex: 0-1 (0-2)

SuperMassive Blaze: 0-1 (0-2)

Group B

Team Envy: 1-0 (2-0)

KRÜ Esports: 1-0 (2-1)

ZETA DIVISION: 0-1 (1-2)

Vivo Keyd: 0-1 (0-2)

Group C

100 Thieves: 2-0 (4-1)

Gambit Esports: 1-1 (3-2)

Crazy Raccoon: 0-1 (0-2)

Havan Liberty: 0-1 (0-2)

Group D

Sentinels: 1-0 (2-1)

G2 Esports: 1-1 (3-3)

F4Q: 0-1 (1-2)

The day’s impact

With 100 Thieves’ win over Gambit Esports, they pull ahead of Team Envy to second in North America. However, Team Envy plays later with a few favorable matchups, so they might catch up. But as of right now, 100T is beating Team Envy.

Meanwhile, here are the teams still waiting to see if they make it to Champions automatically or go to their regional Last Chance Qualifier. 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 the LCQ:

TSM (North America), forZe (Europe, Middle East and Asia), NOORG 2.0 (Brazil), NORTHEPTION (Japan), DWG KIA (Korea), Alter Ego (Southeast Asia), Border Monsters (Latin America)