VCT Masters Berlin Playoffs – Recap & Predictions

The group stage in the Valorant Champion Tour Masters 3 Berlin has recently ended, leading to 8 final teams to compete in the playoffs stage starting in the quarterfinals. The teams will compete for a share in Valorant’s biggest prizepool to date, $700,000. Additionally, the victor of the Masters Berlin will gain a direct qualification to the Champions event in December.

All the participants in the playoffs are giants in their respective regions, with their performance directly outlining their entire region’s strength in the international scene. Let’s go through our predictions for the Playoffs, and set some expectations.

100 Thieves vs. Acend

100 Thieves while a top North American team, are known to be unpredictable. While able to defeat the best teams, at times, they have also dropped unexpected games against low-mid tier ones.
100 Thieves claimed the first seed in Group C through an extremely close Bo3 against Gambit Esports. Despite being Asuna’s first LAN event, the star player and his team continues perform well. As the VCT Masters 1 champions, it is no surprise Acend came into the competition as one of the favourites. However, their recent 0-2 loss against Vision Strikers may indicate the team while strong domestically, may have fallen behind international competition.

100 Thieves 44% l Acend 56%

Team Envy vs. Sentinels

A battle between two top North American rivals. Team Envy had formerly taken down Sentinels in a strong 3-0 fashion, securing first place in the NA VCT Stage 1 Challengers 2 event. While Team Envy failed to make it to finals in the following two stages, they continue to be one of North America’s strongest forces, continuously placing in the top 4. In comparison, ever since TenZ joined Sentinels, the already dominating team has only reached further heights. Sentinels have completely rolled their recent competition, winning the NA VCT Stage 2 & 3 main and final events. Most note worthy of all, Sentinels are also the defending champions from the VCT Stage 2 Masters Reykjavik. Considering Sentinels admittedly threw their last group game to match against Team Envy, a strategy to verse a NA team they have won against numerous times, they should have a strong advantage coming into the quarterfinals.

Prediction: Team Envy 24% l Sentinels 76%

Vision Strikers vs. Gambit Esports

Vision Strikers has always been a strong team in Korea, constantly standing on top of the region since the start. Following a slight stumble and failing to make it into finals in the KR VCT Stage 2 and subsequently Masters 2 event, the team brought on two new members along with the reintroduction of Lakia. This decision led to Vision Strikers claiming first in the KR VCT Stage 3 Playoffs, only dropping a single map throughout the series. The team also remain completely undefeated in the recent Masters 3 Group A, one of two teams to achieve such a feat. Similarly, Gambit Esports are also a power house in their region, taking first place in the past 3 EMEA Challengers main events. The team narrowly missed out as the first seed in Group C, with an extremely narrow loss against the 100 Thieves 1-2. While Vision Strikers are favoured, Gambit Esports too have a decent chance at proving themselves on the international stage by taking down a top Korean team.

Prediction: Vision Strikers 65% l Gambit Esports 35%

G2 Esports vs. KRU Esports

G2 Esports are now one of the favourites to take out the Berlin Masters. While the team had previously struggled earlier in the year, their roster overhaul had been a major success. Armed with a new roster, G2 Esports completely turned their results around, easily qualifying for the EU VCT Stage 3 and later going on to finish second place in the main event. Their continuous improvement is apparent, recently going toe to toe against Sentinels, and now regarded as one of the primary forces standing to challenge the defending champions. Kru Esports on the other hand, while only established at the start of 2021, has already developed to be the top Latin Ameirca team. Kru Esports had unfortunately failed to make a name for themselves in the international stage earlier in 2021 despite qualifying for masters. The team suffered an early defeat, knocked out by Team Liquid in their second game in the competition and ending 7-8^th. Additionally, despite qualifying for the quarterfinals currently, Kru ended their group with more round losses than wins. Considering they were seeded into the Group B, what many consider to be the easiest group of the competition, Kru will likely fall to G2.

Prediction: G2 Esports 80% l KRU Esports 20%

Comments are closed.