G2 Esports defeated by Paper Rex in first VALORANT Masters Toronto match

The first Playoffs day at VALORANT Masters Toronto has shocked fans as VCT Americas’ G2 Esports was sent to the lower bracket by Pacific team Paper Rex.

Meanwhile, fellow North American squad Sentinels remains undefeated in the tournament after asserting dominance over VCT China’s XLG Esports.

G2 Esports’ Masters Toronto debut did not go as expected for many VALORANT fans. As the VCT Americas Stage 1 champion and Masters Bangkok runner-up, G2 is widely considered among the strongest teams in Toronto. However, the roster found itself overrun 0-2 by the unexpected strategic versatility of a steaming Paper Rex train.

For its first map of the tournament, G2 played it safe with a solo Yoru, double-controller and Breach. While this team composition earned the team a solid 7-5 in the first half, PRX delivered a phenomenal attack side in the second half. G2 could not stop its opponent’s confident site executes and post-plant holds. Despite losing both pistol rounds, PRX secured its map pick 13-10.

Lotus told a story similar to the first map. Starting on defence, PRX was frequently punished in its early fights for A control. Still, the team converted several well-executed flood defences, leading to an even 6-6 half. Unlike on Split, PRX could leverage the momentum from two pistol round wins to fight back on Lotus’s attack side. Displaying intelligent mid-rounding and leveraging the A space given by G2, PRX won Lotus 13-11.

Interestingly, it was PRX’s newest member, Patrick ‘PatMen’ Mendoza, who proved himself on Fade with a 34/29 kill-death ratio and an average combat score of 205.

The first Playoffs day continued to surprise, this time, with XLG Esports’ map veto against Sentinels. The VCT China Stage 1 winner chose its opponents’ arguably best map, Sunset, allowing Sentinels to, in turn, pick its second-best map, Lotus. Despite the brave decision, XLG played too cautiously, suffering a 0-2 defeat.

XLG clearly struggled to adjust to the loss of its star initiator Yip ‘YoU’ Man-ho, who was replaced by stand-in player Zhang ‘Midi’ Jiajun ahead of the tournament.

Sunset saw both teams run nearly identical standard team compositions. Looking calm and collected, Sentinels converted a pistol round win into an 8-4 score on attack. Good moments from Deng ‘happywei’ Minwei on Cypher were not enough to turn things around in the second half. Sentinels let only the second pistol round and follow-up buy slip, winning the map13-6.

Lotus started more competitively, with XLG securing the first pistol round and teasing a promising attack half. In the later half, however, the Chinese team seemed to crumble under Sentinels’ Vyse utility and early map control. Following a 8-4 half, Sentinels secured the second pistol round, and swiftly took the map 13-6.

Across both maps, Zachary ‘zekken’ Patrone on Neon and Raze delivered his arguably best performance in the tournament so far. Sentinels fans were treated to a 41/20 kill-death ratio and 301 ACS by their favourite duelist.

With the first Playoffs games concluded, G2 and XLG will have to fight for survival on June 15^th, while PRX and Sentinels will meet in the upper bracket the day after.

Until then, fans can look forward to the debut of VCT EMEA Stage 1 winner Fnatic and Pacific’s Stage 1 champion Rex Regum Qeon (RRQ).

All Playoffs matches will be broadcast on the official VALORANT Twitch and YouTube channels.