Team Heretics and MIBR eliminated from VALORANT Masters Toronto

VALORANT Masters Toronto has eliminated its first two teams from the competition, with EMEA’s Team Heretics and Americas’ MIBR leaving the event on Day 4.

Both teams suffered crushing defeats in their Swiss Stage matches against Wolves Esports and Team Liquid, respectively, which have, in turn, avoided elimination for now.

The first Masters Toronto roster to pack its bags was VCT EMEA’s Team Heretics. After a surprisingly competitive series against Sentinels on Day 2, VCT China’s Wolves Esports decided to make a convincing 2-0 statement against its second opponent.

Given Team Heretic’s devastating 1-13 loss on Pearl in its first Swiss Stage match last week, it was surprising to see the EMEA squad leave this map open for today’s veto.

Wolves took this opportunity to show off its double-sentinel team composition, featuring Chamber and Vyse. The Chinese roster dominated on defence 8-4 and won both pistol rounds. Despite a valiant second-half comeback attempt from Heretics, the Wolves secured Pearl 13-10.

Interestingly, both teams struggled with taking map control on Heretic’s map pick, Lotus. On attack specifically, the teams were repeatedly punished for forcing C hits. This led to a relatively competitive match despite a strong early start for Wolves Esports on attack (7-5). In the second half, Heretics earned its first pistol round of the tournament. However, Wolves once again leveraged its team fighting potential to come out on top (13-9).

Throughout the series, Wolves’ Liu ‘Spring’ Jiunting stood out with his reliable game sense and mechanics. On Astra and Viper, Spring reached a kill-death ratio of 44/29 and a 260 average combat score (ACS).

The day continued with the elimination match between EMEA’s Team Liquid and Brazilian team MIBR. Although Team Liquid’s in-game leader (IGL) Ayaz ‘nAts’ Akhmetshin could join for his team’s second match, the reunited roster had little practice time together and was considered the dark horse of the series.

However, Team Liquid surprised viewers with a six-person roster, deciding to continue playing with the nAts’ replacement, Erik ‘penny’ Penny. As a result, it was Maikls ‘SerialKiller‘ Zdanovs who was replaced in the starting line-up for game one.

The risky move paid off, earning the team a swift 2-0 victory against an underperforming MIBR.

The series kicked off on Icebox, where MIBR fans were shocked to witness their team struggle on attack. Failing to convert the majority of spike plants, MIBR only won five rounds in the first half. Meanwhile, Liquid successfully leaned into the comfort play style of individual players. Penny returned to the duelist role, and NAts debuted in Toronto with a lurking masterclass, securing a 13-6 victory with a triple frag in the final round.

For Team Liquid’s map pick, Sunset, the team replaced penny with Serial to run a Viper-Cypher agent combo. Despite lacking team practice, Liquid showed superior coordination and delivered another 7-5 first half, this time on attack. Moreover, Georgio ‘Keiko’ Sanassy on Omen consistently delivered high-impact frags throughout the match. Backed by two pistol-round wins, Liquid defeated MIBR 13-7.

Following today’s elimination matches, the Swiss Stage at Masters Toronto is heading into its final round. Tomorrow, Wolves Esports and Team Liquid will face Bilibili Gaming and Paper Rex, the losing teams from yesterday’s upper-bracket matches.

The exact match-ups were determined at the end of today’s broadcast in accordance with the tournament’s Swiss Stage ruleset. While regional match-ups are allowed, Swiss Stage rematches are forbidden.

VALORANT fans can tune into the official Twitch and YouTube channels to find out who will be the final two squads to advance to the playoffs.