Five things to learn from VALORANT Masters Santiago

The first VALORANT Masters event of the season concluded on Sunday with Nongshim RedForce defeating Paper Rex to claim the first international title of their history. Across a tournament that proved both competitive and entertaining in terms of gameplay, a new champion emerged and several new players established themselves among the world’s elite.

Before turning the page and moving on to Stage 1 across the four major regions, Sheep Esports takes one final look back at the closing chapter of this first segment of the season. If you followed the event from afar—or missed part of the action—here are five key takeaways from the tournament.

In the first all-VCT Pacific final in the history of an international VALORANT event, Nongshim RedForce decisively swept Paper Rex 3–0. With this victory, NS became the first team originating from the VCL circuit and promoted to VCT through Ascension to win an international tournament. Even more remarkably, by the conclusion of the event on March 15, the team had yet to lose a single official match this year.

Built around Goo “Rb” Sang-min—the only player on the roster with prior international experience—the squad of young talents dominated the competition thanks in large part to exceptional performances from Park “Ivy” Sung-hyeon and Lee “Dambi” Hyuk-kyu, the tournament’s MVP and widely regarded as the world’s best Neon player.

Already considered one of the weaker regions before the event, VCT China once again endured a difficult international tournament. Both teams that entered through the Swiss Stage were quickly eliminated. Xi Lai Gaming, unfortunate in their draw, suffered heavy defeats against NRG and G2 Esports, while EDward Gaming met the same fate against Gentle Mates and T1.

All Gamers managed to salvage some pride by defeating Gentle Mates and taking a map off Paper Rex, but the region will need further development before claiming another international trophy. The last such success remains EDward Gaming’s victory at Champions 2024.

While the Pacific region emerged as the clear winner, with both finalists and China struggling significantly, EMEA teams will likely have hoped for stronger results. Without one of the region’s traditional international contenders—Fnatic, who did not attend—the EMEA representatives were unable to achieve major success.

As in the previous year, Team Liquid were eliminated during the Swiss Stage. Although Gentle Mates reached the playoffs, they failed to secure a series victory in the bracket. Meanwhile, the region’s first seed, BBL Esports, showed resilience and character on the international stage but managed only a victory over FURIA before being eliminated by G2 Esports.

With many newcomers present in Santiago, several players participated in their first international competition—and some immediately demonstrated that they belong at the highest level. For Nongshim RedForce, beyond the standout performances of Dambi and Ivy, Kim “Francis” Mu-bin and Jung “Xross” Hwan also delivered impressive displays throughout the tournament. Competing in his first Masters event with Paper Rex, Adrian “invy” Reyes maintained a strong level throughout the competition before being contained in the final.

Roman “f4ngeer” Smirnov and Huang “K1ra” Zhihao helped preserve All Gamers’ competitiveness, as did Yusuf “Lar0k” Kanber and Utku “Loita” Kart for BBL. Finally, although it was not his first international appearance, Martin “marteen” Pátek confirmed the strong form he had shown during Kickoff, finishing the event with the highest average rating of the tournament (1.41) on VLR.gg.

According to data from Esports Charts, the tournament’s peak viewership declined slightly compared to last year. Approximately 883,000 viewers tuned in during the grand final—lower than the 1.3 million recorded during the G2 Esports vs. T1 final at Masters Bangkok and the 1.1 million viewers who watched the Fnatic vs. Paper Rex final in Toronto.

This decline may partly be explained by the absence of an EMEA or Americas team in the championship match. Average viewership (around 409,000 viewers) remained broadly similar to that of Masters Bangkok but was somewhat lower than the figures recorded in Toronto (470,000 viewers).