VCT Masters Shanghai Playoffs: Teams on the Brink of Elimination

VCT Masters Shanghai is well underway and now we find ourselves in the Playoffs portion of the event.

With the conclusion of today’s games, 4 teams have continued their advance in the Upper Bracket.

However, a similar number find themselves a series loss away from seeing an early end to their Shanghai run.

The Curse that is First Seed

A curious development has occurred over the course of these two days. Earlier this month, Riot issued a new rule that Masters Shanghai was the first to implement: the respective first seeds/winners of their Stage 1 domestic leagues could select their opening opponent coming into Playoffs.

Despite the massive advantage that such a ruling affords to the best teams from each of the region, 3 of the 4 first seeds now find themselves in the lower bracket after the opening games of Playoffs – Fnatic, Paper Rex, and EDward Gaming. Only 100 Thieves seemingly escaped this fate after decimating FUT Esports in their own series.

The narrative of cold-starting straight into Playoffs against teams that have had the opportunity to warm up in the Swiss Stage is a popular sentiment and serves well to explain away why so many of the top teams have thus far failed to score a series win. However, most of those same teams are adamant that that was not the determining factor for what ultimately led to their loss.

2024 has been a puzzling and challenging year for VALORANT thus far. The overarching narrative for competitive VALORANT this year has been that ‘anyone can beat anyone’. All it takes is a good day. And that certainly seems to hold true after spectating the first round of Playoffs.

That said, it is undisputable that after tomorrow, at least 1 of the 4 1st seeds will be exiting Masters Shanghai without a single series win.

VCT Masters Shanghai Playoffs: Lower Bracket Prediction (R1)

Fnatic vs FUT Esports [1st June | 9am GMT+1 | 4pm CST]

Fnatic’s first showing was less than ideal in moments. Despite having the advantage of 1st seed, they ended up (through luck of the draw) as the fourth drawer, and hence were stuck with selecting Gen.G as their first-round opponent.

Fnatic certainly displayed rounds of brilliance which illustrated why they are still the number one team in EMEA; however, they were ultimately unable to close out against the Korean side.

FUT have been nothing short of a disappointment this tournament. Coming into the tournament as the third seed, their performance has been largely inconsistent and wholly unimpressive.

Save for their victory against Leviatán, FUT looked outclassed in many of their matches, and their usual stars are not showing up in a big enough way to pull them out of heavy deficits.

Fnatic faced them before at Champions 2022 and they faced this iteration of the roster in EMEA Stage 1. Both times, Fnatic convincingly won, and this time should be no different, signalling a sad swan song for the Turkish roster who continues to disappoint.

Paper Rex vs EDward Gaming [1st June | 12am GMT+1 | 7pm CST]

W Gaming personified; the keycap was certainly missing today against G2 as the North Americans took down Paper Rex after an incredible three map series.

Paper Rex looked silenced in their attempts to mount their signature aggression and draws questions on their international form after a roaring success of a Stage 1 performance. However, there were bright spots to their performance today and they could very well show up in tomorrow’s game against their fated rivals.

EDward Gaming is another team that looked strangely absent in their opening Shanghai debut. Faced against a powerful Heretics side, even down a man, they had no issues taking out EDG in convincing 2-0 fashion.

Now faced with another rematch against Paper Rex, they will need to re-find their deadly form from Madrid if they wish to prolong their life as the final Chinese representative in Shanghai.

Paper Rex is more likely to come away with the victory in this series. Their brand of VALORANT coupled with their lengthy experience against this Chinese opposition suggests it very likely that they will once again come up triumphant, despite their loss to EDG in Madrid.

Stay tuned on Strafe YouTube for exclusive interviews, press conferences and more. You can also follow the tournament on Strafe.

Credit: Liu YiCun/Riot Games