Masters Toronto is starting soon, and two players from each team competing have spoken to the media in a set of press conferences. Some spoke of the expectations of players and teams alike, while others just lightened the mood before a big tournament in VCT 2025.

The first group consisted of representatives from Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #1 Foxy9 Jung Jae-sung (정재성) Ash Ha Hyun-cheol (하현철) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) Suggest Seo Jae-young (서재영) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) , MIBR MIBR Brazil Rank #1 artzin Arthur Araujo xenom Eduardo Soeiro cortezia Gabriel Cortez Verno Andrew Maust aspas Erick Santos , Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #2 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid , and Wolves Esports Wolves Esports China Rank #3 SiuFatBB Pong Gaa Hei (庞加曦) Yuicaw Huang Yung-chieh (黃湧傑) Spring Liu Jiunting (刘俊霆) Lysoar Liang Youhao (梁优好) Juicy Tyler James Aeria . Here are highlights of some of the questions and answers of the first group.

The first question was for the two Americas teams present, asking if the transit to Toronto was better now that they didn't have to fly as far as previous events in Shanghai and Bangkok.

“I mean, it's nice not having to fly 16 hours, that's a plus,” Zellsis said. “I thought that was an advantage until we saw the 9 A.M. call time. We're gamers, we stay up late.”

aspas added that “only a four-hour and twenty-minute flight was nice.”

As for the Wolves players, SiuFatBB and Lysoar now had to familiarize themselves with a long trip to Toronto, in their organization's VCT international debut, no less.

“It's not too bad, just needed a good sleep,” SiuFatBB said. Lysoar seconded his teammate's sentiment, saying, “I feel pretty good.”

Masters Toronto press conference part 1 Players get ready for the first part of the VCT 2025 Masters Toronto pre-event press conference.

As for Wolves, their international debut was something they had a lot of time to plan around. VCT China was the first region to complete their Stage 1 playoffs and find out who was going to Toronto, but that didn't change the outlook for the players.

“I think we game-planned a lot, but we'll have to contact a lot,” Lysoar said, “and our focus has to stay on the screen. This is our first international event, so having a clear head is very important.”

The two Sentinels players, johnqt and Zellsis, got a couple of questions specifically about their quick departure from Masters Bangkok and how they've changed since.

“I think we're a different team outside and inside the server,” johnqt said. “We got more used to each other, and it showed in Stage 1 even after the loss in the finals. We're very excited to show up at this tournament.”

“We've been a team for a bit now, but the role changes and system changes have made the team a lot different,” Zellsis said. “We've done a lot of behind-the-scenes work, and we can focus on fixing mistakes in scrims, but when you're playing matches, that's where the real frustration and nervousness come out. It takes time to talk about that. For us, it's been a constant work in progress, and we knew when we formed this team that it would be something that is a constant process. We focus on the small wins, as long as we keep moving forward.”

The MIBR players, Verno and aspas, both had their own perspectives heading into Toronto, as one is a star rookie looking to prove himself while the other has long established himself one of the best players in the world.

“I think it's always good, especially coming in as a new player, to play with someone with the experience that aspas has,” Verno said. “Our goal is only to win it. Individually, I don't have any performance goals outside of performing the best that I can.”

For MIBR, their recent play in the EWC qualifiers was a bit of a testing ground for what Masters Toronto could be.

“The EWC qualifiers helped us know what we're good at,” Verno said. “We were still in Tejo meta for those games, but we didn't play Tejo. We practiced those new agents and new roles in the team.”

The second group of players represented Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov , Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #4 whzy Wang Haozhe (王昊哲) Levius Lu Yinzhong (卢胤中) rushia Wang Xiaojie (王晓杰) nephh Marcus Tan Knight Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔) , Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #3 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius , and Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #9 penny Erik Penny paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak Serial Maikls Zdanovs . To start that questioning, the question came up if Team Heretics were still confident on Sunset, a map that they dominated on in VCT 2024, but also had changes implemented on it while it was away.

“We've practiced before with the new changes on Sunset, even before it got removed, and as a team we have a good understanding of the map,” benjyfishy said. “We were happy when we saw it was coming back, but other teams have also improved a lot on the map. The last time we played Sunset, we got destroyed by EDG, but we still like it.”

For Paper Rex, who had both PatMen and Jinggg as their representatives, they were quickly asked about what Patmen's addition to the team meant for their return to international play.

“With Patmen coming in, with any changes to a team, we feel more motivated,” Jinggg said. “Also, after he came in, we got those wins and built that momentum. That momentum is a key reason as to why we're playing better than we started.”

Patmen wasn't the only rookie making a difference on his team, as rushia also joined BLG with the hopes of starting his Valorant career strong. While Kickoff didn't work, BLG rebounded to perform well in Stage 1 and eliminated EDward Gaming to reach Masters Toronto, and rushia was key to his team's improvements.

“I think my teammates focused on getting me integrated into the team,” rushia said, “getting me in a good headspace, and building up our tactics.”

Last but not least, Team Liquid was facing some of the biggest struggles heading into Toronto. VCT EMEA was the last region to finish their regional play due to both scheduling and technical difficulties, but Liquid also lost their star player and IGL nAts to visa issues, leading to local player penny filling in for the Liquid roster. How much practice did Liquid even get with their emergency substitute?

“Only three or four days without penny, so only one true day of practice with penny,” paTiTek said. “Not that much, and we got notice only a week before the tournament started that he would join.”

Of all people on Team Liquid, paTiTek knows what it's like to have to play around a substitute, but he also knows what it's like to surprise people with plays they don't expect, as his old teammates on Team Heretics know.

Masters Toronto press conference part 2 Team Heretics and Team Liquid players arrive at the Masters Toronto press conference.

Even with the emergency sub, kamo was pleasantly surprised with how well penny fit in.

“We didn't have high expectations for him,” kamo said, “but we're surprised he doesn't have a team considering how he plays and communicates. He's playing whatever the team needs.”

The third and final group in the conference consisted of RRQ, XLG, Fnatic, and G2 Esports, who are the top seeds from all four regions. As the teams sat down, coconut from XLG talked to Boaster for a bit and expanded on it later.

“I'm not that talkative of a person,” coconut said, “so I didn't communicate much with other players until now. I felt nervous on stage doing interviews, but Boaster said I shouldn't be afraid.”

Both the Fnatic players and G2 Esports players are some of the few competitors at Masters Toronto who have been to a previous international event, and Boaster wasn't only offering coconut some good advice when he thought back to his first international event in Iceland.

“You're going to look back at that first international fondly no matter what, win or lose, so enjoy it,” Boaster said. “Even with mine, in Iceland, it ended with the loss to Sentinels. Understand that you won't be perfect, people will whiff, but engage with the crowd and enjoy the moment.”

G2's trent was quick to hop on that topic, saying that “our first international, at Iceland, we had no idea what we were doing. I hope these rookies are better than we were.”

Ending off the press conference, Yinsu brought up that these top-seeded teams will be able to pick their opponents based on who is remaining from the Swiss stage. Some teams had their two players choose different opponents, as RRQ's Jemkin chose Gen.G while crazyguy chose MIBR for a chance to face his favorite player, aspas. Both Xi Lai Gaming players want their rematch against Wolves, while both Fnatic players chose Bilibili Gaming, who crashies had some unfinished business with.

Lastly, G2 had multiple options based on whether they wanted fun, viewership, or an easy win. In the end, trent stuck with what they called an easy win, and hopes they will face Sentinels when the playoff stage of Masters Toronto begins.