The underdog story of VCT 2025 Masters: Toronto is staying strong, as Wolves Esports Wolves Esports China Unranked 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 defeated Rex Regum Qeon Rex Regum Qeon Asia-Pacific Unranked Monyet Cahya Nugraha xffero David Monangin Jemkin Maksim Batorov Kushy Bryan Carlos Setiawan crazyguy Ngô Công Anh 2-0 in the first round of the playoff stage. Not only does the result continue the first seed losing streak at the event, but the third seed from China looks like the best of their region.

Starting on Ascent, Wolves ran their Deadlock comp from the Swiss stage while RRQ ran double Initiator with Jett. Wolves converted the pistol and converted their bonus to start 3-0 up on the attack side, with Yuicaw stepping up early on. Kushy was the catalyst to stop the half from getting out of hand, but SiuFatBB clutched a 1v3 to guarantee a strong first half in the playoffs.

SiuFatBB wins a 1v3 post-plant to keep Wolves ahead.

RRQ were struggling to fight against the attack-side Deadlock, as Wolves ended the half up 8-4. For a very defense-sided map, Wolves started hot and carried that into their double Sentinel defense.

Wolves won the second pistol, but were unable to convert the bonus. The lead was significant for Wolves, but Kushy and xffero slowly started to claw back into the map with key round wins. RRQ nearly tied the game at 10, but Wolves started trading round wins at the most important time. The map came down to the final round before overtime, with Juicy having his hero moment to help Wolves win Ascent 13-11 and lead the series.

Icebox was next, with both teams running relatively normal compositions. Wolves opted for Gekko, while RRQ chose Omen. RRQ won their first pistol of the series, but were unable to convert the bonus to get a quick lead like Wolves did on Ascent. It was still a great start for RRQ, getting to six round wins in the blink of an eye, but Wolves had their star moments, with the best example being a 0.09-second defuse clutch by SiuFatBB.

SiuFatBB gets a close defuse to keep Icebox winnable for Wolves.

Jemkin stepped up to help RRQ reach the half up 8-4. Wolves won the second half pistol, converted the bonus, and Juicy started heating up as Wolves quickly tied the game at 8-8. The momentum was entirely in Wolves' favor, as Juicy regularly got two or three kills to win rounds for his team. Wolves shut down all the firepower from RRQ as they finished their attack half perfectly, winning Icebox 13-8 and the series 2-0.

With his outstanding performance on the final map, Juicy ended the series with 40 kills, a series rating of 1.24, and 179 ADR.

After this win, Wolves Esports will face the winner of FNATIC and Gen.G in the upper bracket, while RRQ will face the loser of that same match in the lower bracket.