The Pacific receives its first international LAN this month, as Masters heads outside of Europe for the first time in the VCT's three-year history. The twelve best teams of the world will take Tokyo by storm between June 11 and 25 to determine the only Masters champion of 2023.
The Americas and Pacific teams drafted to Masters Tokyo also have their Champions slots confirmed. EMEA is currently unconfirmed, as only its top-three placed teams at Masters will get a free ticket to the final event of the year — the fourth roster will return to the LCQ. China's squads will be determined by a qualifier hosted in July.
Format
The three champions of each region, along with the second-best EMEA team, have received a bye to the playoffs. This means that LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #2 dgzin Douglas Silva v1nny Vínicius Gonçalves pANcada Bryan Luna tuyz Arthur Andrade cauanzin Cauan Pereira , Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov , Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #22 nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak , and FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #3 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder will only join the competition on June 16.
The other eight teams at the event are evenly split by numbers and regions between two GSL groups. The groups are as follows:
Group A
- NRG Esports NRG Esports North America Rank #3 FiNESSE Pujan Mehta s0m Sam Oh Verno Andrew Maust mada Adam Pampuch Ethan Ethan Arnold (Americas)
- Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #20 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky (EMEA)
- EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #1 S1Mon Hsien Meng-Hsun (谢孟勋) ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) (China)
- T1 T1 Korea Rank #3 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Meteor Kim Tae-O (김태오) Sylvan Ko Young-sub (고영섭) BuZz Yu Byung-chul (유병철) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) (Pacific)
Group B
- DRX DRX Korea Rank #5 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Athan Na Ha-jun (나하준) freeing No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) (Pacific)
- Attacking Soul Esports Attacking Soul Esports Inactive monk Wang Haoyu (王浩宇) Yuicaw Huang Yung-chieh (黃湧傑) YHchen Chen Yuhan (陳昱瀚) Zero1 Meng Zhen Ren (任梦真) (China)
- FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #7 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan cNed Mehmet Yağız İpek qRaxs Doğukan Balaban (EMEA)
- Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #21 Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le (Americas)
The two best teams from each group will move up the playoffs, where they'll link up with the four top-seeded teams. A group stage team will always face a top-seeded team, and Riot will place teams from the same group on opposing sides of the bracket to avoid early repeat matchups in the upper bracket.
Like most VCT events, nearly every match in the event will be a Bo3. The lower bracket final and grand final are the only exceptions, played Bo5.
Prize Pool
Unlike previous VCT events, Masters Tokyo will not award points to its teams. Instead, Riot will dish out a $1,000,000 USD prize pool to the 12 attending organizations. This is the highest prize pool at a Masters event so far.
- 1st: $350,000
- 2nd: $200,000
- 3rd: $125,000
- 4th: $75,000
- 5th-6th: $50,000
- 7th-8th: $35,000
- 9th-10th: $25,000
- 11th-12th: $15,000
Schedule (Group Stage)
Sunday, June 11
- 8:00 PM PDT | 5:00 AM CEST | 12:00 PM JST - Group B: FUT Esports vs. Evil Geniuses
- 11:00 PM PDT | 8:00 AM CEST | 3:00 PM JST - Group B: DRX vs. Attacking Soul Esports
- 2:00 AM PDT | 11:00 AM CEST | 6:00 PM JST - Group A: EDward Gaming vs. T1
Monday, June 12
- 8:00 PM PDT | 5:00 AM CEST | 12:00 PM JST - Group A: NRG Esports vs. Natus Vincere
- 11:00 PM PDT | 8:00 AM CEST | 3:00 PM JST - Group B: Winner's Match
Tuesday, June 13
- 8:00 PM PDT | 5:00 AM CEST | 12:00 PM JST - Group A: Winner's Match
- 11:00 PM PDT | 8:00 AM CEST | 3:00 PM JST - Group B: Elimination Match
- 2:00 AM PDT | 11:00 AM CEST | 6:00 PM JST - Group A: Elimination Match
Wednesday, June 14
- 8:00 PM PDT | 5:00 AM CEST | 12:00 PM JST - Group B: Decider
- 11:00 PM PDT | 8:00 AM CEST | 3:00 PM JST - Group A: Decider
PDT times prior to midnight refer to the previous day.
Broadcast
Masters Tokyo will have broadcast drops, which means that you can earn in-game rewards from watching official streams. If you connect your Valorant account with your Twitch or YouTube account, you may be awarded a title and player card.
The "Unpredictable" title can be earned by watching any match between June 11 and 25. The Masters Tokyo Player Card can only be earned during the grand final, on June 25.
English Broadcast Talent
- Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez (Host)
- Yinsu Collins (Host)
- Beatriz "Kaquka" Alonso (Analyst)
- Mimi "aEvilcat" Wermcrantz (Analyst)
- Seth "Achilios" King (Commentator)
- Clinton "Paperthin" Bader (Commentator)
- Arten "Ballatw" Esa (Commentator)
- Doug "EsportsDoug" Cortez (Commentator)
- Brennon "Bren" Hook (Commentator)
- Josh "Sideshow" Wilkinson (Commentator)
- Michael "hypoc" Robins (Commentator)
- Lauren "Pansy" Scott (Commentator)
- David "prius" Kuntz (Observer)
- Heather "sapphiRe" Garozzo (Observer)
- Felix "Synga" Regitz (Observer)
- Nicholas "Yehty" Tesolin (Observer)
Streams
According to Riot, Masters Tokyo will be broadcast in several languages and through several watch parties, which have not yet been revealed.
Coverage
VLR.gg is covering all of Masters Tokyo in our event hub, which includes our live match ticker and stats to comb over. The event also features pick'ems.