Best Masters Toronto Pick’Ems

It’s a matter of days until Masters Toronto kicks off, with Team Heretics facing Paper Rex in its opening game. With that, the tournament’s Pick’Ems are now live, returning for the first time since Champs way back in August, giving spectators the chance to earn in-game rewards based on their knack for predicting results.

Masters Toronto Pick’Ems dates

Pick’Ems for the Swiss stage of the event are already live, and players have until Saturday 7th — the day the tournament begins — to make and adjust their choices. The Swiss stage will then take place across five days, after which players will have the 12th and 13th to make picks for the Playoffs.

Hotspawn’s picks

The first round of picks requires players to predict which four of the opening eight Swiss teams will move on to the Playoffs. Such picks could be made with different strategies. The most obvious would be for players to choose who they believe to be the outright best four teams. However, the nature of the draw means that some of those could be against each other in the opening round, meaning at least one could be guaranteed an opening defeat in a format whereby two defeats mean elimination.

As an alternative, we’ve first focused on the likely outcome of the first matches to get a clearer outlook on the bracket. Those we expect to begin 1-0 are Team Heretics, Bilibili Gaming, Sentinels, and Gen.G.

Of those, I’d expect TH and Gen.G the most likely to go 2-0, provided the former have been able to mentally recuperate after their devastating EMEA finals loss to Fnatic.

That would mean that Paper Rex, Team Liquid, Wolves, and MIBR begin 0-1. Team Liquid seems destined to crash out 0-2, with the absence of in-game leader nAts leaving a gaping hole in the team. After that, we see Wolves Esports as the weakest of the other three, giving them the best chance at joining TL in early elimination.

Remaining at 1-1 would be Bilibili, Sentinels, Paper Rex, and MIBR. At this point, there’s no predicting the bracket and players can only choose their general top two. Of the two Americas sides, MIBR already lost the matchup against Sentinels in the VCT Americas upper-bracket final, so they’re out of the running more or less by default.

Of the last three, we’d say Paper Rex should be the ‘head’ pick to be the weakest, but the ‘heart’ is fully on board on the PRX train. We’re tipping Paper Rex and Sentinels to claim the other two places, joining Heretics and Gen.G in the bracket stage.

There is also a bonus pick to choose one of the two 2-0 advancing sides. We’ve gone for Gen.G, the side that had the most fight against their respective regional champion.

Masters Toronto Pick’Ems Rewards

All of those who make their Pick’Ems will earn the “EH?” in-game title, regardless of results. Then, two gun buddies will be available based on performance, both of which fittingly mimic maple syrup bottles for the Canadian tournament. Those in the top 50% will win the “Sweet Victory” gun buddy, a bottle with a purple VCT logo. Then, the top 20% will receive the upgraded version with a gold VCT logo, titled “Pick’Ems Master: Sweet Victory”.

Rather underwhelming is the prize for those with a perfect score, simply earning another in-game title: “100%”.