Team Heretics need a confidence boost, nAts a lifeline for Team Liquid – VCT Toronto Day 4 Preview

Masters Toronto is well underway, with the first Swiss teams, Sentinels and Gen.G, already booking their places in the playoffs. Next up are the sides already at risk of elimination, with two teams set to exit the tournament today.

Team Heretics vs Wolves Esports – Heretics must avoid a mental collapse

Starting off the day’s action at 12:00 PM local time (18:00 CEST) is a clash between EMEA’s Team Heretics and China’s Wolves Esports. TH should be the favourites, but their humbling by Paper Rex may indicate deeper issues.

Team Heretics were dismantled by Paper Rex in their opening series. The first map could have hardly gone any worse as the EMEA second seed was on the receiving end of a 13-1 battering. The second map — Heretics’ pick — was much closer, though they still fell to a 13-9 defeat. This was their first series following the 3-0 sweep at the hands of Fnatic in the EMEA Stage 1 final, a defeat which left the team visibly dejected.

The consensus is that, when things get tough for Heretics, heads begin to drop and comms begin to quieten. Confidence seems to have a massive effect on their fate, and a win against Wolves — a team considered one of the weakest in Toronto — would be the perfect catalyst for an upswing in belief.

Wolves Esports will fancy their chances though. The Chinese side was written off before the tournament started and were expected to be comfortably beaten by Sentinels in their opener. That said, a particularly close map one, albeit part of an eventual 0-2 loss, made viewers take note.

They’ll still be clear underdogs against Heretics, but Los Niños are a wounded animal that the Wolves could prey upon in order to stave off elimination.

Team Liquid vs MIBR – The return of nAts a lifeline for TL

Set to start at 15:00 PM local time (21:00 CEST), the day’s second clash will be between EMEA’s Team Liquid and Brazil’s MIBR. The former would likely be favourites on any other occasion, but their Toronto roster turmoil will have deeply interrupted practice.

Team Liquid defied expectations to push Bilibili to three maps despite playing their tournament opener without IGL and captain Ayaz “nAts” Akhmetshin. But regardless of their valiant display, defeat has put them on the brink of elimination. NAts’ presence should, in theory, bring with it a better performance, and a nAts-led TL would usually be comfortable coming against a side like MIBR. But nAts’ lack of practice with the team leading up to the tournament could prove decisive in swinging things towards MIBR’s favour.

MIBR are, like Liquid, in need of immediate improvement. Unlike Liquid, however, there’s not an obvious, immediate change incoming that is expected to rejuvenate the side.

The Brazilian organisation was on the receiving end of arguably the most one-sided defeat so far in the tournament, taking a beating from Gen.G in a series where 13-5 and 13-1 map scores saw them brutalised. MIBR superstar Erick “aspas” Santos — among the top 5 players at Masters Toronto — was unable to have any real impact on the game, finishing with a 12/29/5 scoreline across the two maps. Should aspas turn up on the day, then MIBR may stand a fighting chance to find a win and stave off their impending elimination.