The Stakes of Masters Toronto

The second global event of the VALORANT Champions Tour’s 2025 season, Masters Toronto is the latest opportunity for one of the world’s top teams to go down in VCT history. As with any such tournament, the ongoing stories of many of the players and teams competing may take significant turns, or could come to their conclusions entirely.

G2 are an elite team, elite teams win global titles

G2 were unlucky not to have already earned their first-ever global title this year. They were arguably favourites heading into Masters Bangkok and did the bulk of the job to reach the final. But their 3-2 loss to T1 meant that they’d have to wait until at least Toronto to win one of the big ones.

Their domestic form leaves no room for argument — they are an elite VALORANT side. They’ve been widely considered the best team in the world so far this season, winning back-to-back VCT Americas titles within a competitive region featuring other top sides whose own stock may well be higher were it not for G2.

That said, history remembers winners of the biggest tournaments. Domestic dominance is great and is not to be downplayed, but a global title is a requirement to be remembered as one of VALORANT’s real great rosters.

Jemkin can be rightly cemented as one of the world’s best

Rex Regum Qeon’s Russian Duelist Maksim “Jemkin” Batorov will attend Masters Toronto having already been thought of as a world-class player thanks to his part in the team’s Pacific Stage 1-winning run. He’s easily among the top 5 players at Masters Toronto and is deservedly getting his flowers.

That said, his exceptional form is nothing new. He’s been in Pacific’s top three players for Average Combat Score across the region’s last three tournaments, topping the charts in both Kickoff and Stage 1 so far this year. More recently, he was the difference maker in RRQ’s grand final win over Gen.G, earning 89 kills — 21 more than any other player in the series.

However, Jemkin’s name still lacks the aura of the game’s greats — your TenZes, your aspases, your Boasters. The so-far one-off title with RRQ finally earned him the immediate recognition he deserved, but a global title will mean that his name won’t ever be forgotten.

Yes, Team Heretics still need to break the curse

There’d maybe be no single event in VALORANT that would be so universally loved than to see Team Heretics finally break their finals curse, especially at a global event. Their inability to win any final has become a sick joke. Though perhaps even more cruel is their ability to rally back from such devastation to regain their mental, find elite form, and reach more finals, only to continue coming out on the losing end.

There has been plenty of discussion on ‘needing to get one over the line’. That idea that finally getting over their mental block and winning one title would bring with it a flood of trophies may very well be right. But the idea that they’ll be totally fine after winning one naively implies that that first one will occur by itself.

Team Heretics were the most consistent top team throughout last year and have had the very same roster firing on all cylinders again in 2025, yet a title still eludes them. Every finals loss snowballs the curse narrative and puts even greater pressure on the next, though a win in Toronto would change everything. The best time to start winning titles was yesterday, the next best time is today.

Fnatic can return to global powerhouse status

While Fnatic’s return to form in EMEA’s Stage 1 after their lacklustre Kickoff was certainly a move in the right direction, their current lineup’s legacy would suffer the same fate as G2 if they’re unable to win a global event.

Being domestically dominant is great, but the bigger trophies are needed to cement legacies, like the one Fnatic already has from 2023. That lineup won exactly zero domestic trophies but is rightly remembered as one of the all-time great rosters for its LOCK//IN and Masters Tokyo wins. They then won 2024 Stage 1, and — without Leo — Stage 2, but the lack of global titles means that the ‘peak’ period for Fnatic is obviously considered to have been the year prior.

Now they’re winning in EMEA again and can catalyse a new legacy with a win in Toronto. Doing so without Derke would truly signal the next era of Fnatic and will add further evidence to the Boaster-GOAT-IGL debate.

Sentinels have the chance to create a post-Tenz legacy

Another team looking to move on from the departure of one of its superstars is Sentinels. In their case, though, the superstar was not only relied upon for performance but was also the face of the organisation. Sentinels and TenZ are still synonymous, even after he’s officially departed the team.

Sentinels could’ve gone some way to kicking off their post-TenZ legacy within VCT Americas were it not for G2 and their dastardly good form blocking Sentinels from winning a trophy. 2025 SEN are a top side, but they’ve so far nothing to show for it.

Aside from TenZ’s presence, the main characteristic of Sentinels, branding-wise, is being a team that wins titles. Their association with winning — and winning with TenZ — started way back in Reykjavik 2021 when they became VALORANT’s first-ever global event champions. Then began Sentinel’s TenZ-led legacy, and now that that’s come to an end, it’s important that they move on. A win without him in Masters Toronto would be the start.