Masters Toronto: Day 2 Preview

Masters Toronto is underway. Day one concluded with wins for Paper Rex and Bilibili Gaming, both now one victory away from playoffs. For Team Heretics and Team Liquid, another defeat will already seal their elimination. But their fates will be decided later, with day two welcoming four more sides who will begin their Swiss stage journeys.

Sentinels vs Wolves Esports

Kicking off the day’s action at 12:00 PM local time (18:00 CEST) are Americas second-seed Sentinels and China third-seed Wolves Esports. Sentinels will go into the series as clear favourites, but an upset win for Wolves would immediately put them in a great position to reach the playoffs.

Sentinels may feel hard done by this year following the regional dominance of G2. In another season when one Americas team wasn’t so world-class, then SEN could’ve easily been Americas champions in either Kickoff or Stage 1, or both. The two-time Masters winners should be a shoo-in to reach Toronto’s playoff stage and are expected to beat Wolves with relative ease — failing to beat them in their opener would be a massive worry.

For Wolves, the inconsistencies of China’s top sides, coupled with their own upswing in form, saw them record a best-ever finish with their Stage 1 bronze. As a result, they’re entering a global event for the first time but will do so as one of the clear outsiders. That said, a shock win against Sentinels would put them on a great path, then — assuming a subsequent loss against one of the other ‘better’ sides — needing a win against one of the other 1-1 teams, with a good chance that their opponent could be one of the other underdogs.

Gen.G vs MIBR

Taking place after the SEN vs WOL is a matchup between Korea’s Gen.G and Brazil’s MIBR, expected to start at 15:00 local time (21:00 CEST).

Gen.G come in as one of the top 5 teams at Masters Toronto, easily one of the strongest of the Swiss stage. The team still appears to be in the process of ramping back up to their 2024 form that saw them win Masters Shanghai, and still hold 3/5 of that roster. They were a tad unlucky not to have won Pacific Stage 1 — their upper bracket win over RRQ couldn’t be repeated as they lost 3-1 in the grand final, almost single-handedly thanks to the brilliance of RRQ’s Jemkin.

MIBR will go into the series as minor underdogs. The Americas’ third-seed, like Gen.G, have been solid in their own region, but also haven’t yet set the competition alight this year. That said, they’ve got one of the top 5 players at Masters Toronto in the shape of aspas and stand a solid chance at starting their campaign with a victory if the Brazilian is on form.