VCT: Masters Tokyo Group A Deep Dive

The Valorant Champions Tour regional leagues have played through their regular seasons, and it’s time once again for another international tournament as the 12 best teams in the world gather in Tokyo for the Valorant Champions Tour: Masters 2023 tournament.

The Valorant Champions Tour regional leagues have played through their regular seasons, and it’s time once again for another international tournament as the 12 best teams in the world gather in Tokyo for the Valorant Champions Tour: Masters 2023 tournament. The action starts with the Group stage this weekend, with the playoff bracket kicking off next week. 

Fnatic, Team Liquid, LOUD, and Paper Rex are awaiting four teams to make it out of the Groups in the main playoff bracket. All of those teams won their regional leagues, with the exception of Fnatic, who qualified thanks to their win at the LOCK//IN tournament earlier this year, which gave the runner-up in the EMEA league a free pass through groups which just so happened to help them out as they lost the EMEA finals to Team Liquid. 

Group A Break Down

Group A consists of America’s NRG, EMEA’s Natus Vincere, FGC’s Edward Gaming, and the Pacific’s T1. Natus Vincere is coming off a disappointing playoffs run that saw them lose in the Lower Bracket Semifinal to FUT Esports in a disappointing 0-2 match. The results left much to be desired after they finished 2nd in the Regular Season. 

NRG is coming off an impressive run through America’s League lower bracket in playoffs to qualify for a finals appearance, where they lost to LOUD. They lost their opening-round match after entering the playoffs as the 3rd seed before running it through the loser’s bracket. 

T1 had nearly the exact same story as they finished in 3rd in the regular season and lost their opening round match before making an incredible lower bracket run. The only difference is that T1 only lost in the Lower Bracket final to DRX, and though they were unable to make it to the grand finals, they shouldn’t be overlooked. 

Edward Gaming had an excellent Group Stage in the FGC, going 5-0 and taking the top seed in Group B going into playoffs. In the Playoffs, they took dowing FunPlus Phoenix in their first match 2-1 before taking down KONE 2-0. The Grand Final was an absolute thriller where they fell to Attacking Soul Esports 2-3. 

Group A Frontrunners

NRG and Natus Vincere are currently viewed as the clear frontrunners to take this group and to have relative success in the playoffs bracket next week. Currently, oddsmakers have NRG as the 2nd strongest team competing in the Group Stage and Natus Vincere as the 3rd. The odds for NRG to make it to the finals currently sit at +450 and to win the tournament are +1000, while Natus Vincere’s currently sits at +500 and +1100, respectively. 

While T1 and Edward Gaming aren’t frontrunners, anyone could make a miracle run through the tournament. Oddsmakers have the odds for T1 making it to the finals set at +4000 and winning the whole thing at +6600, which are the 2nd highest, while Edward Gaming has the 3rd highest at +3000 and +6600, respectively. Set some bets and enjoy the show, as history shows anyone can win in Valorant

Valorant Champions Tour: Masters Tokyo Schedule and Odds

All times are listed in Eastern Time.

Saturday, June 10th

FUT Esports (+115) vs. Evil Geniuses (-150) – 11 PM

Sunday, June 11th

DRX (-1100) vs. Attacking Soul Esports (+600) – 2 AM

Edward Gaming (-130) vs. T1 (-102) – 5 AM

NRG (-110) vs. Natus Vincere (-120) – 11 PM