VCT Stage 1 highlights: Top plays before Masters Toronto 2025

Soon, the VALORANT Masters Toronto 2025 will kick off and see the best Valorant teams from around the globe battle it out. Before the action gets going, Esports Charts takes a look back across the thrilling highlights and clips of Stage 1, spanning all four of the International Leagues (IL).

Starting on June 7, the VALORANT Masters Toronto 2025 takes place over a two-week period in Canada, with $1,000,000 USD on the line. Esports Charts will provide live-updating viewership statistics for the tournament’s page, highlight peaks and trends on our blog, and the top viewership of matches on socials. Keep an eye out for our comprehensive coverage throughout the Valorant Masters Toronto.

Highlights of the VCT 2025 Americas Stage 1

V1c settles the score against NRG

The opening match of the VCT 2025: Americas Stage 1 saw Cloud9 face off against NRG. Both teams suffered poor results throughout 2024, and wanted to start 2025 with a strong win. The teams traded the first two maps, both with decisive scorelines, before heading to the final map, Pearl. Cloud9 opened up the final map in their favor, securing four rounds in a row.

In Round 5, NRG and Cloud9 engage in a messy fight over the B site, and just as it seems to swing in NRG’s favour, Victor "v1c" Truong springs into action. The American player finds a timing to push through a smoke, taking the element of surprise into the 1v3. This clutch stopped NRG’s momentum entirely, forcing them to take a pause and rethink their strategy; ultimately, NRG only secured 3 rounds that half and went on to lose 1-2 against Cloud9.

Zekken’s flashy 1v2 against Cloud9 in playoffs

At different periods of time, both Cloud9 and Sentinels have been ‘the-team-to-beat’ for the Americas league. After an unfortunate end to 2024 for both teams, they came back strong with dominant performances in their own groups. In the opening round of playoffs, they attracted a wave of North American viewers for their match.

After a few rounds, the first map score was a close 5-3 in favor of Sentinels. Cloud9 battled through a hard-fought round to secure a 2v1 post-plant, but Sentinels star Zachary "zekken" Patrone, the round is never secure. Zekken dove into the site as it was being planted and caught Cloud9 completely off-guard, making use of both his primary and secondary.

This round would set the tone for the remainder of the match. Cloud9 would seem close enough to catch up to Sentinels, and then suddenly a decisive clutch or play would be made to bring it back under Sentinel’s control. Ultimately, zekken’s team won the match with two clean 13-9 wins.

Highlights of the VCT 2025 EMEA Stage 1

Kaajak's clapback ACE against Team Heretics

One of the final matches of the Group Stage in the VCT 2025: EMEA Stage 1 saw Fnatic face off against Team Heretics. Both of these teams have been their region's top team in the past, and the showdown was a key moment for both rosters this year.

After losing Map 1 10-13, Kajetan "kaajak" Haremskiwas ready to take matters into his own hands for the next map. On the opening pistol round of Haven, Fnatic kaajak took an aggressive opening duel with a Sheriff, unknowingly peeking into all of Team Heretics. The young Pole refused to back down, securing himself an ace on round one in just over 10 seconds — slowed down by a reload. These two met again in the Grand Final, and Fnatic would ultimately take the title home.

MiniBoo’s 3K retake to secure match point against Team Vitality

Since joining Team Heretics, brothers Dominykas "MiniBoo" Lukaševičius and Ričardas "Boo" Lukaševičius have become a tag-team duo in the EMEA circuit. Seeing these two in a retake scenario is not a rare sight, and their chemistry together works wonders. But sometimes, MiniBoo takes the reins and clutches the round himself.

After a win on Map 1 against Team Vitality, Team Heretics put the pressure on for the second map, Icebox. With the scoreline reading 11-6 in favor of Team Heretics, Vitality secured a Spike plant with three left alive against the Lithuanian brothers. MiniBoo, with Neon’s explosive utility kit, ran down legends of the game like Nikita "Derke" Sirmitev and Felipe "Less" Basso. The magic of a MiniBoo clip isn’t just how he makes it look so easy, but knowing who he’s playing against. With this round, MiniBoo secured match point for Team Heretics, which they successfully converted to a 13-6 victory.

Highlights of the VCT 2025 Pacific Stage 1

Monyet 1v3 clutch to put Gen.G on the board in the Grand Final

Coming into the Grand Final of the VCT 2025: Pacific Stage 1, Gen.G Esports seemed to be the top dog for the match. The Korean organization had defeated Rex Regum Qeon 2-0 in the Upper Bracket Final, and although they had issues during the Group Stage, Gen.G seemed on form for the playoffs. In the opening map of the finals, Gen.G closed it out 13-8 to secure an early lead.

Coming into the second map, Ascent, RRQ knew they had to make an immediate impression. The team started on Attack and managed to secure both the pistol and second round, leading to the all-important bonus round. If RRQ could win the bonus, they would compromise Gen.G’s economy and likely secure a strong lead for the half.

With the spike planted, Gen.G secured two quick frags to turn the equal 3v3 into a desperate 1v3 for RRQ Cahya "Monyet" Nugraha. Monyet’s highlight shows the beautiful ‘macro’ side of tactical shooters; starting the clip with an off-timing push through a smoke, he catches Gen.G off-guard and proceeds to show off his Valorant IQ to close out the round. The early lead captured by Monyet was crucial for RRQ’s 13-11 win on this map, and their overall victory against Gen.G.

The moment Rex Regum Qeon (RRQ) won their first VCT Pacific title

Rex Regum Qeon is a legendary Indonesian esports organization. Many Valorant fans are likely unaware of this, since RRQ’s most-successful teams are based in the mobile gaming side of the industry. RRQ’s Mobile Legends: Bang Bang rosters in particular have accumulated millions in total winnings, claimed multiple national championships, and even been on the podium at the World Championship more than once. MLBB as an esport is followed by millions of Indonesian fans, and the clout of RRQ is truly real.

RRQ have been working on their Valorant roster since 2021, but 2025 marks the first real time they have been competitive in the VCT since joining in 2023. RRQ put together a final roster at the last minute, picking up experienced players left behind by the league like Monyet and in-game leader Ngô "crazyguy" Công Anh, as well as fresh talent Bryan "Kushy" Setiawan.

Their victory in the opening Split of 2025 was electrifying, and a testament to the potential of all of their players. RRQ could well open up a massive well of Indonesian viewership for Valorant: their winning moment in the VCT Pacific already set a new Indonesian viewership record for Valorant esports.

Highlights of the VCT 2025 China Stage 1

Juicy strikes Bilibili Gaming with a 3K rocket

The first time Wolves Esports met Bilibili Gaming in the playoffs stage was the Upper Bracket Semifinal. The football club’s esports team was able to defeat Bilibili Gaming in a 2-0 fashion, with the enemy side looking uncharacteristically lost. Nothing sums this up better than Tyler "juicy" Aeria’s simple 3K rocket against Bilibili Gaming, who seem completely unaware of the danger ahead of them.

Ultimately, when these two teams would face off again in the lower bracket, Bilibili Gaming delivered a decisive 3-0 win in the Lower Bracket Final.

RB sneaks into the site and clutches the round

In the Lower Bracket Round 1 of playoffs, Titan Esports Club faced off against Dragon Ranger Gaming. Although TEC managed to claim a dominant 13-1 victory on the opening map, DRG was not dissuaded and came back full-force for the remaining two maps. Both Map 2 and 3 went into overtime and saw the teams trade rounds back and forth in entrancing fashion.

Early on in the third and final map of the match, Korean import Goo "Rb" Sang-min managed to secure a stylish clutch to claim a slight lead over their rivals. RB completely fools Dragon Ranger with the direction of his teleport, and then proceeds to find the crucial final frag through a smoke.