All four regions crowned their stage 1 champions and as a reward, they would have a bye into the playoff stage of VCT Masters Toronto, while the others had to fight their way through the Swiss stage.
The stage one champions G2 Esports, Xi Lai Gaming, Rex Regum Queon and FNATIC, made their debuts on the VCT masters stage in the first round of the playoffs.
All four teams were expected to continue where they left off, but unfortunately for them, they would each fall to their Swiss Stage counterparts.
G2 Esports would face Paper Rex (PRX) in the first match of the playoffs on Friday.
PRX was coming off of an incredible game against Team Liquid and would be looking to redeem themselves against G2.
The last time G2 Esports faced PRX was in VCT Masters Bangkok 2024 and VCT Champions, where the number one-seeded G2 Esports was beaten by PRX 2-0 twice.
Map one would look like a runaway match for G2, but PRX would truck through and make a comeback late in the game and win 13-10.
Map two would be on Lotus, and it would be a back-and-forth affair with both teams being almost even, if it wasn’t for Jinggg’s amazing performance.
Jinggg would have 20 Kills, 15 Deaths and 4 Assists, but it would be Trent from G2 who would give PRX a run for their money as he had 22 Kills, 13 Deaths and 6 Assists.
Though it would be the pride of the Philippines, PRX Patmen would get Match MVP with 34 Kills, 29 Deaths and 20 Assists total.
They would be the first of the champs to be relegated.
They felt disappointed in their performance, and when asked who they expected to face in the losers' bracket, G2’s Valyn wanted to continue some banter with his Americas counterpart and said he wanted Sentinels.
“Gimmie Sen (Sentinels), just let me eliminate them and I’ll be happy,” he said.
Xi Lai Gaming (XLG) would face Sentinels in the second match of the playoffs.
Sentinels throughout VCT Masters Toronto would be going through the Chinese gauntlet as they had faced BiliBili Gaming and Wolves Esports, the two Chinese teams on the Swiss stage.
XLG would lose in a blowout fashion and would collect only 12 total round wins, divided by two maps.
Sentinels Zekken would be the match MVP with 41 Kills, 20 Deaths and 9 Assists.
G2’s prediction went sour, but when Sentinels were told about G2’s comment, Zellsis wanted to continue the banter and said that their Americas rival was ‘horrible’.
“I think g2 are Horrible – I think they need to be eliminated from the tournament, I don’t even think they should be allowed to play their elimination game,” He said.
Fans would laugh knowing the banter between the two teams.
XLG would mark the second champion that would fall, and continuing that trend would be the Pacific champs, Rex Regum Qeon (RRQ).
RRQ would face Wolves Esports, who have been on the hunt since playing on the Swiss stage.
Wolves Esports had to fight their way through the losers' stage of the Swiss stage and wanted to show that they belonged on the international stage.
This is a team that consists of players who have never seen an international major before, so they have everything to prove.
Wolves would win 2-0, with Map One being a tight battle on Ascent and RRQ would go into Map Two with some fight dominating the first half 8-4, but in the second half, wolves would destroy RRQ by winning 9 rounds in a row and not letting the Pacific champions win a single round.
With the Pacific champions falling back down the mountain, the last kings of the golden kingdom would be EMEA’s last hope, FNATIC.
FNATIC would be the last European team in the tournament, and they would be facing GEN.G.
They last faced each other in Masters Shanghai 2024, with the Korean team GEN.G getting the win.
This match would be epic and a mirror of their last match against one another.
It would go to three maps, where Map One would be an epic comeback from Gen.G, but Map Two would be epic.
Map two would be the first 9-3 curse of the tournament, with FNATIC making the ultimate comeback and forcing it to overtime, winning Split 14-12, bringing the match to map three.
FNATIC would be the only champions to push their match to three maps, and they wanted to debut in Toronto with a win.
However, the European champions would have to wait a little longer to get their first win of the tournament, as it would be Gen.G who would close out the match, winning 13-6.
With all four champs on the brink of elimination, they would now have to face each other to keep their playoff dreams alive.
XLG would face G2 Esports and RRQ would have to face FNATIC, four crowns, and only two can advance.