Gentle Mates and NRG won the opening games of VALORANT Masters Santiago

VALORANT Masters Santiago officially launched today, in EMEA’s Gentle Friends and champion winners NRG sweeping their opening match.

As a result, VCT China representative Edward Gaming and Xi Lai Gaming will need to win their Swiss Stage second round matches on March 3 to stay in the running for the first international trophy of the year.

The first series at Masters Santiago was full of confidence 2-0 stream from VCT EMEA second seed Gentle Mates against 2024 Champions winner EDward Gaming (EDG).

Gentle Mates looked perfectly suited to the EDG map, The portexploiting its weaker opponents in the hold of site C in the first half (8-4). While Zheng’ZmjjKK‘ Yongkang showed good performance in Chamber with 21/14/1 KDA, EDG often loses its early leads by overheating in the middle rounds. Despite a promising second-half comeback effort from China’s third seed, Gentle Mates eventually took the map. 13-11.

Pearl saw EDG secure both gun rounds and look competitive during their defensive half (6-6). But as the team struggled with eco buys and lost a few 5v3 rounds, EDG fell apart in the second half. Meanwhile, Gentle Mates ‘Patryk’star‘ Kopczyński showed excellent use of Fade in both halves, preparing his team for effective attacks and holding the site. The EMEA team defeated EDG 13-7.

The second winner of the VALORANT Champions tournament in Chile, NRG, presented a 2-0 Masters Santiago debuts against China’s second seed Xi Lai Gaming, proving that the team is still hungry for international trophies.

For the first map of the series, NRG chose The port and completely dominate his enemy. NRG’s simple but effective offensive side hit featured high impact use and mid range scouting to identify enemy equipment and weakest sites across the map. After a 10-2 win and two pistol rounds, it was only a matter of time until NRG confirmed their map choice. 13-2.

This momentum continued It was an abysswhere the third American seed played its unique formation of Omen, Viper, and Tejo. Brock of NRGsnowSomerhalder had a big impact in the first half (9-3), making clutch plays whenever his team needed them. While Xi Lai Gaming looked much better on the offensive side, their opponent’s lead was too much to overcome. The representative of China lost his choice of map 10-13.

Masters Santiago will continue with the rest of the Swiss Stage on February 29. Starting at 5 PM BST, G2 Sports you will face each other Paper Rexfollowed by T1 vs Team Liquid.

Meanwhile, Gentle Mates and NRG, will once again be on the Masters Santiago stage on March 2nd in the second round of the Swiss Stage. These matches will be drawn after all the opening matches have been concluded tomorrow.

To follow the action in Chile, fans can tune in to the official Masters Santiago broadcast via Twitch and YouTube.