VCT 2024 Masters Madrid Predictions: Favorites, Dark Horses & Early Exits

With Valorant’s first international event around the corner, here are our Masters Madrid predictions

Out of the 44 VCT teams, only 8 have made their way to Masters Madrid through regional Kickoff events. Madrid Arena in Spain will bring the best two teams from each region (Americas, EMEA, Pacific and China) to determine who gets this year’s first global title.

Alongside favorites like LOUD, Paper Rex and EDward Gaming, we will see underdog squads play in their first-ever Masters, including Karmine Corp, Team Heretics and Gen.G.

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On the other hand, Fnatic and NRG – teams who had excellent form last year – failed to qualify for Madrid. 

With so many upsets taking place in the Kickoff tournaments, we might see a power shift in Madrid. With that in mind, here are our predictions for the first Masters of 2024.

VCT 2024 Masters Madrid Predictions: Winner

With stellar performance in the off-season and VCT Kickoff, this team is our pick for the Masters Madrid trophy holder:

Sentinels 

• Zachary “zekken” Patrone 
• Gustavo “Sacy” Rossi
• Tyson “TenZ” Ngo
• Mouhamed “johnqt” Ouarid
• Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro
• Adam “kaplan” Kaplan (Coach)

The last time Sentinels was in a Masters event was in 2021, the same year they had an incredible undefeated run with TenZ and four former members. After two years of disappointing results, the North Americans have finally bounced back.

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Sentinels showed excellent form during the off-season towards the end of 2023, winning the AfreecaTV Valorant League against Champions 2023 runner-ups of Paper Rex. Fast forward to the Americas Kickoff, the team found its groove under a new leadership and secured their spot in Madrid by defeating NRG in the semifinals. 

This team’s currently employing near-flawless strategies, especially on maps like Split and Sunset, not to mention their Kickoff Grand Final victory against LOUD, a team that’s been one of the top global rosters. Overall, TenZ may just secure another Masters trophy, this time with a whole different crew.

VCT 2024 Masters Madrid Predictions: Other Favorites

Aside from Sentinels, this team is likely to snatch the trophy at Madrid: 

LOUD

• Felipe “Less” Basso
• Matias “Saadhak” Delipetro
• Cauan “cauanzin” Pereira
• Arthur “tuyz” Vieira
• Gabriel “Quick” Lima
• Pedro “peu” Lopes (Coach)

The 2022 world champions don’t need any introduction. With world-class IGL Saadhak, the Brazilians have continued to show dominance, even without their former star player Erick “Aspas” Santos. 

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One of the best things about LOUD is their unique map composition, and they have mostly been playing double-Controller, -Initiator and single Duelist comp in 2024. Utilizing the power of Viper on a player like Less has shown excellent results.

However, their use of Phoenix instead of a dive Duelist has proven to be weak, especially on maps like Lotus, where teams have Raze to take quick space. Going into the Masters, we are expecting a slight comp change from this roster. 

VCT 2024 Masters Madrid Predictions: Dark Horses

These two squads will be playing at their first Masters, and they have the potential to achieve great results:

Karmine Corp 

• Martin “MAGNUM” Penkov
• Tomás “tomaszy” Machado
• Marshall “N4RRATE” Massey
• Martin “marteen” Pátek
• Ryad “sh1n” Ensaad
• Andrey “ENGH” Sholokhov (Head coach)

Karmine Corp was one of the worst rosters last year, with a 4-10 record in their VCT season. Things are much different in 2024, as this French organization managed not only to secure a spot in their first Masters but also to win the EMEA Kickoff. 

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With almost entirely a new roster, KC managed to defeat none other than global favorite Fnatic, a team that dominated 2023 with two international titles. On top of that, this underdog roster showed that it truly means business by winning the most matches in the Kickoff. 

Former North American Challengers player N4RRATE was an absolute steal by Karmine Corp, as the rookie has been having an impressive performance in tier 1. Overall, this roster has shown great potential at Kickoff and might shift the power balance at Masters.

Team Heretics

• Ričardas “Boo” Lukaševičius
• Dominykas “MiniBoo” Lukaševičius
• Mert “Wo0t” Alkan
• Enes “RieNs” Ecirli
• Benjy “benjyfishy” David Fish
• Patryk “paTiTek” Fabrowski (sub)
• Neil “neilzinho” Finlay (Head coach)

Similar to Karmine Corp, Team Heretics is another underdog squad that has shown remarkable results thanks to the MiniBoo and Boo duo. The Spanish team managed to defeat NAVI – one of the top EMEA squads of 2023 – in the semifinals, leading to their ticket to Madrid.

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If the Boo brothers can continue their fantastic form, we might see Team Heretics guarantee outstanding results at their first Masters. 

VCT 2024 Masters Madrid Predictions: Early Exits

While these teams made it out of their regional Kickoff events, they are likely to face an early exit from Masters Madrid:

FunPlus Phoenix

• Zhang “AAAAY” Yang
• Chang “BerLIN” Po-lin
• Tang “TZH” Zhehao
• Liang “Lysoar” Youhao
• Kale “autumn” Dunne
• Deng “NaThanD” Senqiao (Coach)

This will be FPX’s first Masters event as a Chinese team. Last year, they were in two global events – LOCK//IN and Champions – and they failed to secure a single victory while regional partner EDG made waves in Masters and Champions. 

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FPX has shown interesting and innovative comps that might work in their favor, but their fundamentals still seem weaker compared to regions like EMEA and the Americas. EDward Gaming will likely remain the favorites from China for now.

Gen.G 

• Kim “Meteor” Tae-O 
• Kim “t3xture” Na-ra
• Kim “Lakia” Jong-min
• Byeon “Munchkin” Sang-beom 
• Kim “Karon” Won-tae
• Kim “HSK” Hae-seong (Coach)

The South Koreans performed phenomenally in the Pacific, defeating DRX and Paper Rex – two Titans of the region – securing a spot in the Masters and winning the Kickoff Grand Final. Similar to KCorp and Heretics, Gen.G will attend their first Masters this year, but we don’t expect them to move past the Swiss stage.

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Two reasons for this: the team does not have enough experience on international stages, and the competition at Pacific Kickoff is much easier than what we may see in Madrid.

Keep an eye on ESTNN for detailed coverage of Masters Madrid and future Valorant tournaments.