5 Players to Watch Out For at Masters Santiago

With so many new faces in VCT Masters Santiago, there are a lot of players that could cause a stir on the International stage, with some players also returning to the International stage from last year.

In this article, we will be listing 5 players to watch during this tournament:

5. BBL Lovers Rock

Lovers Rock is BBL’s star player, who on the BBL PCIFIC roster, dominated Ascension and earned a spot in VCT EMEA being picked up onto the permanent BBL roster.

He was the third best rated player in VCT EMEA, where he played only Yoru and was the second entry behind Lar0k who cleared space andn Lovers Rock cleaned up the space. They managed a clean run from Kick-Off beating the following teams to reach Masters Santiago:

Win vs PCIFIC Esports (2-1)
Win vs FNATIC (2-0)
Win vs Team Vitality (2-0)
Win vs Gentle Mates (3-2)

4. FUR koalanoob

FURIA are the biggest dark horse of VCT this year after their incredible run at VCT Americas Kick-Off taking down ex-Masters winners, Champion winners, and favourites for the tournament. Their roster consists of Tier 2 talent, ex-Tier 1 pros and seasoned professionals who have managed to string together a roster capable of taking down the best rosters.

koalanoob was at the centre of attention from this roster with him on the Jett, Yoru, Chamber and Omen. He was the 4th best rated player in VCT Americas Kick-Off with his AWP shots barely missing once he had the gun in his hands. FURIA qualified for Masters Santiago with the following series:

3. NS Dambi

Dambi is the primary entry Duelist for Nongshim RedForce. This season, Dambi has come into his own as their entry playing as primarily the Neon, where he has become very comfortable on, especially with Neon being very in-meta at the moment alongside Francis on the Yoru.

He boasted an incredible 246 ACS average across VCT Pacific Kick-Off, allowing for Nongshim to make it all the way to Masters Santiago without dropping a series.They managed a clean run from Kick-Off beating the following teams to reach Masters Santiago:

2. PRX f0rsakeN

After their win at Masters Toronto and f0rsakeN winning the MVP award for that tournament, Paper Rex went on to make a top 4 finish at Champions Paris, and they have seemingly followed suit this season after their off-season win at Radiant Invitational. Paper Rex added Invy to their roster in place of PatMen, a 1-for-1 upgrade in the Initiator role.

f0rsakeN played 4 different roles at Kick-Off; Controller, Duelist, Initiator and Sentinel. He played Veto for the first time in his career in the final map against RRQ, dropping 35 kills and an Ace in the final round to confirm their spot at Masters Santiago. Despite their Kick-Off run being shaky, Paper Rex managed to qualify for Masters Santiago with the following run:

Win vs Global Esports (2-1)
Loss vs RRQ (0-2)
Loss vs T1 (1-2)
Win vs Global Esports (2-1)
Win vs DRX (2-1)
Win vs DetonatioN FocusMe (2-0)
Win vs RRQ (3-1)

1. GM8 Marteen

It should be no surprise to see Marteen at the top of this list after his last two matches in VCT EMEA where he dominated the scoreboard in both series against BBL and FNATIC where he actually broke the EMEA kill-record in the first series with 106 kills against Gentle Mates, and then the following day he broke the all-time kill record in VCT with 126 kills, beating the VCT record of ZmjjKK (111) at Champions Seoul and the VCT Game Changers Record of SrN (124). Gentle Mates Qualified to Masters Santiago after Kick-Off beating the following teams:

Win vs FUT Esports (2-0)
Win vs GIANTX (2-0)
Win vs NAVI (2-0)
Loss vs BBL (2-3)
Win vs FNATIC (3-2)

Masters Santiago begins on February 28th with Gentle Mates facing off against EDward Gaming, where the top two VCT kill records will face each other in the swiss-stage of Masters Santiago.