NRG vs NAVI headlines first round of VCT Masters Tokyo group stage

Riot Games has revealed how the VCT Masters Tokyo group stage teams will begin their tournament journey, with NAVI and NRG Esports headlining the opening round of matches.

Riot Games has revealed the groups for VCT Masters Tokyo, featuring the eight low seeds attending the $1 million event. Group A consists of NRG Esports, NAVI, Edward Gaming and T1, while Group B has DRX, FUT Esports, Evil Geniuses and Attacking Soul Esport.

The top-seeded teams from the three international Valorant leagues, LOUD, Fnatic, Team Liquid and Paper Rex, are already through to the playoffs and will skip the group stage. EMEA has the most seeded teams as the winning region of VCT LOCK//IN.

Riot also announced the schedule and bracket for the group stage of the event.

NRG and NAVI clash in a hyped-up VCT Masters Tokyo group stage match

The first day of matches will begin with Evil Geniuses taking on FUT Esports, followed by two clashes between South Korean teams and Chinese sides (DRX versus Attacking Soul Esports, and EDG versus T1.) But the headline match of the first round is bound to be NAVI versus NRG.

TICKETS PUNCHED: NRG VALORANT IS GOING TO VCT MASTERS IN TOKYO! pic.twitter.com/rXe4ljS8V9

— NRG (@NRGgg) May 27, 2023

Both squads have international Valorant tournament veterans and there’s some history between the players. NRG sniper Ardis ‘ardiis’ Svarenieks played alongside four of NAVI’s players in 2022 on FunPlus Phoenix. With that roster, FPX qualified for every international event in 2022 and won Masters Copenhagen.

NRG’s core, consisting of Pujan ‘FNS’ Mehta, Austin ‘crashies’ Roberts and Victor ‘Victor’ Wong, also made every international event that year as a part of OpTic Gaming, but only faced ardiis and his former teammates once. FPX beat OpTic Gaming 3-1 in the lower final of Masters Copenhagen, knocking them out of the tournament.

NAVI and NRG are set to clash on June 12 in the second matchup of Group A to see who will move on to Group A’s upper bracket to fight for the No. 1 seed. The top two teams from each group will progress to the double-elimination playoffs.