We continue to tell you about the second stage of qualifications for the 2025 Masters in Toronto. Today, it's the turn of the most popular region on the Valorant competition scene. We're talking about the American region, namely the second qualifiers of VCT 2025: Americas Stage 1. Below, we will tell you all the information about the tournament that is known at the moment so that our readers do not miss their favorite event.
General information about the tournament
VCT 2025: Americas Stage 1 is the second regional tournament during the competitive season in the American region. The tournament will be attended by partner teams, the number of which has increased to 12 thanks to 2GAME Esports' victory at Ascension 2024. They will fight for an invitation to the upcoming Masters Toronto 2024, as well as for Americas Points, which are necessary to qualify for the upcoming Valorant Champions 2025. The event is organized by Riot Games with the support of sponsor companies: Red Bull, Secretlab, Verizon, iBUYPOWER, Samsung and Pulsar.
Date and format of the tournament
VCT 2025: Americas Stage 1 takes place from March 21 to May 4, 2025 in LAN format at Riot Games Arena in Los Angeles. This is the arena where Riot hosts most of the American League of Legends and Valorant events.
The format of the tournament has been changed compared to the first Kickoff qualifiers and will be similar to the two regions China and Pacific that we recently wrote about. This means that the tournament will be divided into two stages. During the group stage, the 12 participating teams will be divided into 2 groups, Alpha and Omega, with 6 teams in each. The group stage will last from March 21 to April 20, and the participants will compete in the Single-Round Robin format. All matches will be up to three wins, and the 4 strongest teams from each group will advance to the playoffs. The distribution will be as follows: the teams that took first place in each group will go directly to the semifinals of the upper bracket, the teams that took 2-3 places in the first round of the upper bracket, and 2 teams in the last 4 places will go to the first round of the lower bracket.
The playoff stage will take place from April 24 to May 4. During it, the teams will compete in the Double-Elimination format. The team that earns 2 defeats will leave the event. All matches will be played up to three wins, and the lower bracket final and grand final up to five wins.
Participating teams
As mentioned above, 12 partner teams from the American region will take part in the tournament, divided into two groups:
Group Alpha:
Group Omega:
Match schedule
The group stage starts tomorrow, so the organizers have already revealed how the matches will be held. The period from March 21 to April 20 will be divided into 5 game weeks, each of which will feature 6 matches. The tournament opens with the clash between Cloud9 and NRG, which will start on March 21 at 23:00 EET.
Favorites, outsiders, and a dark horse
Just like every other region, we will be covering the events at VCT 2025: Americas Stage 1 and write our predictions for most of the matches. But before the tournament starts, we will also make a general prediction on the most interesting teams in our opinion. Below, we will describe who are the favorites and outsiders of the upcoming qualifiers.
Favorites
To begin with, we would like to mention the favorites, and in our opinion, G2 Esports is the strongest team in the region. The team is a phenomenon, most of whose players won the Ascension tournament at the end of 2023 and received a slot in the VCT. But despite this, the players surprisingly had no problems with experience, and they quickly gained one of the leading positions in their region. The team continues to keep the bar high and now, at the beginning of 2025, it has won the regional qualifiers of the VCT 2025: Americas Kickoff, as well as won 2nd place at the international Masters Bangkok, losing in the final to the Korean T1 tops.
The second team that we think is a favorite is Sentinels. Although the most popular club in their region said goodbye to two legendary players, they found a worthy replacement. Thanks to this, they took 2nd place in the Kickoff qualifiers and qualified for the Masters Bangkok, where, unfortunately for the fans, they left the tournament quite quickly. But despite this result at the international event, they are still one of the strongest teams in their region.
Outsiders
Unlike the Pacific Rim, it is difficult to identify clear outsiders in America because the level of teams is quite high. Nevertheless, the newcomer 2GAME Esports attracts the most attention, as it received a slot in the VCT only at the end of 2024. The team does not yet have the necessary level of play to repeat the triumph of the former The Guard (now G2 Esports) and immediately start defeating the top clubs in their region. Most likely, this year's second qualifiers will end with the same result as the first, in one of the last places.
The dark horse
The team we call a dark horse is MIBR, and their situation is quite unusual. Thanks to their results from the beginning of the year, namely: 3rd place in the Kickoff qualifiers, and the presence of such a highly skilled player as aspas, the club could be considered a favorite, but there is one problem. A few days ago, Nozwerr, a player of the main team, left the team. Thus, the MIBR roster now has 4 players, and it is unknown who will join as a replacement. It is this factor that makes the Brazilian club a dark horse, as it can show great results, or, due to problems with the chemistry of the future newcomer, it can fail.
Prize pool
As with other qualifiers, Americas Stage 1 does not offer teams a prize pool. Instead, they will compete for 3 invitations to the upcoming Masters Toronto 2025, as well as the important Americas Points needed to qualify for the Valorant Champions 2025.
- 1st place - Invitation to Masters Toronto and 5 Americas Points
- 2nd place - Invitation to Masters Toronto and 3 Americas Points
- 3rd place - Invitation to the Masters Toronto and 2 Americas Points
- 4th place - 1 Americas Points
- 5-6th place - No prizes
- 7-8 place - No prizes
- 9-10th place - No prizes
- 11-12 place - No prizes
Now, you have learned all the necessary information about the upcoming VCT 2025: Americas Stage 1. Keep following our portal to learn more about the events at the American qualifiers.
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