With Masters 3 on the horizon, the biggest news from the week revolves around professional play.
We had the EMEA Playoffs conclude, the Masters 3 format revealed, and some shuffling with teams that missed the cut.
Let's get into it.
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EMEA Challengers 3 Playoffs Conclude
The biggest news in Valorant was the conclusion of the EMEA Challengers 3 playoffs, which also means we have our four EMEA teams that will move on to Masters 3 in Berlin.
Gambit won the playoff bracket, but will be joined by SuperMassive Blaze, Acend, and G2 in Masters.
This means that both EMEA Masters 2 teams, Team Liquid and FNATIC, won't be a part of Masters 3, although both should still be in the running for the big end-of-year event.
#GambitValorant is your #1 seed from EMEA 🏆#VALORANTChallengers pic.twitter.com/32UbVELVCG
— Gambit Esports (@GambitEsports) August 22, 2021
Masters Berlin Format Revealed
The format for Masters 3 will be a bit different than previous Valorant tournaments.
There are more teams this time, so Riot have opted for a Group Stage to kick things off, rather than a double-elimination bracket.
After the Group Stage, players will move onto the finals, where they'll only have one life before being sent home.
As usual, normal matches will be best-of-three and the finals will be best-of-five.
#VALORANTMasters IS BACK!
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) August 20, 2021
Still have questions about the tournament? Here’s everything you need to know about Masters Berlin! pic.twitter.com/8wTFsBrG3d
Roster Shuffling
Of course, more teams missed Masters 3 than made it.
The teams that missed the cut are still practicing strats and fixing holes in their rosters with the hopes of qualifying for the next major tournament.
Some of the more high-profile roster moves from the week include:
- NiP bench CREA
- Giants Gaming sign Davidp and Ambi
- TSM reveal a new Valorant Academy roster
- Version1 COO commit to big offseason signings after recent misses
- truo leaves Immortals
- 10x leaves NUTURN
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