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Riot has just announced its first international LAN VCT Masters 2 major event that will take place in Reykjavík, Iceland. The second round of Masters will begin on May 24th and will last until May 30th. This will be the first time in the game’s history that all the competing regions will face each other, so it’s an exciting moment for everyone involved.
What we know about the VCT Stage 2 Masters so far
The second round of Masters will be an offline LAN event, which means there won’t be any need for teams to pick servers as lag won’t be an issue. It is also a historic moment for Valorant, as this will be the first time the teams from different regions will meet face-to-face instead of online.
Of course, since we’re in a pandemic, protective measures will be in place and each team will be put into quarantine upon arrival in Iceland. Sadly, there won’t be a live audience, but just seeing all the teams competing under the same roof will be enough for now.
There will be 10 teams competing, and each of those will be selected through the following regional distribution:
- North America – 2 slots
- EMEA – 2 slots
- Brazil – 2 slots
- Korea – 1 slot
- Japan – 1 slot
- Southeast Asia – 1 slot
- Latin America – 1 slot
Which region is going to come out on top?
It’s no secret that both NA and EU regions have been getting the most attention since the release of Valorant, and with good reason. NA is the Wild West of Valorant right now with some incredible teams and aggressive fraggers, and a large focus is placed on individual plays and performance. On the other hand, the EU is much more team-oriented, and both players and teams put more effort into tactical play instead.
Masters 2 will most likely completely change any established meta once we see different playstyles from each region clash. It’s almost impossible to say with certainty who’s gonna come out on top, but we can speculate.
Coming from the east we’ve got two Valorant powerhouses, Vision Strikers from Korea and Absolute JUPITER from Japan. Both of these teams have an incredible record behind them, and their performance so far in the Valorant Champions Tour has been stellar. Vision Strikers have won every tournament they participated in, and have gone through two rounds of Challengers without suffering a loss. This undefeated team is looking incredibly strong, but the real question is how they’ll perform when faced against teams from other regions.
Masters 2 impact on Valorant esports
Riot announcing their first international Valorant LAN event is a huge step for the game, not only because of the Covid-19 situation in the world, but also because we’ll finally be able to see a Valorant melting pot with different teams across the world in the same place. The meta will certainly switch, and many teams will have to readjust, which will bring about new interesting strategies and playstyles. The overall experience will strengthen the scene, and hopefully take the Valorant action to the next level.
