Invy, GLYPH, shine in Masters debuts as PRX, M8 win opening Santiago matches
MANILA, Philippines – Filipino VALORANT pro players Adrian “invy” Reyes of Paper Rex and Conner “GLYPH” Garcia of Gentle Mates both picked up wins in their opening matches of VALORANT Masters Santiago.
The VALORANT Champions Tour kicked off their first international event for 2026 with Masters Santiago on March 1st, pitting the best teams from the four major regions—Pacific, NA, EMEA, and CN.
Gentle Mates vs EDward Gaming
On the opening day of Masters Santiago, EMEA’s Gentle Mates took on CN’s EDward Gaming. Leading up to the tournament, this was one of the hyped up matches of the tournament as two of the game’s biggest fraggers were set to clash.
M8’s Martin “marteen” Pátek currently holds the record for most kills in a Bo5 with 126, dethroning EDG’s Zheng “ZmjjKK” Yongkang who held the previous record with 111.
In an interview, Yongkang said that “Honestly, I think it’s all good. Records are meant to be broken.” Additionally, he sent praise toward Pátek, saying that “he’s a great player. We just hope we can deliver a perfect match on the opening match.”
The two players delivered on the hype as ZmjjKK dropped 21/14/1 on 240 ACS in Haven to start things off. Despite the MVP performance, M8 were able to hold off the firepower off the back of Patrik “Minny” Hušek, holding down the line with 21/16/5 on 241 ACS.
M8’s duo of marteen and GLYPH popped off in Pearl, both dropping 20-bombs on 288 and 291 ACS, respectively. With superior map control and pressure, M8 were able to hold the EDG members down to all negative +/-, and the EMEA squad closed things out 13-7.
Paper Rex vs G2 Esports
In what is quickly becoming one of the game’s most iconic rivalries, Pacific’s Paper Rex and NA’s G2 Esports found themselves facing each other once again, this time in their opening match.
Kicking off Day 2, PRX made a statement with a strong 2-0 sweep. G2 started off 3-0 on Split, but PRX were able to rally back to finish the half 8-4.
Despite a G2 resurgence on the back half, taking five straight rounds after losing pistol and tying up the map 9-9, a crucial clutch from Khalish “d4v41” Rusyaidee in Round 19 fueled the momentum for PRX to close out the map.
For Corrode, Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto showed off his agent pool flexibility once more by locking in Viper, his 27th unique pick out of a possible 28 agents. In his first time picking the Controller on the VCT stage, he finished with a server-high 368 ACS and a 23/11/8 KDA.
PRX’s newest member, invy, was also vital in securing the wins, dropping 31/24/5 and 215 ACS in the series.
NRG, TL sweep XLG, T1
In the other matches of the opening weekend, defending VALORANT World Champions NRG swept CN’s Xi Lai Gaming, thanks to an impressive performance by new pickup Georgio “keiko” Sanassy, who joined the squad to replace Sam “s0m” Oh after the latter’s hiatus announcement. Sanassy dropped 35/21/12 on 249 ACS in the series.
In the last match of round one, EMEA third-seed Team Liquid took on Pacific second-seed T1. Another high-octane matchup, all five TL players dropped over 33 kills each in the 2-0 sweep.
The EMEA team handled T1 easily on Breeze, finishing 13-8. Split went down to the wire, with the map going on overtime, but Liquid managed to outlast T1, winning 15-13.
Round 2 matches
Paper Rex are set to play on March 3, 2 a.m. PHT, against NA’s NRG. The second Round 2 High Match will be played directly after, between M8 and TL. Winners of these matches will qualify for the Masters Santiago Playoffs.
Round 2 Low Matches will be played the day after, with EDG taking on T1 and XLG going up against G2. These will be elimination matches, with losers dropping out of the tournament, and winners going up against the losers of Round 2 High Matches.