Any esports fan will know that the winner isn’t what defines a tournament. When the last shot has been fired and the servers lie empty, it’s the moments that we remember. Individual flares of brilliance, immaculate executions of full-team plans, and of course, those instances of sheer, match-reshaping levels of luck.
As the first international clash of the year, Valorant Masters Tokyo had plenty to live up to. Fortunately, the tournament unloaded a cavalcade of blade-storm snipes and against-the-odds clutches. We’ve even been treated to a moment of comedic awkwardness so cringe-inducing that it’s sure to live on in the community’s memory for years to come.
Valorant Masters Tokyo Highlights
© Riot
Whether you’re looking to get hyped up for the next event or just want to relive the action so far, here are the best Valorant Masters Tokyo highlights and moments so far.
Tuyz’s miss opportunity
Forget the elephant in the room. It’s impossible to talk about Valorant Masters Tokyo without bringing up the Omen in the corner first. Brazilian top squad Loud’s tournament run was an unfortunate disaster, and the overly sour cherry on the cake was tuyz’ comical missed opportunity on an eco round.
Tucked sneakily behind a box, he goes unnoticed by EG’s rival Omen Jawgemo, resulting in an entertaining shot of the two awkwardly backed up into one another. As the crowd erupted into laughter, tuyz’s patience got the better of him, resulting in a double take from Jawgemo, several whiffed sheriff shots, and some serious embarrassment to live down.
C0M’s pistol round clutch
1v4 pistol round clutches usually play out as carefully maneuvered one-on-one duels. They aren’t meant to happen like this. When C0M was left alone with 16 HP on Haven’s A site and the other side bearing down on him, not even he expected to take out every member of the opposition with a single peek down short. It just goes to show that sometimes spamming mouse1 really does work.
Jinggg's ridiculous opener
Pacific League champions Paper Rex weren’t about to let a last-minute substitution break their team’s style. Their side's bombastic aggression remained untempered, letting their side attempt utterly outlandish plays like this Fracture defense push by Jingg’s Raze. Blasting his way out of B-Main, he lands atop a box. The height above his team's smokes allows him to rapidly clip the heads of two enemies who’d barely had time to line up outside the corridor to A-site. Paper Rex, we hope you never change.
Team Liquid body block Omen’s spike grab
Valorant subreddit lurkers may have seen this before, but Team Liquid gave us a look at some entertaining counter-Omen tech in this Valorant Masters Tokyo highlight. By crowding three players on top of the spike, Omen’s ultimate cannot teleport directly to it, losing his chance to steal it and plant elsewhere.
Production having some fun
Can someone check on the @ValorantEsports Graphics guy? #VALORANTMasters pic.twitter.com/W89uXRYgaI
— Paper Rex (@pprxteam) June 20, 2023
It wasn’t just the players having fun during Valorant Masters Tokyo. The show’s production team were clearly messing around too, if this interview’s lower thirds were anything to go by. Well that or they just forgot who Paper Rex coach alecks was for a moment.
Nats’ unreasonable 4K
Team Liquid’s showdown against NRG was a highlight of the lower bracket, and though the EMEA side may have fallen, their members brought out more than their fair share of standout plays. One such highlight came from nats, who erected an impenetrable barrier of bullets at the rear entrance to Haven’s Garage. Three players fall in a single spray transfer, with a fourth taken out just seconds later. Want to enjoy it even more? Have a listen to the Korean casters’ reactions.
Alfajer’s 1v3 with a shorty finisher
Fnatic proved leagues ahead of the competition in their path to the upper bracket final. Each member of their team had highlights, including this delicious 1v3 recovery from Alfajer. Taking out two, he smartly utilizes his opponent forsaken’s own abilities against him to close the distance and claim the round.
Kangkang’s celebration
© Riot
Chinese side EDward Gaming won’t walk away from Valorant Masters Tokyo with a trophy, but they definitely won the audience’s hearts. On top of impressive victories over teams like NaVi, T1, and LOUD, their team’s charisma proved indelible too. Most memorable of all was Operator user KangKang’s cocky celebration in which he stood up from his PC an took aim at the opposition.
A demon with blades
Jett bladestorm plays have become a staple of Valorant highlights, but few feature flicks quite so rapid as Demon1’s takedowns this week. In the final game of Evil Geniuses' showdown with Fnatic, he kept his side in the game by taking down two opponents in a tense late-round engagement.The second is a blisteringly fast fadeaway headshot while dashing back into cover. It’s a shot so fast that you might need to watch several times before you even see it happen.
Sneaky plays from Evil Geniuses
Where tuyz’ patience was punished, C0M’s was rewarded. Searching for match point on Fracture against Fnatic, EG’s Sova players managed hide himself in spawn, letting several members of Fnatic past him on their path to retake the site. The split left his teammates in the thick of it, but with C0M holding his Hunter’s Fury ultimate until the last moment, he could guard the spike from an unassailable location that the enemy had assumed was safe.
F0rsaken’s ace
We couldn’t have a highlight reel without an ace, of course. Paper Rex’s f0rsaken delivered one of the best on Bind, brazenly taking fight after fight against a bewildered NRG side who clearly weren’t prepared for such confidence.
Jinggg’s ultimate site hold
Let’s not stop at just one Paper Rex multikill though, eh? Earlier in the same match, Jinggg was left as the last line of defense against NRG’s side as they rapidly rotated to the B site. With the time against NRG, all Jinggg needed to do was delay the plant. He did that and then some, utilizing nades and his ult to shut down NRG entirely, even boldly swinging for the final kill in a swift 4k sequence.
CGRS Stepping up
With one of their star players subbed out due to via issues, no one expected Paper Rex to make it quite so far as they did. The team pushed NA stars EG to their limit in the lower bracket final, and that was thanks in no small part to stand-in CGRS' performance. Shifting from his usual comfort pick of Gecko, the content creator stepped up to deliver plenty of big plays, including this impressive pistol round site defence on Ascent.
Jawgemo styles on his opponent
Both sides had plenty to enjoy throughout the match, with EG's Jawgemo even finding time to pull out an Omen trick play. Faking a teleport onto Ascent's B-site, he leaves Paper Rex's jinggg absolutely bamboozled.
Derke enters the matrix
The final scoreline didn't do justice to how tense Fnatic's grand finals showdown with EG proved. Each round delivered something ridiculous from members of both sides, including this ridiculous display of dodging by derke. Caught out by Demon1, he somehow manages to jump and airstrafe around almost every bullet his opponent fires, landing just in time to return fire and take him out.
Seen any other Valorant Masters Tokyo highlights? Share them with us! We’ll update this list following the weekend’s finals to include any other standout moments from the competition.
