Five players to look out for at VALORANT Masters Santiago 2026

VALORANT Masters Santiago, the primary world VCT occasion of the 12 months, kicks off subsequent week and is seeking to be one of the vital troublesome tournaments to foretell in VCT historical past.

The 12 groups, all of which have certified via dramatic Kickoff occasions, might be seeking to declare as a lot of the $1m (~£742,000) complete prize pool as attainable and invaluable VCT factors.

With many completed veterans in addition to hungry newcomers heading to Chile, Esports Insider discusses 5 gamers who’ve the potential to impress the VCT crowd and carry their groups to a world trophy.

All through VCT EMEA Kickoff 2026, Martin ‘marteen’ Pátek has made waves like no different. As a part of the brand new Light Mates roster, the previous Karmine Corp member has established himself as an unbelievable Yoru participant when it comes to firepower and reliability.

The beginning of the 2026 season noticed marteen persistently fulfil his job on Yoru, whereas different Light Mates gamers took the highlight. Nevertheless, because the season progressed, the Czech participant appeared to heat up mechanically as properly.

Following a formidable VCT EMEA Kickoff run, Light Mates discovered itself within the Higher Bracket Ultimate in opposition to BBL Esports. Regardless of delivering 105 kills and breaking the VCT EMEA kill file in a best-of-five (BO5) collection, marteen and his crew couldn’t win the area’s first seed at Masters Santiago, shedding 2-3.

However somewhat than accepting defeat after such a bittersweet achievement, marteen returned to the VCT EMEA stage the subsequent day to interrupt the worldwide BO5 kill file with 126 kills. With this efficiency, Light Mates gained the Center Bracket Ultimate versus Fnatic 3-2 and secured its ticket to Santiago.

Light Mates will play within the opening match at Masters Santiago in opposition to VCT China’s EDward Gaming (EDG) on February twenty eighth at 5 PM BST. This will even be marteen’s first alternative on the occasion to show he can stay in prime kind following two standout performances. .

FURIA’s GianFranco ‘koalanoob’ Potestio has been competing in VALORANT since 2020. 

Nevertheless, the Canadian/Italian participant skilled a disappointing preliminary tier-one stint with VCT EMEA crew NAVI final 12 months. Following early eliminations from each VCT Kickoff and Stage 1, koalanoob was benched and changed by Alex ‘alexiiik’ Hawlasek for the rest of the season.

For the 2026 season, koalanoob returned to the VCT as a part of FURIA’s roster rework. The Brazilian esports organisation had additionally suffered a disastrous 2025 season, successful just one out of its 13 complete VCT Americas matches.

Each koalanoob and FURIA entered VCT Americas Kickoff 2026 as underdogs and shortly exceeded viewer expectations by defeating KRÜ Esports (2-0), Sentinels (2-0) and triple VCT Americas 2025 champion G2 Esports (2-1).

To finish its flawless Kickoff efficiency, FURIA took down Americas’ new tremendous crew MIBR 3-2 within the Higher Bracket Ultimate.

Regardless of his benching final 12 months, koalanoob has stood out at VCT Americas Kickoff because of his flexibility and unshakeable psychological fortitude. As FURIA’s hypeman, he nonetheless managed to position on the prime of his crew’s leaderboard all through a number of matches. Furthermore, koalanoob’s agent pool permits him to be a fearless duelist and swap to Omen at any time when wanted.

Koalanoob is clearly hungry to show himself in tier-one, and his first-ever worldwide VCT occasion is the right alternative to take action. His first displaying in VALORANT Santiago, nevertheless, is not going to happen till the occasion’s Swiss Stage has concluded.

In 2024, Lee ‘Dambi’ Hyuk-kyu ascended from the Pacific Challengers circuit to tier-one alongside Korean crew Nongshim RedForce.

Because of a sluggish begin in its debut VCT Pacific season and barely making the Stage 2 Playoffs, Nongshim RedForce needed to defend its tier-one slot through one other Ascension run. With that in thoughts, it’s onerous to think about that such a shaky crew has risen to the highest of one among VCT’s best areas just some months later.

But the present, fast-paced and chaotic meta fits Nongshim completely, and nobody else appears to excel at this playstyle like Dambi. Wanting extremely snug on Neon, Dambi has perfected the function of the fearless entry-duelist, sliding via chokes to create area for his teammates.

This function might be unforgiving, because the space-making duelist is commonly centered down by the enemy, leading to not-so-pretty stat traces. Nevertheless, because of his unpredictable motion and proficiency with shotguns, Dambi has confirmed that Neon might be fearless and lethal.

Given his unbelievable round-by-round impression, dealing with Nongshim RedForce seemingly boils down to 1 query: Can the crew shut down Dambi?

To this point, most makes an attempt at stopping Dambi from taking on matches have failed. However with new worldwide opponents on the horizon, VALORANT Masters Santiago might pose a problem for Nongshim RedForce and its star participant.

Nongshim RedForce and Dambi will kick off their first world occasion within the Masters Santiago Playoffs stage.

VCT China noticed an sudden title take over the area throughout Kickoff.

All Avid gamers, a VCT accomplice crew which had by no means earlier than certified for a tier-one world occasion, took the higher bracket by storm to safe the area’s first ticket to Masters Santiago.

To make this occur, All Avid gamers took down Nova Esports (2-0) in addition to three of the 4 regional representatives at VALORANT Champions 2025, Bilibili Gaming (2-0), Dragon Ranger Gaming (2-1) and XLG Esports (3-2).

The Chinese language organisation delivered these back-to-back-to-back upsets with a roster of pretty inexperienced gamers, a few of whom had by no means competed in VCT’s prime tier beforehand. 

Maybe resulting from his further tier-one expertise, Yang ‘Shr1mp’ Yong has established himself as a vital cornerstone of All Avid gamers’ success story. The Chinese language participant began competing in VALORANT esports in 2023 and made his VCT debut two years later below FunPlus Phoenix (FPX).

Nevertheless, after just one event (VCT China Stage 1), Shr1mp made the swift swap to All Avid gamers for the remainder of the 2025 season. Following a turbulent tier-one debut and underwhelming ends in Stage 2, it now seems like all of the puzzle items are in the correct place for Sh1mp and this revamped All Avid gamers line-up.

While nonetheless fragging closely when wanted, the recon-initiator professional has now additionally discovered a system that may successfully play off his utility. Nevertheless, some analysts have raised considerations concerning All Avid gamers’ inefficient macro gameplay, which could possibly be exploited by extra skilled worldwide groups.

The Playoffs matches at VALORANT Masters Santiago will reveal whether or not Shr1mp can unlock his full strategic and mechanical potential on his first world stage, or whether or not he and his crew might be crushed by the opposition.

VCT Americas’ third seed at Masters Santiago belongs to none aside from the reigning VALORANT Champions, NRG.

Heading into Kickoff 2026, the North American esports organisation solely made one change to its Champions-winning roster: Signing Georgio ‘keiko’ Sanassy to switch Sam ‘s0m’ Oh, who had retired to deal with content material creation. 

s0m was famend for his high-fragging controller gameplay and psychological management, which implies that keiko has large footwear to fill on his new roster. The British participant beforehand represented EMEA’s Staff Liquid, the place he gained a repute for his capability to frag out in the principle controller and secondary duelist function.

In concept, this flexibility ought to make him s0m’s excellent successor, on condition that the present meta closely favours double-duelist crew compositions. In observe, nevertheless, it hasn’t been the best transition, as proven by NRG’s path to Masters Santiago.

After defeating Cloud9 (2-0), the crew fell to MIBR (1-2). Then, after beating 100 Thieves (2-0), NRG misplaced to G2 Esports (0-2), earlier than lastly discovering its footing within the decrease bracket. Furthermore, Keiko appeared to underperform at VCT Americas Kickoff till the revenge Decrease Bracket Ultimate match versus MIBR (3-2), indicating that he hasn’t but totally warmed as much as the NRG system. 

Contemplating the stacked bracket at Masters Santiago, keiko’s unlocked potential might make a large distinction to NRG’s efficiency. However this additionally solely will increase the stress resting on the brand new member’s shoulders.

NRG’s first collection in Santiago on February twenty eighth in opposition to XLG Esports might give followers a glimpse into what sort of keiko they will anticipate throughout his first world occasion with the reigning world champions.