Five players to look out for at VALORANT Masters Santiago 2026

VALORANT Masters Santiago, the first global VCT event of the year, kicks off next week and is looking to be one of the most difficult tournaments to predict in VCT history.

The 12 teams, all of which have qualified through dramatic Kickoff events, will be looking to claim as much of the $1m (~£742,000) total prize pool as possible and valuable VCT points.

With many accomplished veterans as well as hungry newcomers heading to Chile, Esports Insider discusses five players who have the potential to impress the VCT crowd and carry their teams to an international trophy.

Throughout VCT EMEA Kickoff 2026, Martin ‘marteen’ Pátek has made waves like no other. As part of the new Gentle Mates roster, the former Karmine Corp member has established himself as an incredible Yoru player in terms of firepower and reliability.

The start of the 2026 season saw marteen consistently fulfil his job on Yoru, while other Gentle Mates players took the spotlight. However, as the season progressed, the Czech player seemed to warm up mechanically as well.

Following a formidable VCT EMEA Kickoff run, Gentle Mates found itself in the Upper Bracket Final against BBL Esports. Despite delivering 105 kills and breaking the VCT EMEA kill record in a best-of-five (BO5) series, marteen and his team couldn’t win the region’s first seed at Masters Santiago, losing 2-3.

But rather than accepting defeat after such a bittersweet achievement, marteen returned to the VCT EMEA stage the next day to break the global BO5 kill record with 126 kills. With this performance, Gentle Mates won the Middle Bracket Final versus Fnatic 3-2 and secured its ticket to Santiago.

Gentle Mates will play in the opening match at Masters Santiago against VCT China’s EDward Gaming (EDG) on February 28th at 5 PM BST. This will also be marteen’s first opportunity at the event to prove he can remain in top form following two standout performances. .

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

However, the Canadian/Italian player experienced a disappointing initial tier-one stint with VCT EMEA team NAVI last year. Following early eliminations from both VCT Kickoff and Stage 1, koalanoob was benched and replaced by Alex ‘alexiiik’ Hawlasek for the remainder of the season.

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

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

To complete its flawless Kickoff performance, FURIA took down Americas’ new super team MIBR 3-2 in the Upper Bracket Final.

Despite his benching last year, koalanoob has stood out at VCT Americas Kickoff thanks to his flexibility and unshakeable mental fortitude. As FURIA’s hypeman, he still managed to place at the top of his team’s leaderboard throughout several matches. Moreover, koalanoob’s agent pool allows him to be a fearless duelist and switch to Omen whenever needed.

Koalanoob is clearly hungry to prove himself in tier-one, and his first-ever international VCT event is the perfect opportunity to do so. His first showing in VALORANT Santiago, however, will not take place until the event’s Swiss Stage has concluded.

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

Due to a slow start in its debut VCT Pacific season and barely making the Stage 2 Playoffs, Nongshim RedForce had to defend its tier-one slot via another Ascension run. With that in mind, it’s hard to imagine that such a shaky team has risen to the top of one of VCT’s most competitive regions just a few months later.

Yet the current, fast-paced and chaotic meta suits Nongshim perfectly, and no one else seems to excel at this playstyle like Dambi. Looking incredibly comfortable on Neon, Dambi has perfected the role of the fearless entry-duelist, sliding through chokes to create space for his teammates.

This role can be unforgiving, as the space-making duelist is often focused down by the enemy, resulting in not-so-pretty stat lines. However, thanks to his unpredictable movement and proficiency with shotguns, Dambi has proven that Neon can be fearless and deadly.

Given his incredible round-by-round impact, facing Nongshim RedForce seemingly boils down to one question: Can the team shut down Dambi?

So far, most attempts at stopping Dambi from taking over matches have failed. But with new international opponents on the horizon, VALORANT Masters Santiago could pose a challenge for Nongshim RedForce and its star player.

Nongshim RedForce and Dambi will kick off their first global event in the Masters Santiago Playoffs stage.

VCT China saw an unexpected name take over the region during Kickoff.

All Gamers, a VCT partner team which had never before qualified for a tier-one global event, took the upper bracket by storm to secure the region’s first ticket to Masters Santiago.

To make this happen, All Gamers took down Nova Esports (2-0) as well as three of the four regional representatives at VALORANT Champions 2025, Bilibili Gaming (2-0), Dragon Ranger Gaming (2-1) and XLG Esports (3-2).

The Chinese organisation delivered these back-to-back-to-back upsets with a roster of fairly inexperienced players, some of whom had never competed in VCT’s top tier previously. 

Perhaps due to his additional tier-one experience, Yang ‘Shr1mp’ Yong has established himself as a crucial cornerstone of All Gamers’ success story. The Chinese player started competing in VALORANT esports in 2023 and made his VCT debut two years later under FunPlus Phoenix (FPX).

However, after only one tournament (VCT China Stage 1), Shr1mp made the swift switch to All Gamers for the rest of the 2025 season. Following a turbulent tier-one debut and underwhelming results in Stage 2, it now looks like all the puzzle pieces are in the right place for Sh1mp and this revamped All Gamers line-up.

Whilst still fragging heavily when needed, the recon-initiator expert has now also found a system that can effectively play off his utility. However, some analysts have raised concerns regarding All Gamers’ inefficient macro gameplay, which could be exploited by more experienced international teams.

The Playoffs matches at VALORANT Masters Santiago will reveal whether Shr1mp can unlock his full strategic and mechanical potential on his first global stage, or whether he and his team will be crushed by the opposition.

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

Heading into Kickoff 2026, the North American esports organisation only made one change to its Champions-winning roster: Signing Georgio ‘keiko’ Sanassy to replace Sam ‘s0m’ Oh, who had retired to focus on content creation. 

s0m was renowned for his high-fragging controller gameplay and mental leadership, which means that keiko has big shoes to fill on his new roster. The British player previously represented EMEA’s Team Liquid, where he gained a reputation for his ability to frag out in the main controller and secondary duelist role.

In theory, this flexibility should make him s0m’s perfect successor, given that the current meta heavily favours double-duelist team compositions. In practice, however, it hasn’t been the easiest transition, as shown by NRG’s route to Masters Santiago.

After defeating Cloud9 (2-0), the team fell to MIBR (1-2). Then, after beating 100 Thieves (2-0), NRG lost to G2 Esports (0-2), before finally finding its footing in the lower bracket. Moreover, Keiko appeared to underperform at VCT Americas Kickoff until the revenge Lower Bracket Final match versus MIBR (3-2), indicating that he hasn’t yet fully warmed up to the NRG system. 

Considering the stacked bracket at Masters Santiago, keiko’s unlocked potential could make a massive difference to NRG’s performance. But this also only increases the pressure resting on the new member’s shoulders.

NRG’s first series in Santiago on February 28th against XLG Esports could give fans a glimpse into what kind of keiko they can expect during his first global event with the reigning world champions.