Nongshim RedForce claimed the Valorant Santiago Masters trophy, completing a dominant run at Valorant Masters Santiago that saw them only drop one map across the competition.
The Korean roster defeated regional rivals, Paper Rex 3-0 in Sunday’s Grand Final, taking an exhilarating Corrode content 13-11 before blowing PRX away on Split and Abyss 13-4, 13-3.
History made at Valorant Masters Santiago
The Pacific team became the first-ever Ascension team to win an international tournament, doing so in the most dominant run at an international since Fnatic at Valorant Masters Tokyo in 2023.
DRX veteran, Goo ‘Rb’ Sang-min led his team of fearless young guns to a remarkable tournament victory with ‘Xross’ Jeonghwan and Lee ‘Dambi’ Hyuk-kyu showing no drop off in individual form from Tier 2 to Tier 1.
The sensational Korean roster defeated Gentle Mates 2-0, G2 2-1, NRG 2-0, and PRX 3-0 to claim the title, having not lost a non-invitational event series since October.
Like Nongshim RedForce, Fnatic only dropped a single map on the way to tournament victory in their historic 2023, drawing positive parallels between Nongshim RF and one of Valorant’s most lauded rosters.
Paper Rex, on the other hand, equalled Fnatic’s legends in a negative sense, as Jason ‘f0rsakeN’ Susant, Khalish ‘d4v41’ Rusyaidee, and Wang ‘Jinggg’ Jing Jie joined Jake ‘Boaster’ Howlett and Timofey ‘Chronicle’ Khromov in recording three VCT international Grand Final defeats.
Ilya ‘something’ Petrov also recorded an unfortunate statistic, recording only a 0.02 rating in a 1/17/2 performance on Yoru on Split as the series slipped away from Paper Rex’s grasp.
While Paper Rex will be reeling today from a tough loss, the tournament overall was a strong showing from the roster in their first international since the departure of Patrick ‘PatMen’ Mendoza and the addition of Adrian ‘invy’ Reyes.
The Pacific roster defeated Valorant Champions 2025 winners NRG twice in the unusual three meetings of the rosters at the event, but could not match up with their regional rivals.
Overall, while Nongshim remains undefeated in 2026, the picture is that Pacific as a region has shifted to an even stronger position than 2025, as the Grand Final and 3rd/4th places became stratified between the Pacific and the Americas regions.
For EMEA, it was a sobering competition, as the region missed out on the top four after elimination on the same day as China.
Can EMEA bounce back in time to contest Valorant Masters London? Join Insider Gaming’s Discord to discuss.
For more Riot Games news, see how the Brazil Under-18 ban may affect their ecosystem.
Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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