VALORANT Masters Santiago 2026 Playoffs betting tips – Friday, March 6

VALORANT Masters Santiago 2026 enters the playoffs stage on Friday, March 6, when eight teams begin their quest for the Masters trophy and the lion’s share of the US$1,000,000 prize pool.

Esportbet has prepared free VALORANT betting predictions and expert picks for the opening knockout fixtures, with esports odds courtesy of the best bookmakers.

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  Fast Payouts

FURIA vs PAPER REX

FURIA will play their first game of VALORANT Masters Santiago on Friday, when they clash with Paper Rex.

Paper Rex finished the Swiss Stage with a perfect record, beating G2 Esports and NRG without many issues. The latter game was close with both teams reaching double digits across the three maps played, but NRG failed to stop Adrian “invy” Reyes, who has been a driving engine behind PR’s strong showings this season.

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  The bookies' bookie

FURIA had a promising run in VCT Americas Kickoff, although they’ve only managed to defeat one good team in G2 Esports. The upper bracket final match against MIBR was too close for comfort and had FURIA not edged out a win on the day, they would’ve likely placed fourth in the league.

FURIA have potential and can be dangerous with the amount of firepower they have. However, this is also an inexperienced team, with three players making their VCT Masters debut.

This is Paper Rex’s game to lose, but they only seem to excel on Haven and Split, so it is easy to imagine FURIA leaving a dent.

NONGSHIM REDFORCE vs GENTLE MATES

Nongshim RedForce will step into the arena on Friday, when they face off against the surging Gentle Mates, who completed their Swiss Stage run with two 2-0 sweeps of Team Liquid and EDward Gaming.

Gentle Mates did not win the domestic title but still travelled to Chile as a serious threat for the title, having shown incredible form in VCT EMEA. Martin “marteen” Pátek has been phenomenal in the domestic competition, and he hasn’t shown signs of slowing down.

He is the top-performing player of the tournament with a 1.48 performance rating, ahead of Patryk “starxo” Kopczyński and Patrik “Minny” Hušek, who rank fifth and sixth at 1.20 and 1.14.

Nongshim RedForce emerged as VCT Pacific’s top dogs this season, but this is still an inexperienced roster, which makes it hard to trust them to accomplish a lot on the international stage. Moreover, NS have been away from action for three weeks, so some rust is to be expected.

The best VALORANT bookmakers have Gentle Mates priced at -151.52 to win on Friday, which is a generous offer. This is arguably VCT EMEA’s top team, and considering the form they’re in, M8 will be tough to stop.