VALORANT Masters Santiago ran into a problem on Sunday, March 1 when Riot had to cancel the live Swiss Stage Round 2 draw on stage and redo the whole bracket.
A mistake placing the second team on the stage meant every matchup shown on the broadcast segment following the T1 vs. Team Liquid series was wrong, sending teams and fans into several hours of confusion.
As the talent broke down the upcoming Swiss round, PRX was placed against Gentle Mates, and NRG was supposed to go against Team Liquid. The second team’s pull was dropped into the wrong slot on stage, derailing the entire process.
Leo Faria, Global Head of VALORANT Esports, later confirmed the mistake publicly on X. Since Swiss formats depend on strict pairing rules and seeding logic, one incorrect placement at the start made every subsequent matchup on that on-stream bracket invalid.
Teams immediately began preparing based on those shown opponents, only to learn hours later that the draw itself was compromised and could not stand.
Paper Rex’s assistant coach, Ashton Wendler, commented under Faria’s post, saying: “Maybe im a minority here but this is too late leo to make this call. Yeah its a mistake, but this is a BIG jump this late when we literally prep tomorrow.”
Faria responded to this by saying, “It is, but it’s the right thing to do. We can’t move forward with the tournament knowing the match ups are wrong.”
I understand, but there’s a big difference this makes for teams that play tomorrow vs tuesday. I’m genuinely more in favor to talk first with other coaches, and if majority want reseed then sure we can run it.
How Riot fixed VALORANT Masters Santiago bracket for Swiss Stage 2
According to Faria, the company brought all affected teams together at their hotel and reran the entire Swiss Stage Round 2 draw in front of the coaches, rather than quietly patching the bracket behind the scenes.
The redraw was fully recorded, with Riot committing to publish the video so fans could see the corrected process and results themselves.
Faria also acknowledged the impact on competitive integrity and preparation, noting that teams had already spent a few hours working off the original, incorrect bracket.
With the redraw complete, Faria shared the updated schedule and pairings for Swiss Stage Round 2. The new bracket locks in two matches for March 2 and two more for March 3 at Masters Santiago.
For March 2, the confirmed matches are PRX vs. NRG and M8 vs. Team Liquid. On March 3, the action continues with EDward Gaming vs. T1 and XLG vs. G2 Esports.
Community reaction to the VALORANT Masters Santiago draw error
The community felt the correction needed to happen right after the live show, not a few hours later. One user commented, “I feel like this needed to be made the second after it happened. Everyone noticed it when it happened.” To this, Faria agreed, “You’re correct, it should.”
Assistant coach for a VALORANT Challengers 2026 NA team, SaD Esports, said, “As a coach, I wanna give my two sense on this. If I was coaching during Santiago and had one day to prep before the big match and now I’m losing MORE sleep to prep because I have to scrap the previous prep because YOU guys did the draws wrong and now I’m going to have to stay up even later to Anti/Prep for my match I’d be pissed. I don’t understand if it’s random either way why does it matter to redo draws. I don’t think you realize how much work goes into prep and anti’s with ONE day to prep. As a coach, I would be heated and I would understand any coach being angry about this.”
After Faria posted the redraw, the community was taken aback. Former NRG IGL, Pujan “FNS” Mehta commented, “Oh. My. God” under the correction post after seeing the last VALORANT Masters (Toronto) winners and 2025 Champions winners going head-to-head in Swiss Stage 2.
NRG’s current assistant coach, Joseph “Strong” Edwards, said, “Cool that was a waste of five straight hours.” Another fan feels, “The first draw should’ve just been it, own the mistake and allow teams to prep accordingly within the tight schedule, now everyone suffers.”
Format draws are usually some of the most sensitive moments in any international event, and seeing one publicly walked back mid-tournament is rare. Such shakeups also mean fans and esports bookmakers would need to redo their Pick’Ems and strategies.
