100 Thieves Ease Past FUT Esports, Gen.G Pulls Off Comeback Against Fnatic

The first match of the VCT Masters Shanghai Playoffs ended in a swift victory for the North Americans. Gen.G showed impressive resilience in the second series and stole the win from Fnatic.

100 Thieves 2-0 FUT Esports

100 Thieves form was in question for Shanghai, as many of the players hadn’t qualified for an event in years. However, the doubters were quickly silenced.

Icebox was the first map of the series, FUT’s pick. 100 Thieves easily out-aimed and outplayed FUT in the pistol round and coverted the anti-eco. By the third round, Cryocells had already pulled out his Operator. 

FUT could not get a kill for their lives, and 100 Thieves were mowing them down every round until it was 8-0. The Turks got their first plant in the ninth round, which required multiple ultimates to be expended. 

At the end of the first half, FUT only posted 1 round, meaning the score was 11-1 in favor of 100 Thieves. cNed got nice kills on his Sheriff to get FUT’s second round but got thrifty’d right after and lost the map 13-2. The top performer on the map was eeiu’s Sova, who went 16/4/5.

Game 2 started a little more competitively. 100 Thieves won the pistol round and the second, but FUT won the bonus round to put the score at 2-1. Both teams traded rounds, and the score was 6- 4. However, the North American squad won the two final rounds of the first half, winning it 8-4.

100 Thieves won another pistol round, eventually stomped FUT, and ended the series 13-5. The most impactful player in the game was undoubtedly Cryocells, who was playing Brimstone. In 18 rounds of play, he went 32/11/5 and had an Average Combat Score of 452. This performance was a career high and broke the international Brimstone kill record in a single map with 18 rounds. 

2-0 FUT very clean start from us and loving the chinese crowd❤️❤️

— 100T Cryo (@Cryocells_) May 30, 2024

Fnatic 1-2 Gen.G

The first series was a disappointing blowout, but the match between Fnatic and Gen.G made up for it. The kings of 2023 were looking to redeem themselves in this tournament.

Gen.G was off to a great start on their map pick, Lotus, winning the first pistol round. However, Fnatic pulled off a thrifty to equalize, but Gen.G struck back with a second thrifty to take the lead. However, Fnatic, mainly Leo and Alfajer, were done playing around and shut down the Gen.G offense, winning the first half 8-4 on such an offense-sided map. 

Munchkin delivered much-needed impact and got four kills on the second pistol round to put Gen.G back in the game. The South Korean won five consecutive rounds to put the score at 8-9. However, Fnatic stood back up and closed the game with a 13-10 victory. Alfajer was the highest-rated player on the server, going 22/15/7 on Killjoy.

The next map was Fnatic’s pick, Bind. Gen.G started strong with the pistol round and the anti-eco but lost the bonus round. However, they won the first gun round and two more, building a 5-1 lead. Fnatic was able to adjust throughout the end of the first half after a massive play from Alfajer’s Viper and tied the score 6-6. 

Fnatic took the lead 8-6 after winning the pistol round and converting the anti-eco, but Gen.G quickly pulled out their guns and won three consecutive rounds. Fnatic looked totally lost on defense, as Gen.G was outmaneuvering their opponents to win the map 13-10. 

The decisive map was Breeze. Gen.G won yet another pistol round, won the anti-eco, and also the bonus. However, Fnatic didn’t let that get into their heads and won five straight to lead 5-3. Gen.G could pick up two more rounds in the first half, meaning Fnatic led the map 7-5.

EMEA fans were happy to see Fnatic winning the second pistol round and not getting thrifty’d, going up 9-5. Gen.G won the bonus round, but Fnatic won the first gun round and found themselves on the cusp of victory with a 10-6 score.

However, Gen.G showed how potent their offense was on Breeze, winning five in a row thanks to t3xture’s entries. Fnatic could not get their economy going and eventually let the map slip out of their hands, losing 10-13. T3xture’s Jett ended the game 22/15/1, with six first bloods. 

Lost to GenG 1-2. Close series though. We’re now a lower bracket grind team

Felt really nice to be back on the international stage. Crowd was awesome❤️

— FNATIC Boaster (@OfficialBoaster) May 30, 2024

With these victories, 100 Thieves will play against Gen.G in the next round of Playoffs, while Fnatic will face FUT Esports in the Lower Bracket in an elimination match. 

Header: 100 Thieves