Image

G2 Esports Take Down Their Former Teammate At VCT Masters Shanghai

fragster Owen 23. May 2024

The North American squad defeated T1 in the opening match of VCT Masters Shanghai 2024. G2 Esports go 1-0 in the Swiss Stage, while the Asian squad is already on the brink of elimination. 

The core of the G2 Esports roster was originally part of The Guard, where Sayaplayer used to play. However, the South Korean moved back to his home country to play in the Pacific region. Coming into this matchup, G2 were the favorites to win the series, but T1 put up a decent fight.

Game 1 was played on Breeze, T1’s comfort map pick. G2 had a good start to the map, winning the pistol round and building a comfortable 5-1. T1 showed why Breeze was their map pick and replied with four in a row to make the half competitive. 

However, leaf’s Cypher was going nuclear, getting kills left and right, which posed a massive problem for T1. G2 could win the second pistol round and eventually win the map 13-8. The most impactful player in the game was none other than leaf, who went 28/11 and had an ACS of 342. 

Everyone thought the series was over, as T1 was the lowest-rated team in the event and just got blown out on their map pick. However, xccurate and the team did not want the match to end like this. On G2’s pick, Icebox, the Indonesian in-game leader called near-perfect strategies and won the first half 11-1.

After winning the second pistol round, the South Korean squad ended Icebox with a score of 13-1. Rossy, the North American import, stepped up massively and finished the map with a 20/5 KD as Viper.

T1 was riding their momentum from the second game and brought it over to the decider, Lotus. Despite Lotus being heavily attacker-sided, T1 could finish the first half 9-3 on their defense, and the game seemed over.

However, leaf clutched a 1v2 in the second pistol round to help G2 rally some rounds. The nerves got to T1, as their players started missing easy shots and could not get their teamwork together. After winning numerous consecutive rounds, the G2 squad was confident that they’d complete the comeback and began shooting T1’s dead bodies on many occasions. The map was taken into overtime, where G2 swept the two rounds and took the map 14-12. 

It was a devastating loss for T1, as they were up 9-3, 10-5, and 12-11 throughout the map. The Asian roster will have to play an elimination match to keep their Shanghai hopes and dreams alive. Meanwhile, G2 only needs one more series win to qualify for the Playoffs.

Header: G2 Valorant