Xi Lai Gaming pulls off miraculous upset over G2 Esports

The first spherical of the VCT Masters London playoffs has concluded, with

Xi Lai Gaming

Xi Lai Gaming

China
Rank #2

WsLeo
Huang Pinwei (黄品维)








Lysoar
Liang Youhao (梁优好)








NoMan
James Man








Rarga
Arthur Churyumov








happywei
Deng Minwei (邓闵维)

pulling off the upset of the occasion with a 2-1 win over

G2 Esports

G2 Esports

North America
Rank #1

jawgemo
Alexander Mor








BABYBAY
Andrej Francisty








trent
Trent Cairns








valyn
Jacob Batio








leaf
Nathan Orf

to maneuver on to the higher semifinals.

After assembly twice earlier than at Masters Toronto and Masters Santiago, XLG lastly received not solely its first map win towards G2 on this collection, however its first playoff win of any form on the worldwide stage after Swiss Stage and Group Stage eliminations at every of the final three worldwide occasions.

The collection performed out on Xi Lai’s choose of Lotus, G2’s Ascent, and the decider map of Split. G2 gained Lotus 13-7, XLG gained Ascent 13-4, after which went on to win Split 13-9.

Xi Lai unsurprisingly went with its trademark triple-Sentinel comp on Lotus, that includes Duelist participant

Rarga
on Sage together with a Deadlock and a Cypher. XLG began the map on assault and started robust, profitable the pistol, anti-eco, and changing the bonus to assert an early 3-0 lead. A thrifty, transformed largely because of

BABYBAY
‘s Vyse setup on C, gave the impression to be a small hiccup for XLG en path to a 5-1 lead, however G2 shortly received a learn on XLG’s assault. From the braintrust of

valyn
and

JoshRT
, G2 navigated the map and its midrounds to close perfection, profitable six straight rounds to enter halftime up 7-5.

leaf
‘s 4K is the end on a wonderfully-played out protection of the C website.

A second pistol spherical win on the map helped XLG begin the second half in the fitting path, however G2 reversed that momentum very quickly, changing an eco spherical with 5 pistols. While Xi Lai clawed again a spherical after re-stabilizing its financial system, G2 flexed its muscle. Four straight rounds went G2’s approach, making for a straightforward 13-7 win on XLG’s map choose.

Since Ascent’s return to the map pool, G2 has opted for a double-Duelist look with Yoru-Phoenix, Vyse, Sova, and Astra. In this match, G2 switched out Yoru and Astra for Neon and Omen, whereas XLG went with Jett, Phoenix, and Cypher to enhance Omen and Sova. The map started in an analogous tempo to Lotus, with XLG starting dominantly with wins by the bonus, solely to lose to a low purchase of a number of Stingers. Unlike Lotus although, that momentum was sustained by XLG, because the Chinese facet stormed into halftime main 8-4.

While protection is considered the stronger facet of the map, XLG impressed on assault as nicely, effortlessly breaking down G2’s defenses to close them out of the half en path to a clear 13-4 win.

happywei
pulls off the 1v2 to cap off a pivotal bonus spherical 4K.

XLG’s win on Ascent introduced the 2 groups to Split, a storied map for each groups. For the Chinese facet, happywei’s record-setting 35-kill efficiency on the map in a 13-11 win over

Dragon Ranger Gaming

Dragon Ranger Gaming

China
Rank #4

Flex1n
Lo Rui (罗瑞)








Life
Qu Donghao (瞿东豪)








vo0kashu
Ilya Ushakov








Akeman
Zhang Haoran (张浩然)








Nicc
Shao Yi-qun (邵逸群)








SpiritZ1
Lin Dingyu (林定宇)

was simply 4 days within the rear view mirror. For G2, the map has been cold and hot in current reminiscence for G2, with a 13-3 loss and a 13-11 win to

LEVIATÁN

LEVIATÁN

North America
Rank #4

spike
Rodrigo Lombardi








blowz
Guilherme Oliviera








Neon
Bruno Rodríguez








Sato
Eduardo Kenzo Nagahama Sato








kiNgg
Francisco Aravena

occurring up to now month. Xi Lai opened the map with its fifth-straight pistol of the collection, however struggled to get out to the quick begin that it did within the earlier two maps.

A back-and-forth G2 assault facet noticed momentum change palms quite a few instances, with XLG’s early 2-0 lead the biggest lead held by both facet within the first half. G2 entered halftime down 7-5, however moved onto protection with what may very well be argued because the extra defense-sided comp of the 2 groups. The second half started with XLG claiming a sixth pistol to brush G2 in pistols on the collection and declare a 9-5 lead.

G2 shut down the would-be bonus and tallied on one other spherical to interrupt XLG’s financial system, however XLG turned the tide with a thrifty win claimed by way of one Stinger and 4 pistols. The anti-eco gave XLG a four-round cushion, and with the groups buying and selling two rounds every over the following 4 rounds, margins had been razor-thin. With the gang behind its gamers, XLG reached match level with three alternatives to shut out the map. Against DRG, changing match level took giving up 4 straight rounds, however towards G2, a slight pretend onto the A website and a four-man hit onto B was what sealed the upset.

NoMan
shuts down

BABYBAY
‘s try at an ace and G2’s hopes within the collection.

happywei was as soon as once more a power all through this collection, recording a match-high 1.22 score whereas

Lysoar
had a match-high 52 kills. Meanwhile,

leaf
and BABYBAY led the best way for G2 with 43 kills every within the shedding effort.

With Xi Lai and

EDward Gaming

EDward Gaming

China
Rank #1

ZmjjKK
Zheng Yongkang (郑永康)








no one
Wang Senxu (王森旭)








CHICHOO
Wan Shunzhi (万顺治)








Smoggy
Zhang Zhao (张钊)








Jieni7
Zhang Juntai (张君泰)

‘s wins, a Chinese staff is now assured to complete within the prime three. This would be the first time a Chinese staff finishes within the prime three of a global occasion since

Wolves Esports

Wolves Esports

China
Rank #19

glacier
Liang Zhekai (梁哲恺)








yosemite
Wang Lei (王磊)








Spring
Liu Jiunting (刘俊霆)

‘ Cinderella run at Masters Toronto. A spot within the Upper Final will likely be earned between the 2 groups, whereas G2 falls to the decrease bracket to tackle certainly one of EMEA’s hottest groups. In a flip of occasions, China has now produced two of the 4 groups within the higher bracket, whereas two groups from EMEA and Americas every make up the decrease bracket.

Masters London will proceed with the next matches: