Aside from Gen.G and Paper Rex, Sentinels and Wolves Esports also both took down their competition.
CANADA – The opening games of the playoffs of VCT Masters Toronto saw the first seeds of every region fall to the teams that made it through the Swiss Stage. On the first day, Paper Rex shut down G2 while Sentinels took down XLG. The next day, RRQ fell at the hands of Wolves while Gen.G defeated FNATIC and dropped their first map of the tournament.
PRX train chugs along with a 2-0 over G2
After a tumultuous Swiss stage, Paper Rex were chosen by G2 to be their first opponents at the Toronto playoffs. The series opened on PRX’s map pick of Split where they ran a Yoru/Raze/Fade core along with a double controller. G2 on the other hand opted for a similar comp, but replaced the Raze with a Breach. G2 starting on attack were able to find a slight lead in the first half, eventually culminating in a 7-5 score line, and they pushed this further by winning the second pistol too.
Paper Rex locked in after that however, winning seven rounds in a row to get to match point first. G2 only won one more round before PRX closed the map out 13-10, with the team’s newest member PatMan coming out on top as the MVP on Fade with 21 kills, although players on both sides looked pretty even across the scoreboard.
Map two, G2’s pick, took folks over to Lotus, the map where Paper Rex had barely denied Team Liquid’s comeback during the Swiss Stage. Similar to map one, the first half ended after some back-and-forth at 6-6. PRX won the pistol, anti-eco, and bonus to get to a lead of 9-6. G2 would win 5 out of the next eight rounds however, with the last of those being won by a massive 4K from Valyn, bringing the score to 12-11 in PRX’s favor. Despite having a deficit in their economy, PRX stormed the site and denied G2 the retake and overtime, winning the series 2-0.
Both Jinggg and something looked incredible as the double duelist spearhead, and were able to consistently find openings, with something having seven first kills. PatMan and Jinggg both had 34 kills a piece while something had 37 across the series on Yoru. With their win against G2, PRX will now face another North American team in Sentinels in the upper semifinals.
Gen.G continues down their path of victory in the playoffs
The Pacific second seed faced off against EMEA stage 1 winners FNATIC and the series started on Gen.G’s pick of Haven. FNATIC got off to a blistering 8-4 start on their defensive side while running their usual Iso/Yoru composition. Despite their slow start, once Gen.G got onto defense, they locked in, winning seven out of the next eight rounds to 11-9 in Gen.G’s favor. FNATIC were only able to win one more before Gen.G closed out the map 13-11. Munchkin, t3xture, and Karon had 12 first kills between them, with Karon on Omen having five of his own.
Split, despite being FNATIC’s map of choice saw Gen.G continue with t3xture as their sole duelist on Neon while FNATIC opted for a Raze/Yoru combo. Despite FNATIC having the double duelists, it was Gen.G who absolutely dominated on attack, ending the half 9-3. They extended their lead to 12-7, just a round away from a 2-0. FNATIC however dug deep, and were able to win five straight rounds to push the series to OT, with kaajak finding three 3Ks to propel FNATIC through. The European reps completed the comeback to take the map 14-12 and the series to map three. Alfajer had 28 kills on Raze with seven first kills – kaajak and him were both leading the frag charts.
Sunset saw FNATIC win the pistol but Gen.G stole away the antieco. Once again, Gen.G stole the show in the first half to end up with an 8-4 lead, thanks to t3xture going 16/4 in the first half alone. The second half, after a tech timeout, again saw FNATIC pick up the pistol and lose the anti-eco, which let Gen.G win another two rounds to bring the score to 11-5. FNATIC tried to repeat their antics on Split but Gen.G were done playing around, closing out the map 13-6 and moving on to the upper semifinals.
The highest ACS on the server belonged to t3xture, who had sixty kills, nine first kills, and a +15 kill differential. They will face off against Wolves next.
