The Korean superteam T1 came out victorious in a close series against G2 after a successful lower bracket run.
The grand finals of Masters Bangkok had the American Kickoff winners G2 coming in well-rested after a strong upper-bracket run. In contrast, T1 had gone through the gruelling lower bracket gauntlet, eliminating the likes of Vitality and EDG to make their way to the final. After a showmatch featuring the new agent Waylay, G2 started the map veto with a huge advantage in the form of two map bans.
Opting to ban out Fracture and Bind, two of T1’s good maps, G2 started the series on Lotus, where they ran their usual double controller/initiator comp against T1’s double duelist/Cypher pick. T1 were outclassed on their defensive side and G2 found a massive 8-4 lead in the half. G2 found their first pistol of the day and a three round streak off the back of it to get to match point at 12-4. T1 won only one more round before G2 won the first map of the day 13-5. G2’s leaf was the MVP on the map with a 21/10 KD and 89% KAST.
On their own map pick of Haven, T1 opted for a double duelist comp once again against G2’s solitary Yoru. Despite G2’s initial 4-1 advantage, T1 recovered with a four round streak to eventually end the half 6-6. After the side-swap, T1 won six out of the next eight rounds to get to match point, 12-8. G2 won one more round but T1 closed the map out 13-9.
Up next was Abyss, a map G2 had long been familiar on. T1 got off to a strong 6-0 start before G2 even won a round, but G2 recovered towards the tail end of the half, ending it at 8-4 in T1’s advantage. G2 won the pistol after the sideswap and on attack, jawgemo started putting up the numbers, enabling G2 to catch up, from 11-8 down all the way to 13-11. Both trent and jawgemo topped the stats board for G2, as they took the lead 2-1 in the series.
The fourth map, again chosen by T1, was Split, where they started on attack. They won the pistol, but despite T1’s double-duelist comp, G2 continuously stalled them and found picks, enabling G2 to find a dominant 8-4 half. T1 won six consecutive rounds after the side-swap to take the lead 10-8. G2 won the next three to push the score to 11-10, but a huge 3K from Sylvan with a judge got T1 to 11, and the map went to overtime. T1 eventually closed it out 15-13, pushing the series to a map five. Meteor was undoubtably the MVP for the T1 side, dropping 30 kills on Viper while also finding five first kills.
The decider that would crown the winner of Masters Bangkok was Pearl, where T1 began on the defense, rocking a Neon/Yoru comp against the Vyse/Chamber double sentinel of G2. T1 took an early 5-1 lead, eventually bringing the half to a close with an 8-4 lead. With the sideswap happening and G2 moving over to defense where their composition was more effective, the American squad was able to make up the deficit and win seven of the next eight rounds to take a 11-9, then 12-10 lead. BuZz and stax would win out a crucial halfbuy round and the rest of T1 banded together to push the map to overtime just like Split.
T1 got to match point twice but G2 denied them the win, successfully keeping the game going. However, the third time was the charm, with T1 winning the map successfully defending a 4 vs 1 postplant to win Pearl and be crowned the champions of Masters Bangkok. Despite jawgemo having the highest ACS on Pearl, Meteor and BuZz had ten first kills between them and a 250+ ACS of their own.
Across the series, jawgemo had a 103 kills, the highest on the server. Meteor had 94 frags of his own, flexing between Iso, Reyna, Viper, and Killjoy throughout the series. He also had 18 first kills, and BuZz had 19. After multiple top six finishes on other squads, BuZz and Stax finally lift a trophy together, while Meteor gets to add a second Masters win to his cabinet.
Meteor has also been awarded as the official MVP of Masters Bangkok, with VALO2ASIA being chosen as a Pacific media representative to vote for the MVP.
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Cover photo courtesy of Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
