Image credit: VALORANT Esports
Day two of VCT Masters Shanghai saw Gen.G Esports and Team Heretics take key victories to move one step closer to the next round.
It was another stellar day for VCT Masters Shanghai as the likes of Gen.G Esports and Team Heretics secured crucial victories against Leviatán and Dragon Ranger Gaming respectively. This puts both teams just one series win away from qualifying for the next round where Gen.G will go up against FunPlus Phoenix while Heretics will face G2 Esports.
As for Leviatán and DRG, they are still not out of the tournament but will have to win two best-of-threes in a row to make it to the playoffs. Leviatán had the closest chance of taking the win against Gen.G but ultimately fell short while DRG could not manage a map win against Heretics, who won with the tournament's first 2-0 victory.
The first series between Gen.G and Leviatán went all the way as the VCT Americas third seed struck first on Icebox. While the first half of game one was a close fight, Leviatán was able to see it through in the second half as they were able to keep Gen.G to just two round wins. And it was Erick “aspas” Santos that had a stellar showing on Jett with 21 kills that also included a 4K in the sixth round.
But game two on Lotus was all about Gen.G as they were able to turn the tides against Leviatán. And despite bottom fragging on Icebox, Na-ra “t3xture” Kim managed to put his troubles aside as his Raze secured 26 kills alongside a 3K in just the third round. All in all, Gen.G won Lotus rather convincingly as Leviatán could only muster five round wins, all in the first half to even the series 1-1. With Breeze being the final map pick, it was another close contest between both teams.
And this time, it was Gen.G who started off strong again with a six-round streak in the first half, even after Leviatán had won the first two rounds. From there, both teams would constantly trade rounds back and forth but as the match wore on, it was becoming increasingly clear that Gen.G would walk away the winners. Unfortunately for Leviatán, even with aspas top-fragging, it still wasn't enough to get them the win.
The second series of the day was rather one-sided as Heretics were able to keep DRG at bay in two straight maps. Icebox and Sunset were the choices and both times, Heretics managed to win rather comfortably at a 13-5 scoreline. This happened despite Heretics playing with a stand-in, Patryk "paTiTek" Fabrowski as Dominykas “MiniBoo” Lukaševičius could not attend the LAN due to school exams. But whatever the case, Heretics were in fine form.
It's also worth noting that this was DRG's first-ever Masters event and was one of only two teams, that just last season, was in Ascension. DRG also had some highlight-worthy plays, particularly from Ilya “vo0kashu” Ushakov and Zhehao “tZh” Tang. That loss now means that DRG will go up against FUT Esports in an elimination series alongside T1 and Leviatán.
Here is what the schedule will look like tomorrow:
