Image credit: VALORANT Esports (Photo by Liu YiCun/Riot Games)
G2 Esports came back against Team Heretics to make their way to the VCT Masters Shanghai upper bracket final.
It was another scintillating series as G2 Esports mounted a comeback for the second time at VCT Masters Shanghai and sent Team Heretics to the lower bracket. This was G2's second comeback victory of the tournament where they would go behind in the first map, only to win it in the end. G2 will now go up against Gen.G Esports in the upper bracket finals to determine who will be in the grand finals first.
As for Heretics, their lower bracket journey begins tomorrow as they will have to go up against their fellow VCT EMEA competitors, FUT Esports. It was also FUT who had defeated Fnatic just yesterday so either way, there will only be one EMEA team left for a shot at lifting the Masters Shanghai title. The winner in the all-EMEA series will move on to face the victor from the other lower bracket series between Paper Rex and 100 Thieves.
The rematch of the Swiss Stage match-up between these two teams went on a similar route to the first series as Heretics would win the first map, only to lose it at the end to G2. Icebox was chosen by Heretics for game one, a map they were 2-0 in the tournament while G2 was 0-1. This proved to be the right choice as Heretics dominated the first half when on the defensive side of Icebox as they took a commanding 10-2 at the break.
G2 would have a much better second half by winning five rounds, but they could not stop Heretics from getting the victory seeing as they only needed three more. This was partially due to how well Benjy “benjyfishy” Fish performed with Killjoy as he racked up 28 kills with just six deaths during the entire first match. With their backs against the wall, G2 knew they needed to pull something out of its hat to keep the dream alive.
Game two was G2's map pick of Ascent, a first for either team and by the end of the first half, many would have predicted a clean 2-0 win for Heretics. They demolished G2 on their own map pick, giving up just two rounds in the entirety of the first half to give them a commanding 10-2 lead. But with Heretics on the offensive side for the second half, G2 was able to beat them into submission. While the EMEA squad managed to take the second pistol round of the game, it was all G2 from there on out.
For 11 straight rounds, G2 was able to obliterate any offensive strategy Heretics came up with and were denied any opportunity to go to match-point for the entire second half. G2's 11-0 run to make the comeback possible saw plenty of great plays from the former Ascension team, which also included a crucial 4K from Jonah “JonahP” Pulice in the 18th round to put G2 in the driver's seat to eventually see out a 13-11 comeback win to take it to the final map on Lotus.
The last time they faced one another on Lotus, Heretics came away with the victory. This time, however, it was all G2 as Heretics seemed to have been affected by letting the second map slip. For the first time in the series, G2 started the map dominantly and with the momentum firmly on their side, was able to outgun Heretics for most of the first half to give themselves an 8-4 lead by half-time. JonahP would add another clip to his collection with a nasty 3K in the fourth round while Jacob “valyn” Batio also had a 3K of his own in the eighth round.
JonahP would go on to have an even better second half on Lotus as G2 were already in cruise control by then. With just five rounds needed to seal the comeback victory, G2 did just that and left no survivors as they managed to outplay Heretics in the last five rounds of the deciding match.
