Image credit: VALORANT Esports (Photo by Liu YiCun/Riot Games)
Gen.G Esports won VCT Masters Shanghai and became the first Pacific team to win an international trophy.
The grand finals of VCT Masters Shanghai saw Gen.G Esports defeat Team Heretics to lift its first-ever international title to go with its VCT Pacific Kickoff trophy earlier this year. This was Gen.G's second international grand final appearance in a row and they won it in style against Heretics where the series when to all five games.
That win now gives Gen.G a strong lead in the VCT Points category as they lead the Pacific region, having earned three points for coming in first. As for Heretics, it was a strong run from them after falling to the lower bracket early on in the playoffs. They managed to climb their way back into contention as they defeated two VCT Americas teams as well as their fellow EMEA org along the way.
Gen.G would start the series off with Breeze as its first map pick given its 2-0 record while it was Heretics' first foray with it during the tournament. Gen.G showed great dominance during the first half where they won the first six rounds in a row before Heretics managed to claim two in return. But that wasn't enough to create any sort of momentum as Gen.G put a stop to it with another four rounds in a row to give themselves a 10-2 lead heading into the second half.
They would go on to win three of the seven rounds played in the second half to secure Breeze despite Heretics being able to take the other four. Icebox was the next map of choice as it was Heretics' pick given their 4-0 record while Gen.G stood at 1-1. However, it sure didn't seem that way as Gen.G started the second map strongly as well with four straight-round wins. But Heretics would win four in a row as a response to show they are here to play.
Gen.G ended up taking the next three before Heretics pulled one back to give the second game a tight 7-5 scoreline. Both teams ended up trading the first three rounds with Gen.G taking two to go up 9-6. But after Enes "RieNs" Ecirli secured himself a 4K thrifty in the 16th round, the tides began to shift. Heretics would go on to win the next six rounds in a row to even the series at 1-1.
Ascent was one of Gen.G's stronger map options in this tournament with a 3-0 record so it was no wonder they'd choose it for game three. As for Heretics, their record stood at 0-1 during the tournament but that wasn't enough to deter them. Gen.G would get a four-round win streak to start the first half but Heretics would take four of their own straight after. The first half was the most even match-up between both teams as it was 6-6 by half-time.
Heretics managed to win the second pistol round of the map and took one more after to go up 8-6 before Gen.G pulled one back to keep it tight. Both teams soon traded two rounds each, which gave Heretics a slight edge before they managed to go on a three-round win streak to go 2-1 up in the series. This was exemplified by Ričardas “Boo” Lukaševičius's two-versus-one clutch in the 22nd and final round to put his team on series-point.
Lotus was the fourth map via Heretics' pick as both teams shared the same 2-2 score for the tournament. And with their backs against the wall, this was do-or-die for Gen.G. They would get off to the worst start possible as Heretics jumped to a quick 3-0 lead in the first half. Sadly, that lead was quickly diminished as Gen.G wound up winning the next nine rounds to go up 9-3 by half-time. This was encapsulated by a 4K from Kim "Meteor" Tae-o in the sixth round and was followed up with another 4K, this time from Na-ra “t3xture” Kim in the 10th round.
Gen.G would go on to win the first three rounds of the second half as well to make it 12 in a row. This was also due to Sang-beom “Munchkin” Byeon clutching up in a one-versus-two situation to put his team on match-point. While Heretics did take one back, it was still 12-4 and Gen.G ended up taking the following round after that to send it to a fifth and final map.
Split was the final choice of the best-of-five with this being Gen.G's first for the tournament while it was Heretics' third. And it would be Gen.G once again who took a commanding lead from the get-go with five straight rounds in a row. This also saw Meteor clutch up a one-versus-three during the opening pistol round to give himself another 4K of the day. Heretics went on to win the sixth round, which was followed up by another three-round streak for Gen.G before Heretics pulled two back to end the half at 9-3.
Having been completely dominant for almost the entirety of Split, Gen.G went on to take four in a row in the second half to end the series in the best way possible. Not only was this Gen.G's first-ever international VCT title, but it was also a first for the entire Pacific region. Paper Rex had come close on two separate occasions but couldn't see it through. Gen.G have broken the curse for the region and it only looks up from here.
