G2 ruins what was supposed to be T1 Kevin “xccurate” Susanto's grand homecoming and Masters debut in Shanghai. Their match against the South Korean hopefuls ended 2-1 to kick off the VALORANT Champions Tour 2024: Masters Shanghai (2024 VCT Masters Shanghai).

G2's debut match in the 2024 VCT Masters Shanghai ended up with a dub as they managed to takedown T1 in three games.

They started it off with a fantastic outing on Breeze, winning the first game of the best-of-three match 13-8. Then, they stumbled hard on the next game on Icebox, falling to T1 in an embarrassing 13-1 fashion. Fortunately for the North American squad, they snagged an overtime win on Lotus to take the series.

This matchup marks the reunion of four former The Guard players in the VCT stage, specifically T1's Ha “Sayaplayer” Jeong-woo and G2's trio of Jonah “JonahP” Pulice, Trent “trent” Cairns, and Jacob “valyn” Batio.

In the post-match interview, JonahP stated it felt great to win their first match back on the international stage but he then commented it was unfortunate they had to face Sayaplayer to do it.

“It feels great to be back. This is our first international Tier 1 win… Unfortunately, we had to do it against Saya,” JonahP shares during the post-match interview.

As for T1's Xccurate, this was his debut year in competitive VALORANT after joining T1, therefore qualifying and playing in Masters Shanghai would also be his first VCT Masters appearance.

For those who do not know, Xccurate is the older brother of Paper Rex's Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto, the eldest of the famed Susanto siblings. As a former competitive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player, his competitive career started in Shanghai, thereby making his debut Masters appearance a homecoming of sorts as well.

G2 Takes T1's Map Pick in a Breeze

The first game of the G2-T1 series in the 2024 VCT Masters Shanghai started with a bang, seeing G2 up by two rounds, 7-5, in the first half.

During the second round of the first half, Xccurate exhibited his Susanto genes by recording an ace. Despite that, G2 never felt intimidated at all and led confidently throughout the first half. In fact, G2 got an ace themselves as Nathan “leaf” Orf got one in Round 19.

Speaking of leaf, the duelist-turned-sentinel of G2 was the MVP for this game as he recorded a whopping 342 ACS with a 28/11/3 KDA as Cypher.

Losing 13-1 Against Ruthless T1 in Icebox

Unfortunately for G2, they fell hard in their own map pick, Icebox, as they lost 13-1 against T1.

According to T1's head coach Yoon “Autumn” Eu-ddeum, T1 heavily prepared for G2's Icebox by extensively reviewing their VODs, and it showed. T1, being so dominant during the game, held off each G2 player to just single-digit kills, with JonahP recording the highest for G2 with a mere nine kills all throughout the beatdown.

During the post-match interview, JonahP blames their embarrassing outcome on Icebox to miscommunication. He states, “The main reason why we got destroyed is [because] of our micro comms were falling. We were not on the same page.”

It's G2's Overtime Win in Lotus 

Reeling over their loss in Icebox, G2 managed to save themselves from defeat by staging a massive overtime comeback in Lotus.

At first, it seemed like G2 was on the brink of another loss as T1 dominated as they were down 3-9 prior to halftime. Thankfully, the infamous 9-3 curse hits T1 like a truck. Thus, G2 was able to force an overtime which eventually ended 14-12 in their favor, completing a massive comeback to win the series.

With the results of their match, G2 is currently atop the 2024 VCT Masters Shanghai Swiss stage. Meanwhile, T1 has a losing record after losing their first match in the 2024 VCT Masters Shanghai.

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