During the second day of the playoffs, both G2 and Team Heretics found wins in their respective first playoff series at the VALORANT Champions Tour 2024: Masters Shanghai (2024 VCT Masters Shanghai).

It was a day full of upsets as both G2 and Team Heretics beat their playoffs-seeded opponents in their respective series.

To kickstart the second day of playoffs action in Masters Shanghai, G2 upset the Pacific-seeded team Paper Rex in three games. After that, Team Heretics sent the Chinese-seeded team EDward Gaming to the lower brackets after a swept series.

G2 Upsets Paper Rex in Masters Shanghai

G2 bested the Pacific League's current champion Paper Rex after a 2-1 comeback series win to start their VCT Masters Shanghai playoff journey. Initially, G2 suffered a beatdown at the hands of Paper Rex in their first game on Split. Fortunately, G2 recovered just in time in Lotus and eventually finished the series in Bind.

In this series, Jacob “icy” Lange and Trent “trent” Cairns broke the 50-kill barrier to lead their team in frags. Icy finished the game with 54 kills and 22 assists as Raze while Trent had 51 kills and 18 assists as Fade and Gekko.

As for Paper Rex's side, Ilya “something” Petrov was the team's top fragger, ending the series with 46 kills and 12 assists to his name. More surprisingly, however, was Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto having a bad series overall as he was the only Paper Rex player to have kills stuck in the 20s, finishing the series with 26 frags while dishing out a respectable 29 assists.

Paper Rex Puts a Show in Split

The first game of the G2 versus Paper Rex series had the latter putting out a dominant show of performance. The current kings of the Pacific League had G2 on their knees as Paper Rex won Split 13-7.

The first half of this game had Paper Rex breaking no sweat at all, finishing it 11-1 prior to halftime. Something was a thorn in G2's side for the entire half. In fact, Something's Round 5 Operator lasted until the last round of the half as G2 only managed to snag that said round from Paper Rex.

In the second half, there were sparks of hope as G2 clawed six more rounds. It all started by winning the second pistol round of the game. From there, G2 won more rounds thanks in part to Jonah “JonahP” Pulice's impressive 1v1 clutches that kept them alive.

Unfortunately, G2 eventually lost the first game as Paper Rex closed it out in just nine rounds of the second half.

In this map, Something and Wang “Jinggg” Jie led their team to victory as Paper Rex's duelist duo, with Something as Jett while Jinggg was on Raze. Something finished Split with 19 kills, six assists, and a 277 Average Combat Score (ACS) while Jinggg had higher frags with 21 total kills, five assists, and a 276 ACS.

Meanwhile, Trent's fade was G2's primary killer on Split, finishing the map with 15 kills and four assists on a 218 ACS.

G2 Starts Series Comeback in Lotus

With their backs against the rope, G2 started a series comeback by securing Lotus 13-10.

Unlike the first game on Split, G2 went toe-to-toe with Paper Rex in Lotus. The first half of the game saw both teams equal, all tied up 6-6 by the end of it. Then, G2 started pulling away from Paper Rex by securing a four-round win streak to start the second half. After a few more rounds, without ever losing their lead, G2 secured Lotus after defusing the Spike in Round 23.

For this game, Icy had an ice-cold performance as G2 got their revenge against Paper Rex. He finished the game with 22 kills, five assists, and only 15 deaths with a 253 ACS.

G2 Triumphs in Bind

With the series tied, G2 successfully completed their series comeback as they were triumphant on Bind. They returned the favor to Paper Rex on this map as G2 served a 13-5 beatdown to close the series out.

The tables were turned as G2 was now the dominant team on their series' third and final game against Paper Rex.

In the first half, it was now G2 who had a huge lead as they finished with a 10-2 lead coming into half time. After losing three of the first four rounds in the second half, G2 secured back-to-back defusals to win both the game and the series.

Reflective of their overall series performance, the Icy and Trent tandem were the server's top fraggers. They both finished with 20 kills on Bind. Additionally, Icy's Raze had a whopping 325 ACS while Trent's Gekko almost broke the 300 ACS mark as he ended up with a 297 ACS instead.

Team Heretics Sweeps EDward Gaming

Following up on the G2 versus Paper Rex series, Team Heretics squared off against EDward Gaming, the lone Chinese team left in the tournament.

Prior to this series, Team Heretics already sent two Chinese teams, Dragon Ranger Gaming and FunPlus Phoenix, home to get into the playoffs. Thus, this matchup was supposedly EDward Gaming's redemption arc for their region.

Unfortunately for the Chinese fans, Team Heretics prevailed in their first match in the VCT Masters Shanghai playoffs as they swept their series, 2-0, against EDward Gaming.

Continuing his impressive performance so far in VCT Masters Shanghai, Mert “Wo0t” Alkan was the most impressive player of this series. On his signature Raze, he finished this series with 39 kills, seven assists, and just 25 deaths to go along with his 305 series ACS.

Joining Wo0t in the 30-kill club on this series, Benjy “benjyfishy” Fish recorded 30 kills and ten assists as the Cypher anchor of Team Heretics. Just shy of one kill each, Team Heretics' Enes “RieNs” Ecirli and EDward Gaming's Zhang “Smoggy” Zhao and Zheng “ZmjjKK” Yongkang all had 29 kills to their names when this series ended.

Team Heretics Defeats EDward Gaming in Sunset 

It was a relatively swift series for Team Heretics overall. In fact, the first game on Sunset ended 13-6 in favor of Team Heretics.

The Chinese team executors of the tournament held no mercy on EDward Gaming. Team Heretics started the game with an 8-4 lead in the first half. After failing to win the first two rounds of the second half, Team Heretics proceeded with a five-round win streak to quickly wrap Sunset up.

Wo0t's high-flying and explosive antics with Raze proved to be too much for EDward Gaming. The Raze specialist of Team Heretics finished Sunset with 21 kills, four assists, and a 293 Average Combat Score.

Team Heretics Gave EDward Gaming No Chances in Split

After winning the first game on Sunset, Team Heretics gave EDward Gaming no chance for a comeback as they won Split. They closed the second and final game of their series in a lopsied 13-3 victory.

The game on Split was more one-sided compared to the previous game on Sunset. Team Heretics ended the first half with a massive 10-2 lead. After winning the first two rounds of the second half, Team Heretics gave EDward Gaming a false sense of hope as they let them win the 15th round but they swiftly took it back by winning the next round after, thereby not only winning the second game on Split but also completely sweeping this series.

In this game, it was Wo0t's Raze that dominated Split. He finished with 18 kills and three assists while racking up a 317 Average Combat Score.

Meanwhile, EDward Gaming's Smoggy also deserved recognition for his Omen's performance on the map. As their team's controller, he registered an Average Combat Score of 323 while dishing out 17 kills and six assists on the map.

G2 and Team Heretics Face Off Next in VCT Masters Shanghai

With the conclusion of the second day of playoffs in VCT Masters Shanghai, G2 and Team Heretics proceed to move up the upper bracket of the playoffs. They are set to face each other and the loser will drop to the lower bracket of the tournament. After that, whoever wins will face off against the winner of the 100 Thieves versus Gen.G Esports match in the Upper Bracket Finals of the tournament.

As for the losing teams of the day, Paper Rex and EDward Gaming is going to battle it out in the lower bracket where only one team will remain in VCT Masters Shanghai.

If you want to watch all the competitive VALORANT action happening in the 2024 VALORANT Champions Tour Masters Shanghai, you can watch all the matches on the official VALORANT Twitch channel. Additionally, you can also view replays and other Masters Shanghai content at the official VALORANT Champions Tour YouTube channel.

For more 2024 VCT Masters Shanghai news, follow us at ClutchPoints Gaming.