With Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #4 TenZ Tyson Ngo Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid Sacy Gustavo Rossi and LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #1 saadhak Matias Delipetro Less Felipe de Loyola tuyz Arthur Andrade cauanzin Cauan Pereira out of the tournament, the Americas was set up to send three new teams to international competition at Masters Shanghai. G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #6 icy Jacob Lange trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf and 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #1 bang Sean Bezerra Cryocells Matthew Panganiban eeiu Daniel Vucenovic Boostio Kelden Pupello Asuna Peter Mazuryk became the first two teams to qualify in an explosive day of play.

It was a phenomenal surge for a G2 lineup that squeaked into playoffs, just three rounds from being eliminated outright in the group stage. They took down KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #3 keznit Angelo Mori Klaus Nicolas Ferrari Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro heat Olavo Marcelo , who topped their group but couldn't keep up their form into the playoffs.

A surging 100T took down Leviatán Leviatán Latin America South Rank #1 tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena Mazino Roberto Rivas aspas Erick Santos C0M Corbin Lee in one of the best matches of the year to secure North America's second berth.

G2 punch through KRÜ

KRÜ and G2 weren't exactly unfamiliar with each other coming into their playoff match. Placed in the same group during Americas Kickoff, they faced off twice to start the year. G2 won both matches to eliminate KRÜ before they had a chance to face any other team.

Both teams swapped out a player since then. G2 brought in a young duelist, icy, while KRÜ finally unlocked heat's star potential in his first time playing away from the duelist role and Brazilian rosters.

G2 came into Icebox firing on all cylinders. They jumped out to an 8-4 lead on defense on the back of immaculate retakes on the A site. An early Outlaw buy from leaf punished KRÜ's light armor preference, and kept their economy on the back foot all game.

After putting up superstar numbers all split, keznit finally had a stinker of a game for KRÜ. His seven kills marked the lowest kill total he reached all year by far.

KRÜ's inability to get any sort of an advantageous situation towards A led them to a handful of difficult round wins towards B where G2's anchors were sometimes caught off-guard. Down 6-2, they had a great opportunity to threaten a comeback in the half before leaf and trent landed a 2v5 retake on B.

With the wind knocked out of their sails, KRÜ quickly folded. G2 easily ran away with the map 13-5. leaf led the way with more triple-kills (4) than all of KRÜ combined (3).

Despite a pistol round win, Ascent also started poorly for KRÜ. They rarely offered defensive resistance at the extremities of the map and gambled incorrectly when they did. That handed G2 the perfect staging ground to set up their site executes, and they executed efficiently to jump out to a 6-3 lead.

This wasn't the first time G2 had a large early lead on Ascent. Just the day before, they threw away a 6-1 lead against Cloud9 in a game that went to overtime. Similarly to that game, they allowed KRÜ a late half surge.

Facing a map that was spiraling out of their control, KRÜ used their ultimates perfectly to turn the tides. Retaking on A, they purposefully offset the Lockdown to avoid counter-utility breaking it. G2 were pushed into a tiny corner in Wine where they were slaughtered by a Hunter's Fury.

KRÜ used that momentum to bulldoze to an 8-6 lead. The spark of dynamic aggression that boosted them to the top seed of their stacked group looked like it had returned for a brief moment. Unfortunately for LATAM fans, the flames didn't catch, and G2 quickly reasserted control. Incredible teamplay gave G2 several dominant rounds in a row to shut out KRÜ the rest of the way to a 13-8 victory.

It was a complete team showing with every member of G2 finishing in the green, while every member of KRÜ ended in the red.

This win guaranteed G2 a spot in Shanghai. The last time this core reached an international event was back at Reykjavik 2022 under The Guard's banner. They may have a chance to reunite with their former teammate, Sayplayer, if they get matched up against T1.

100T take down LEV

100T and LEV were also familiar opponents from Kickoff. LEV took their matchup to start the year, but both teams got bounced by eventual finalists LOUD and SEN.

LEV ran away with the top seed in their group off the back of one of the most dominant individual runs of all time from aspas, but 100T came into the game with incredible momentum after blowing out LOUD in their best performance of the year.

The hometown heroes kept their momentum going heading into this match. By the time LEV realized Bind had started, it was already over. Everything 100T tried simply worked, from Judge rushes to ratty angles.

After talking a big game in pre-match press, Boostio backed up his trash talk by winning back-to-back clutches against his former world champion teammate, C0M.

100T found the key to unraveling LEV. By keeping aspas in check, they forced someone else from LEV to step up and win critical fights, but nobody was able to. The player that set the Americas kill record was held to 11-14, and that was the top of his team.

Boostio was standing up and setting the atmosphere of the entire arena throughout Bind, and he got right back into it on Sunset with a pistol ace.

The main difference from Bind was that the highest rated player in the Americas came back online. aspas found multikills in each of the first four rounds, including rounds that LEV lost.

Nearly every round, even the eco rounds, had back and forth battles, but LEV kept coming out on top for a five round winning streak. It took a ninja defuse from 100T to stem the bleeding, and a 1v3 clutch from Asuna salvaged a fourth round in the half.

It looked like 100T had finished stretching the limits of competitiveness after LEV won three easy rounds to reach an 11-4 lead on their attack without facing much resistance. However, 100T found their second win and took round after round with simple and unstoppable hits towards B. LEV only managed to pull off a retake once in nine rounds, and the 100T rampage forced overtime.

With pressure building, LEV finally found the answer. Mazino dominated with seven kills in the extra frame to send the series to Icebox.

During 100T's stomp of LOUD on Icebox, Cryocells' round three Operator set the pace for the entire map. He bought it this time as well and immediately made the big gun sing with a no-scope.

LEV moved to stop the Op slaughter with a utility heavy blitz towards A.. While it worked initially, he kept buying it and punishing LEV's slower actions.

The nerves were clearly starting to get to people. After winning the pistol, LEV ran into a Sheriff massacre the next round. 100T gave them a round back when eeiu accidentally failed to stick the spike plant, giving C0M enough time to run up and win the clutch.

The back and forth battle for Icebox control led to an incredible sequence where both teams tied at four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten rounds apiece.

In the end, 100T rose to the occasion to close the map 13-10 and secure their place at Shanghai. Cryocells outshined aspas with a map leading 26 kills, although both duelists dominated the opening duel tallies.

Across the series, aspas put up a good fight, landing 55 kills and a 16-8 first blood record, but the dynamic duo of Cryocells and Asuna proved too much for LEV to handle.

KRÜ and LEV will face off on Friday, May 10 to determine the third and final team to qualify to Shanghai from the Americas. G2 and 100T will also face off in the upper finals that day. Although they have both already qualified, the top seed gets a bye straight to the playoffs of Shanghai and the tantalizing potential to select their first round opponent.