To wrap up Sunday's slate of Masters Toronto Swiss stage games, international debutants
MIBR
MIBR
Brazil
Rank #1
artzin
Arthur Araujo
xenom
Eduardo Soeiro
cortezia
Gabriel Cortez
Verno
Andrew Maust
aspas
Erick Santos
and one-time Masters champions
Gen.G
Gen.G
Korea
Rank #1
Foxy9
Jung Jae-sung (정재성)
Ash
Ha Hyun-cheol (하현철)
t3xture
Kim Na-ra (김나라)
Munchkin
Byeon Sang-beom (변상범)
Suggest
Seo Jae-young (서재영)
Karon
Kim Won-tae (김원태)
clashed in a short-lived blowout.
The battle in the series began with the map ban and pick process. MIBR avoided Gen.G's tough Lotus, while Gen.G banned MIBR's strong Icebox. MIBR then picked Sunset, a weaker map from Gen.G's 2024 map pool, while Gen.G picked Haven, one of their go-to picks. MIBR and Gen.G then banned Pearl and Split, respectively, leaving AScent the decider.
Gen.G won Sunset 13-5, then won Haven 13-1, leaving the decider map of Ascent unnecessary.
Sunset was a thrashing from the start. Gen.G, which runs Viper on nearly every map through in-game leader Munchkin , made great use of his Toxic Screen to earn defensive space in B Main, while Foxy9 's Deadlock utility was excellent at putting a lid on fast executes through aspas 's Neon.
Strong defensive protocols gave Gen.G an early lead, getting out to an early 6-0 lead. That forced MIBR head coach fRoD 's hand, as he called two timeouts in the first half alone. Gen.G's coaching ranks would not call a timeout for the entirety of the map.
Gen.G went into halftime with a 9-3 lead, and while an anti-eco steal gave MIBR some momentum to open the second half, Gen.G's slow, methodical approach to the attacker side closed things out.
A flawless round from Gen.G to reach match point.A 13-5 win on Sunset on the international stage would have been hard to come by for Gen.G in 2024. It was one of their weaker maps last year. They banned it a total of 22 times last year, going 5-5 when it was played.
"We know Americas teams like Sunset," Gen.G head coach solo said after the map. "Our Sunset last year was a little bit weaker than other maps, so we expected that they might pick into it. We prepared well for it."
The focus then shifted to Haven, where Munchkin remained on Viper. While aspas moved back to his iconic pick of Jett, Gen.G Duelist t3xture remained on Neon.
Again, beginning on attack, MIBR looked poised to move past the previous map's failures. They won their first buy round, shutting down a potential snowball that would allow t3xture to pick up his Operator early, but that round was all the Brazilian squad would get in the half. Gen.G continued to roll, picking up round after round to enter halftime with an 11-1 lead.
Six ultimates were ripped this round, but once the dust settled, it was yet another Gen.G round.Yet another pistol round conversion, which Gen.G went four-for-four on in the match, meant a force-buy was MIBR's only hope of extending the match. While it worked to open the second half of Sunset, it did not on Haven. Gen.G shoved aside MIBR 13-1, the second such scoreline to take place at Masters Toronto.
t3xture was above and beyond the most dangerous shot in the server, finishing an impressive 35/17 while going 10/0 in first duels. Karon , now one year removed from his monstrous rookie run at Masters Shanghai, finished not too far behind at 34/16, and spoke highly of rookie player Ash .
"I thought he might be nervous, but he killed it just like how he plays in our scrims," Karon said. "I think he wasn't too nervous. He seemed to get over the jitters. I'm thankful for that."
Expectations for Gen.G are sky-high. After making all three international events in 2024 and lifting one trophy, a disappointing Pacific Kickoff meant the Korean squad had to watch Masters Bangkok from home. Now back on the international stage, Karon believes that he could play a big part in Gen.G lifting another international trophy.
"I think I'm playing better than then," he said. "If I keep things up, I think we're gonna perform better than at Masters Shanghai.
Swiss stage draw
The draw show took place on stage following the conclusion of Gen.G and MIBR's match. With no regional restrictions, teams of the same records (1-0 and 0-1) were drawn against each other.
The matchups are as follows:
Round 2 (1-0):
-
Sentinels
Sentinels North America Rank #2 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid vs. Bilibili Gaming
Bilibili Gaming China Rank #4 whzy Wang Haozhe (王昊哲) Levius Lu Yinzhong (卢胤中) rushia Wang Xiaojie (王晓杰) nephh Marcus Tan Knight Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔)
-
Paper Rex
Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov vs. Gen.G
Gen.G Korea Rank #1 Foxy9 Jung Jae-sung (정재성) Ash Ha Hyun-cheol (하현철) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) Suggest Seo Jae-young (서재영) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태)
Round 2 (0-1):
-
Team Liquid
Team Liquid Europe Rank #9 penny Erik Penny paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak Serial Maikls Zdanovs vs. MIBR
MIBR Brazil Rank #1 artzin Arthur Araujo xenom Eduardo Soeiro cortezia Gabriel Cortez Verno Andrew Maust aspas Erick Santos
-
Team Heretics
Team Heretics Europe Rank #3 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius vs. Wolves Esports
Wolves Esports China Rank #3 SiuFatBB Pong Gaa Hei (庞加曦) Yuicaw Huang Yung-chieh (黃湧傑) Spring Liu Jiunting (刘俊霆) Lysoar Liang Youhao (梁优好) Juicy Tyler James Aeria