The lower final between Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #20 Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le and LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #2 dgzin Douglas Silva v1nny Vínicius Gonçalves pANcada Bryan Luna tuyz Arthur Andrade cauanzin Cauan Pereira was as good as advertised as EG qualified for their second straight grand final with a win over LOUD.

Three of the best players in the world, Demon1 , aspas and Less , all put up eye-popping numbers over the course of the five maps.

Demon1 had possibly his best performance to date, with 101 kills over five maps, surpassing his best ever total of 99 set in the lower bracket finals at Masters: Tokyo. Aspas and Less also had incredible games, producing 95 and 91 kills respectively.

Known for high assist numbers, Ethan did not fail in this match either, with 65 assists to go along with 68 kills.

Ethan had 65. assists (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

Ethan had no secret formula for how he and his teammates managed to come out on top in such a long match.

“Just dig deep [and] use every bit of energy we had left,” Ethan said.

With Fracture once again banned for EG, they decided to pick Ascent to start off the match.

Neither team was able to seize the momentum to start the map. That changed when C0M won a 1v2 in the seventh round that propelled his team to a 7-5 lead at the half.

The score remained close throughout the second half, with Demon1 and Less dropping 26 kills apiece. The map would eventually go into overtime, and a 3K by jawgemo in the first round of overtime led EG to a 14-12 victory in the opening map.

Lotus, however, would not be as close as Ascent was. In a dominating performance from EG, they used eight straight round wins to close the opening half with a 10-2 lead.

With a 2-0 lead, EG was just one map away from their second straight grand finals — a stunning achievement for a team that began VCT Americas floundering at 1-4.

Down 2-0 and headed into Pearl, LOUD showed why they are the defending champions. After winning pistol and bonus, they quickly put themselves up 6-0. Despite letting EG close the gap to 10-8 , LOUD would respond with a 13-8 win on Pearl.

aspas and Less continued to be LOUD's star pairing, getting 25 and 22 kills respectively to avoid elimination for at least one more map.

On Split, LOUD showed their dominance once more. After losing an anti-eco to EG, they responded with a thrifty of their own, getting out to a huge lead before settling in and winning 13-7 behind a massive 30 kills and 1.56 rating from Aspas.

By that point, LOUD could have used some of the energy that Ethan was using to push through the final map.

“We were really, really tired,” LOUD IGL saadhak said. “We played so many games and that cost us a lot of rounds towards the end of the match.”

The map opened with EG taking a 5-0 lead, before LOUD settled in to tighten things up at 7-5 by halftime.

After losing pistol on defense, EG once again won an eco to catapult them to a 9-6 lead that they would never relinquish. Up 12-8, Ethan once again clutched a map to send EG to the grand finals.

“This is the most fun I have ever had in a match,” Boostio said. “And the crowd just felt so good today”

Going forward Boostio is ready to embrace his team's role as tournament villains.

“I've been the villain, I've gotten all the hate,” he said. “Might as well throw more on top of it.”

potter , EG's coach, said today might have served as a warmup for the maps the team expects to play in the grand finals.

“It will probably be the same maps we played today, but we have a plan,” Potter said. “Keep underestimating us — hopefully Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov underestimates us.”

EG advances to face Paper Rex for the second time this tournament in tomorrow's grand finals. LOUD, despite beating tournament favorite FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #2 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder twice, came up just a bit short in their bid to defend their Champions title.