After surviving a stacked Group B by eliminating home crowd-favorites Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #1 Foxy9 Jung Jae-sung (정재성) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) yoman Chae Young-moon (채영문) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) , Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #3 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid continued on their march toward capturing the Champions trophy, defeating Korean team DRX DRX Korea Rank #4 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Athan Na Ha-jun (나하준) freeing No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) 2-0.

The two-map series was played out on Sunset, Haven, and Icebox, with Sentinels picking Sunset, DRX picking Haven and Icebox being the decider.

Sunset finished 15-13, and Haven was 13-8, leaving Icebox unnecessary.

In their two-map victory over Gen.G, Sentinels won all four bonus rounds off of four pistol rounds. On Wednesday, won just one pistol round and no bonuses.

One of the viewing points of map one was zekken 's VCT debut on Neon, which included an ace in the first half, his first in an international competition this year.

An ace for SEN zekken on Sunset.

The five-kill round secured a fifth straight round for his team after trailing 2-0.

He gathered the most kills in the server on the map, finishing 27-23, with eight of those kills being first-bloods. He'd even go 8-3 on BuZz , the opposition Neon.

The second half of the map, Sentinels' attacking half, was tight. Several rounds finished with only one player standing.

Up 11-7 and two rounds away from sealing the map, the script was flipped on Sentinels. DRX found five straight rounds to reach map point, but a lost 5v3 brought both teams to overtime.

Eventually, Sentinels escaped their map pick by the skin of their teeth, 15-13.

“It could have gone our way if we stayed calm, so I told the players to stay more calm and collected. Relax a little bit, take it slow,” DRX head coach termi said following the map.

On Haven, Zekken again played Neon, seemingly looking to ride off of the confidence from the last map.

Strong defensive protocols, along with excellent control of the map, highlighted DRX's successes in the first half. They showed little sign of being shaken, claiming six rounds in what's widely believed to be an attack-sided map.

However, their attack half went differently. Sentinels seemed to have a read on DRX's attack processes, with a standout of their defense being their ability to hold A site.

A flawless round 19, which included a triple kill from zekken, brought Sentinels to match point.

Sentinels hold A site flawlessly to reach match point.

They claimed six of the first seven rounds in the half to reach match point, and made quick work of DRX to win 13-8.

“I thought [a win] was still achievable through every second of the [second] map, but when it was 7-12 and we had one person alive and they had four, that's when I felt it was over,” DRX's Foxy9 said following the match.

After beating both Korean teams in the competition, Sentinels head coach kaplan spoke on the similarities between the two.

“I think they're very similar. I think they both have a pretty structured way of playing. They don't have a ton of setups or plays, they prefer running the same stuff more frequently,” he said.

Sentinels' Zekken finished with a server-leading 54 kills, while DRX's Flashback finished with a team-leading 39.

“I was just feeling really Filipino today, so I played the Filipino character,” Zekken said jokingly when asked why the team chose to play him on Neon. “We've had Neon in our back pocket for a while. We have a good amount of prep with her and I'm feeling very confident with her as of late so we used her and it worked out well.”

DRX are the last remaining team from the Pacific region in Champions Seoul after Gen.G, Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #3 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov , TALON TALON Asia-Pacific Rank #17 Crws Thanamethk Mahatthananuyut JitBoyS Jittana Nokngam primmie Papaphat Sriprapha ban Joseph Seungmin Oh Governor Peter No were eliminated in the group stages.

Sentinels remain the only fourth seed to win a match at Champions Seoul, let alone reach the playoffs.

With the field of 16 teams now narrowed down to an eight-team, double-elimination, Sentinels will await the winners of the EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #1 S1Mon Hsien Meng-Hsun (谢孟勋) ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) vs Trace Esports Trace Esports China Rank #3 LuoK1ng Zhang Zhanpeng (张展鹏) Kai Lu Zhinan (卢智楠) FengF Song Xuefeng (宋学锋) heybay Ho Shun Hei Biank Zhong Jianfei (钟剑飞) match, while DRX will take on the losing team.

Sentinels, fresh off of having survived the group of death and four games into their Champions Seoul game, will move to the upper semifinals, while DRX, just three games in, will face elimination.