G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #1 jawgemo Alexander Mor trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf defeated Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #3 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid 3-2 in the grand final of Americas Kickoff. With this victory, they cement themselves as the strongest team in Americas, earning the Kickoff trophy and the #1 regional seed ahead of Masters Bangkok.

The best-of-five played out on Split, Pearl, Abyss, Fracture, and Haven. Sentinels won Split 13-4, G2 won Pearl 13-8, Sentinels took Abyss 13-9, and G2 brought home Fracture 13-5 and Haven 13-10.

These teams last matched up in the upper final two days ago, where G2 breezed past Sentinels in 2-0 fashion to continue an undefeated 6-map streak. The grand final still threatened to pose a challenge for them, however, as they would have to dethrone the reigning Kickoff champions and overcome the curse of two domestic second places last season to cross the finish line.

G2 leveraged their double map ban as the upper bracket finalists to take away Bind and Lotus and chose Split, a map they hadn't yet shown, to start the series. While many rounds in the first half were close, the individuals of Sentinels kept winning out clutches to establish an early 4-1 lead. G2 tried to fight back, but a surprise eco win for Sentinels in round 8 enabled them to lead 9-3 at the half. Zellsis excelled on the defense, continuing his standout performance from yesterday with 15 kills to 6 deaths.

The individuals for Sentinels were firing on all cylinders on Split.

A second pistol win for the team in red heralded a quick end to the map as Sentinels took Split 13-4. Although every member of the team outperformed their G2 counterparts, johnqt was a rock for the team, ending with a 1.54 rating and a 14/7/6 KDA.

The first half of Pearl began as a much closer affair as a Sentinels eco win after losing to G2's bonus allowed them to pull things back to 3-3. From there, the rounds went back and forth, resulting in a 6-6 half. A second G2 pistol win allowed them to run away with the rest of the map, overwhelming Sentinels with varied splits on their attack to win Pearl 13-8. JonahP and jawgemo led the server by kills with 18 each.

Heroics from zekken weren't enough for Sentinels to take Pearl.

Going over to Abyss, Sentinels swapped out their usual Sova pick for a Tejo. The first half played out similarly to Pearl, ending 7-5 with close rounds going both ways as Sentinels challenged G2 to retake against their repeated site hits.

zekken bowls G2 over on B for a swift 4K, but leaf denies the ace.

The second half was where the Tejo showed its true colors; johnqt demonstrated masterful use of his Guided Salvos in retake situations to flush G2 out of their postplant positions, making the difference and enabling Sentinels to win Abyss 13-9. johnqt's impact was reflected on the scoreboard as the in-game leader led with an outsized 20 kills, 1.57 rating, and 191 ADR.

Fracture was Sentinels' debut on the map, where they opted for a Breach-Tejo composition that mirrored G2's with the exception of zekken on Yoru instead of Raze. G2 ultimately looked comprehensively more comfortable on the map, taking an 8-4 lead on their attack with well-coordinated executes and converting Fracture 13-5 after a 2v4 in the final round. trent 's Tejo played a major factor as the Initiator collected 18 kills to only seven deaths and a 1.64 rating.

jawgemo dominates the second pistol round to extend G2's lead.

With each team at two maps apiece, everything would be decided on Haven, a map neither team had played yet in Kickoff. Sentinels brought out the Yoru-Iso composition originally popularized by FNATIC on Haven last year, while G2 picked into the Tejo-Breach-Yoru that had worked for them on other maps.

The first half was all G2 as they racked up nine rounds, six of which were spike defuses, as they picked Sentinels apart early on and converted their man advantages in the retakes. Sentinels mounted a substantial comeback, rallying back all the way to 10 round wins, but a wild Yoru teleport play from jawgemo sealed the map 13-10 and the series 3-2.

In the final moments, jawgemo made a bold move to win it all for his side.

“I wanted to bring a trophy to these guys,” jawgemo said of his teammates in the post-match interview. “They've been working so hard since Ascension and winning this Americas title means a lot to them, so I'll know we're going to kill the rest of the year.”

With this victory, G2 maintains their winning streak over SEN City, becomes the first Ascension team to win a tier one VCT title, and will fly to Thailand as one of the favorites to win the first international event of 2025.

“Probably Vitality,” leaf answered when asked who he most wanted to face there. “I feel like in terms of raw firepower and potential, I think they're the only people that rival us in the game.”

The Americas champions will return to the stage for Bangkok, which begins Feb. 19.