Team Vitality shuts down T1 in Masters debut

With a strong 2-0, Kickoff EMEA winner Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #1 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso has defeated T1 T1 Korea Rank #4 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Meteor Kim Tae-oh (김태오) Sylvan Go Young-sup (고영섭) BuZz Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) in their opening Masters: Bangkok match. The victory puts Vitality one win away from making playoffs, while T1 needs to avoid a loss to continue in the tournament.

Neither team is a newcomer to the international stage, but both have struggled to find success in the past, only winning two games each across a combined six events prior to Bangkok. This is Team Vitality's first-ever Masters event, however, having only attended LOCK//IN via invite and qualified to Champions 2024. The teams' lack of overlap in attendance also means this match was the first time the two organizations played against each other, though individual players on both rosters have faced off in the past.

In the map veto, Vitality took away their permaban, Pearl, while T1 removed one of their two most common bans, Abyss, knowing Vitality would likely ban Lotus in the second round. This let Vitality pick Fracture, looking to avoid T1's potential counter-strats on Haven. The South Korean team picked their favored map, Bind, as the second stage, and took away Haven, taking the series to more neutral ground with Split as the decider.

Vitality opened Fracture with a pistol win, but T1 took over the first half, denying the offense from gaining an advantage. The Korean team was quick to adapt to Vitality's plans, exploiting their lack of anti-flank and getting key reads on the game plan. Derke had a slow start to begin the map, but a timeout and ace helped him reset, putting him on track for a strong defense.

The second half was a turning point for Vitality, with the team only losing three rounds, including the pistol and a single rifle round later in the half. Derke in particular was key to his team's success, going from 1-5 in opening engagements in the first half to 4-1 on defense, as well as a 1.91 rating on defense. In the end, Team Vitality took their map pick 13-10 after completely shutting T1 out of the second half.

Bind began with Vitality's second pistol win of the series, and the EMEA squad took an early lead after winning the bonus round. T1 found their footing in later rounds, but Vitality's strong start meant they only need two rounds to take the lead on attack. The 7-5 scoreline did not come easy for Vitality, however, as the final round saw them winning with a Stinger buy and salvaging a 2v3 thanks to a Viper's Pit from Less .

T1 stayed in the game with the second pistol round, tying the score. Derke and trexx were stand-out players in the second half, with 1.91 and 1.82 ratings, respectively, as well as a combined 26 eliminations for the duo. They also contributed with two separate triple kills from trexx and a key 1v1 from Derke. In the end, a consolation round from T1 was not enough to come back, and Kicks held against a fast hit to end the map 13-9 and close out the series 2-0.

“I don't think there was any pressure,” Derke said after the series. “We just wanted to play our game,” he added.

The win means Team Vitality joins 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) and DRX DRX Korea Rank #2 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) free1ng No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) , both also Kickoff winners, in the top portion of the Swiss stage, needing only one win to advance to playoffs. T1 remains in the tournament, but can't afford a second loss if they wish to continue their Masters run.