DRX DRX Korea Rank #5 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) took a 2-0 win over Attacking Soul Esports Attacking Soul Esports Inactive monk Wang Haoyu (王浩宇) Yuicaw Huang Yung-chieh (黃湧傑) YHchen Chen Yuhan (陳昱瀚) Zero1 Meng Zhen Ren (任梦真) in Group B of Masters Tokyo, setting up a winner's match against Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #22 Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le tomorrow to decide the first playoffs team of the group.

“I was pretty confident throughout the whole match,” BuZz said. “We knew how they played and they didn't really change their playstyles.”

BuZz's confidence was palpable, especially on Pearl, where he took down four by himself. When he reached Cathedral, he already had one kill to his name. BuZz quickly read a flank from YHchen , but focused on swinging onto site to down Bunt first. A clinical peek on Life followed a quick flick away from a flash and back to YHchen's head gave DRX their sixth round of the map.

“For me it was like ‘Oh, I've got nothing to lose because if I win, then that's good for the team; but if I lose, it's not the end of the world, since it's a 1v3 situation,'” he said. “So I tried to stay as confident as I could. I think the ASE players were helping me a little bit in that situation, because they were giving me easy kills.”

The scoreline may have been 6-3, but the crowd was riled up regardless and set DRX's gears in motion, as they lost just four more rounds for a 13-7 series-ending win.

BuZz on the Masters Tokyo stage A 1v4 in your opening match is one way to kick off Masters. (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

ASE brought their Fracture strengths to Japan, where the Chinese roster pushed the Korean overlords to an incredibly tough 23-round map. DRX just took a 13-10 win on Fracture, largely thanks to strong 3Ks from MaKo , but showed a much stronger version of themselves on Pearl, where they closed out the match.

Even in a match as tough as Fracture, ASE and especially Life were able to find some joy.

“I always tell my teammates one thing. If they feel nervous, if they feel jitters on the stage, to just look at my beautiful big eyes and then they will feel a little bit relieved,”

“When you play matches, it's just a competition between two teams to see who makes fewer mistakes. I think DRX definitely made mistakes than us today,” Life recalled. “We didn't do our job very well in a lot of clutches. We'll improve on this as a team.”

MaKo, Rb and BuZz all fell in line to give DRX their first win of the tournament. The first two led the charge on Fracture and Pearl, respectively, while BuZz remained a strong figurehead throughout the series while also scoring the clutch of the day thus far.

Rb put DRX on his back throughout their attack side on Pearl, during which he used Harbor's ultimate Reckoning five times. He also gunned down 20 players and nearly reached a 2.00 rating, with a 100% KAST putting him miles above anyone else in the server.

“I think I played well, but I also think I could play better,” Rb said.

Rb on the Masters Tokyo stage Apparently, Rb can do better than that. (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

DRX were superior to ASE for various motives both teams pointed to — ASE making mistakes, first LAN jitters, DRX having an incredible opener — but both teams have now set their sights on what's to come.

ASE get a day to prepare for their elimination bout against FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #7 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan cNed Mehmet Yağız İpek qRaxs Doğukan Balaban on Tuesday, June 13.

“I think the playstyle of FUT is very similar to ours. I will play to our strengths and cooperate better and, as a team, just play normally,” ASE coach EGO said.

Before that, though, DRX and Evil Geniuses will return to the server in just under 21 hours to play the winner's match that will decide the first Group B team to reach the playoffs.

“If I do as well as I do in our practice, I think I'm gonna do well. And if I don't get nervous — even if the nerves get to me — I think I could perform better,” Foxy9 said about facing Demon1 .

termi specified that the team will come up with ways to shut down Demon1 to facilitate getting the win.

“I think potter is a really talented coach; there's a great synergy between the teammates on EG, so we'll do our best to prepare for the next upcoming match and make sure that we come out on top,” he ended.

“My goal is obviously to win Champions, win the whole thing,” stax said.