The first elimination matchup at Masters Tokyo saw Turkish reps 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 go up against Chinese first-seed 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) . Despite ASE finding victory on the first map, FUT were able to bring it back and take the next two maps in dominant fashion to win 2-1.

FUT and 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) will now face off for the second playoff spot in Group B, while Attacking Soul Esports are now eliminated from Masters Tokyo.

“My goal at this tournament is to absorb and gain experience from this offline international tournament,” said Life , Jett player for Attacking Soul Esports.

While the other Chinese team at Tokyo - 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) - have some international experience from their stints at Champions 2022 and LOCK//IN, Attacking Soul Esports, despite them having proven to be one of the best in their region, were the new kids on the block.

As for FUT, they went from playing in VCL: Turkey in 2022 to the international partnered league of VCT EMEA. They quickly leveled up over the course of the league, eventually placing third just behind FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #3 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder and Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #22 nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak .

Because FNATIC's win in LOCK//IN gave EMEA an extra team in Tokyo, EMEA is the only region in which a Tokyo team will not automatically qualify for Champions. FUT's win over ASE, and Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #20 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky 's loss in the subsequent match, means FUT will be one of the three EMEA teams securing a spot at Champions.

The series started off on Haven, chosen by FUT. Attacking Soul mentioned in the post-game press conference that this was a map they were quite good on, and that they would have picked it if FUT hadn't.

ASE started off strong, dominating their defensive half. With both monk and bunt finding multiple 3Ks each, they were able to end the half 9-3, and while FUT tried to make a comeback, the map would eventually end in ASE's favor, 13-8.

ASE Take one last bow at Tokyo, Attacking Soul Esports. (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

“We definitely had a lot of adjustments in terms of strategy and we had some roster changes ahead of this Masters,” Life said. “We prepared a lot, went through the videos of the different teams playing in this Masters,” he elaborated when asked about how ASE had prepared for the event.

Despite the loss of their map selection, FUT didn't look too troubled heading into the second map. Ascent was where they had the highest win-rate out of their map pool, and it showed in the game. Despite a close first half that culminated 7-5 in FUT's favor, they would go on to win every single round on their attacking half to take the map 13-5. The MVP of the map was qw1 , who had six first kills and a +11 kill differential while on Jett.

“Every time, we're just trying to play our gameplay style first. If it's not going to work, we'll try to understand [our opponents],” MrFaliN , FUT's captain, said. “It's the top level right now, everyone's the same level right now, you see.”

The decider map took both teams to Lotus, where once again, FUT looked unstoppable. They managed to win the map 13-6, only losing two rounds on their defensive half. qRaxs from the FUT squad was incredibly impressive, with a 310 ACS, 100% KAST, and a 40% headshot percentage.

The best way FUT could have ended this series.

For FUT, four of their five players had a positive kill differential, while none of ASE's players managed the same.

“We don't have any expectations for this tournament from our side, I think we just have to [qualify] for Champions right now,” MrFaliN said right after his match.

But that was taken care of before the day even finished thanks to NAVI's later loss and elimination. MrFaliN's hopes have therefore been satisfied.

There are no expectations left, meaning FUT carries none of the pressure that comes with those expectations. They'll be the underdogs in their next match, when they play against DRX. Given that DRX does expect more than a mere group stage appearance, FUT will be playing against an opponent that will be under pressure.

If FUT can make that work to their advantage, then DRX might need to fend off an upset if they hope to avoid another disappointing group stage exit.