The second match of the playoffs stage of Masters Tokyo took place between EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Unranked 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 Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #22 nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak . Liquid took the match 2-1 over EDG.

This was Liquid's first match at Tokyo after receiving an express ticket straight to the playoffs as EMEA champions. EDG, on the other hand, was playing in their fourth match of the tournament after qualifying through the group stage's lower bracket.

EDG had proven to be versatile and strong as a team, showing significant improvements from Champions 2022 and LOCK//IN. In particular, ZmjjKK , their star Jett/Operator player, had been putting up huge numbers since the team's first game.

“He's great, I'm great, that's great,” quipped Sayf when asked about KangKang.

The match opened on Haven, a favorite for EDG after the Chinese squad dominated T1 on it two separate times in this tournament. TL came prepared though, and the first half ended 6-6. But Once TL switched to attack, they looked much more confident. A pistol round clutch from Redgar gave them a bit of lead and while EDG did show some signs of catching up, TL would eventually take the map 13-9.

Team Liquid celebrate It was just a bit of a team diff today. (Photo by Riot Games)

On Haven, EDG had no answer to Sayf. With eight first kills and a 349 ACS, he was far above anyone else on the server stat-wise. He was, just as he said in his team's press conference, great.

“Our opponents had a good awareness of what we were going to do in our games and I think they're a very strong opponent,” said KangKang.

Similarly, TL chose a map they've found repeated success on: Split. The map followed a similar path as Haven had, as the two sides were 6-6 at the half before EDG took the win 13-8. EDG built their lead on the defense thanks to a double-controller comp that was too oppressive for Liquid to push through.

But even as the momentum turned in favor of EDG, Liquid kept too cool to let it snowball into disaster for them.

“We didn't care about the 1v1s we lost, we're professionals. We're already thinking about the next round because we need to figure out solutions, not think about problems,” said Sayf.

The final map was Lotus, a map EDG had been banning throughout the event so far. While the team mentioned they had been preparing for Lotus in scrims, they admitted afterwards they would need to continue making adjustments after Liquid dismantled their offense with two controllers of their own.

At one point, it looked like EDG had made the right adjustments.

KangKang being a walking highlight reel as always.

After EDG lost seven straight rounds to fall behind 12-7, the Chinese squad's defense showed signs of life by winning four rounds in a row. But in the final round, soulcas played a 1v1 against CHICHOO perfectly to deny overtime and give Liquid the 2-1 series win.

“I wasn't jump-spotting,” laughed nAts when he was asked how he prepared to deal with KangKang's Operator.

With this, EDG will face off against LOUD LOUD Brazil Unranked pANcada Bryan Luna saadhak Matias Delipetro tuyz Arthur Andrade cauanzin Cauan Pereira in the elimination bracket.

“I feel like we just need to refine what we need to do within our games, no matter what kind of changes our opponents make,” Haodong said. “We just have to play on our strengths.”

As for TL, they have a date in the upper bracket semi finals against Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Unranked Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le , a team which has not lost a map yet at Tokyo.

“We weren't surprised to see EG beat LOUD; they're a good team and they have the momentum,” Redgar said. “It's going to be fun to play against them because in practice we had some pretty close games, but right now it's gonna be a real match and we'll find out who is better.”