The second opening game of Group B saw Korean representatives T1 T1 Korea Rank #3 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Meteor Kim Tae-O (김태오) Sylvan Ko Young-sub (고영섭) BuZz Yu Byung-chul (유병철) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) take down China's 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) in 2-0 fashion. In the previous two encounters between the teams, EDG came out victorious, but with this T1 victory, the record between both teams stands at 2-2.
This is T1's first game with their new signings Daniel "Rossy" Abedrabbo and Kevin "xccurate" Susanto. Rossy joined the roster after playing for North American teams like TSM, FaZe, and Turtle Troops. On the other hand, xccurate, the brother of Paper Rex's f0rsakeN , gets his competitive tac-FPS experience from Counter-Strike. His legacy as one of Asia's best CS players, as well as his brother's prowess, had set high expectations for his debut, and he did not disappoint.
A third exciting dimension to T1 was the switch of the IGL role to Carpe, a storied former Overwatch player and their sixth who had leveled up rapidly throughout 2022. On the other hand, EDG have kept the same roster over the course of the off-season. Their competitive season in 2023 saw the team dominate in China and find a top-six finish at Masters Tokyo and Champions.
The match veto saw EDG pick Bind as the first map of play. Starting off on defense, EDG were able to find a slight lead in the first half, ending it 7-5 in their favor. However, on defense, Sayaplayer and xccurate both woke up, and despite EDG managing a 11-8 lead, T1 found four rounds in a row to push the score to 12-11. EDG won the last round of regulation to force overtime, but by then, it seemed like momentum was on T1's side, and they would take map one 14-12.
Sayaplayer on Jett had an outstanding performance, with 28 kills and an ACS of 294, the highest on the server. Unfortunately for EDG, it seemed like a bit of an off day for ZmjjKK , who went 1-4 against Sayaplayer in operator duels, although he was still by far the best-performing player on his team, and the second-best on the server.
Momentum from the first map did not abate for T1. On their map pick of Lotus, they found five rounds in a row after losing the pistol and following round on defense. Despite the early lead, EDG stabilized to end the half 7-5 in T1's favor. On switching to attack through, it seemed like T1 could do no wrong. They would only lose one of the next seven rounds, taking the map 13-6 and the series 2-0.
The hero of map two was undoubtedly T1's xccurate on Chamber, who had eight first kills and a kill differential of +12. Every T1 member went positive in terms of K/D, while the converse was true for EDG.
EDG will face off against Fancy United Esports Fancy United Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #14 YESicaN Đinh Đình Đạt foxy Crus Lư Tiến Huy tok1o Nia twilight in the elimination bracket, while Liquid and T1 will play for a berth at the playoffs.