G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #3 jawgemo Alexander Mor trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf defeated LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN Latin America South Rank #1 Demon1 Max Mazanov tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena C0M Corbin Lee nataNk Nathan Bocqueho 3-2 in the lower finals of the VCT Americas Stage 1 playoffs. This cements Lev as the third seed from the Americas at Masters Shanghai. G2 will go up against 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #6 zander Alexander Dituri Cryocells Matthew Panganiban eeiu Daniel Vucenovic Boostio Kelden Pupello Asuna Peter Mazuryk in the grand finals to decide who will be the region's top seed.

The map veto saw G2 choose Bind to be the first map of play, while Lev opted for Breeze. G2's next pick was Icebox, followed by Lev choosing Lotus, leaving Ascent as the decider map. G2 have continued banning Sunset through Stage 1 and that didn't change today either.

G2 let Bind slip away in overtime

Bind saw Lev get off to a rocky start by losing the pistol and trailing behind at 4-2. However, they found their groove on their attack executes, successfully winning the next four rounds in succession. G2 did derail their momentum by winning the last two rounds to tie the half up at 6-6.

The side swap saw G2 find a successful attacking pistol win but Lev capitalized and won their full buy to bring the score to 8-7. The teams would continue trading rounds, with G2 getting to match point first at 12-10. Lev would bring it back however, pushing the map into overtime. A 3K from aspas would win Lev the first map in the series. Both teams had a mirror composition, and a key reason for Lev's win would be aspas, who had five first kills as well as 22 frags.

Leviatán struggle to break G2's defense on Breeze

Despite Breeze being Lev's pick, G2 made full use of their double-controller composition with the Viper and Astra, denying the plant for Lev in the first four rounds. Lev finally won their first round off the back of a 3K from Mazino , but G2 continued to dominate on their defensive side, with Lev only finding two more rounds in the half to end it 9-3. After the side swap, G2 won the pistol, but Lev were able to steal away the anti-eco.

Despite Lev showing signs of life, the lead G2 had garnered in the first half was too much for Lev to overcome. G2 won the map 13-7 and tied the teams at one map win apiece. While G2 did struggle a little on the attack thanks to Yoru being their sole duelist, their defensive half, especially the impact that JonahP and valyn both had, were a key reason for the team's 9-3 lead.

Leviatán steals away Icebox off of a ninja defuse

Icebox, G2's map pick, saw them start on defense once again, and similar to the previous two maps, started strong with a pistol win. They successfully showed their expertise with retakes on the map as they pushed the score to 4-1 in their favor. However, Lev regrouped and began taking more space on the map in the post-plant to prevent retakes from flooding in, winning five more rounds in a row, including one where tex found a 1v3 clutch. G2 recovered a little to end the half 6-6.

G2 were able to keep their perfect track record with a pistol round win and anti-eco, but Lev showcased their prowess with the Harbor and Viper composition on the map, pulling off four successive retakes. G2 however bounced back with a round win thanks to a 3K from leaf , and were then able to push the score to 12-11. They put themselves in a winning position with three of their players left standing versus just tex in the last round, but he defused the spike under their noses to push the game to overtime.

Once again, Lev, fueled by this second chance at winning the map, would deliver. It was again Tex, who clutched another 1v3 to give Leviatán the win 14-12. Both teams looked similar in terms of stats, with aspas and trent being the respective top fraggers.

G2 deliver karma with multiple ninja defuses on Lotus

Leviatán had chosen Lotus, a map on which they had just gone down to KRU. G2 seemed to sense weakness, and after yet another pistol win, got off to a strong start. They would extend their lead to 5-0 before Lev finally found a round win. After a timeout, Lev seemed to have things under control as they would recover and win three more rounds to end the half 8-4 in G2's favor.

Lev won their first pistol of the day and, similar to G2, used it to propel themselves into the lead. They won five straight rounds to bring the score to 9-8 in their favor. However, G2 then figured out how to take advantage of a weak Lev post-plant and found five defuses in the next six rounds, three of which were ninja defuses. Those defuses helped G2 take the map 13-10.

While valyn was already the MVP in terms of stats with a 190 ADR and 26 kills on Omen, he was also the MVP for his smokes which allowed his team to win many defensive rounds and push the series to the decider.

G2 denies Lev overtime on Ascent to win the series

Ascent saw both teams mirroring each other with the meta team comp, and G2 won their ninth pistol of the day. However, some nice shots with the help of kiNgg 's one-way in A main saw Lev steal away the anti-eco round. G2 and Lev traded rounds, bringing the score to 5-3 in G2's favor before Lev buckled down. They didn't even let G2 get the spike down in the next four rounds to close out the half 7-5 with the lead. After the side swap, G2 won the last pistol round of the day thanks to a 1v3 ninja defuse by valyn.

This seemed to be the round that broke the camel's back, causing Lev to stumble and letting G2 bring the map back into their favor at 10-9. Lev seemed to recover a little after a 1v2 clutch from C0M, and retook the lead 11-10. G2 would not be denied however, and would win the next three rounds to win Ascent 13-11 and set themselves to face 100 Thieves in the grand final.

The MVP of the series was undoubtedly valyn. Not only was he IGL-ing, he also had 101 kills across all five maps on controller, tying with superstar duelist aspas for the honor of the day's top-frag. The entire G2 roster also had far more assists than the Lev side, showcasing the team's ability to play off of each other. G2 dominated the pistol rounds in the series, winning nine out of the ten played, and with the map scores being this close, these rounds were key in ensuring their victory.

Leviatán will face 100 Thieves in the regional grand finals to decide who will be the region's top seed at Masters Shanghai. Both teams are tied in terms of championship points with six apiece, and the winner of tomorrow's game will get an additional three points. They will also be the top seed at Masters Shanghai from the Americas league.