G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #2 jawgemo Alexander Mor trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf and Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius have picked up wins on the second day of the playoffs at Masters Shanghai. G2 fought through a three-map series over Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #3 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov while Heretics crushed 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 a clean 2-0. G2 had a clean run through the Swiss stage with a 2-0 record while Heretics narrowly squeaked past FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix China Rank #5 Autumn Kale Dunne Life Qu Donghao (瞿东豪) AAAAY Zhang Yang (张杨) BerLIN Zhang Bolin (張柏霖) yosemite Wang Lei (王磊) in the 2-1 pool.

Today's winners will face off in the upper bracket semifinals on Sunday, June 2. Heretics will hope to change up their game plan following a disappointing showing against G2 in the Swiss stage. Paper Rex and EDG will face off in a do-or-die elimination series tomorrow.

G2 2-1 Paper Rex to pick up opener

G2 picked Split to start the series, followed by PRX picking Lotus, leaving Bind as the decider.

Split began in a flash with a pistol round that lasted less than 30 seconds as PRX flattened the B-site defense from G2. An early 1v2 4K from something in the bonus gave PRX all the momentum they needed for the first half. PRX's signature aggressive style completely rolled over G2's stagnant defense as the Americans were incapable of taking space early in the round against something's attacking Operator. The Pacific champs collected 11 rounds in a row before G2 achieved their only round of the half.

A G2 pistol and back-to-back 1v1s from JonahP extended the game for a moment before a solid A retake from PRX ended the map 13-7. Jinggg 's return to the international stage went splendidly as the Singaporean collected 21 kills with 207 ADR before the series began to go downhill for PRX.

G2 got off to a much better start on Lotus with a pistol win and a bonus round conversion before a Showstopper team kill from icy combined with a d4v41 Sheriff 3K to give PRX a way back into the game. PRX didn't let the opportunity go to waste by following up with six straight rounds propelled by a something 1v2 in round seven. G2's game plan of waiting for PRX's constant attempts at pushing brought them two more rounds to end the half at an even 6-6.

A valyn 4K gifted G2 their second pistol in the map and the following momentum pushed G2 through a bonus round conversion to take the lead at 10-6. PRX repeatedly failed to clear close corners on their attack side, giving over opening picks and match point to G2 at 12-7. A something 1v4 led PRX to a string of three rounds before G2 closed out the second map at 13-10 to force a third map.

icy's upswing in form following the regular season continued as the rookie picked up 22 kills and 164 ADR to even the series.

Bind looked like a complete reversal of Split for G2. The game plan was perfect against PRX as the favorites got just two rounds while G2 sped their way to a near-perfect half. The entire team was performing excellently with G2 picking up a 10-2 half on the attack. trent went 6-0 in opening duels to allow G2 to dominate the early engagements.

PRX appeared dejected in the second half as G2's lead enabled them to cruise to a 13-5 map win and a 2-1 series victory. The quartet of icy, trent, valyn, and leaf dominated the server with all four claiming higher than 150 ADR and 200 ACS.

G2 will face Team Heretics on Sunday, June 2 in a rematch from round two of the Swiss stage. Paper Rex have been relegated to the lower bracket and will face off against EDG tomorrow.

Heretics ease past EDward Gaming

The map veto resulted in Heretics opting to first pick Sunset followed by EDG picking Split and leaving Breeze as the decider.

Heretics got off to a great start on Sunset with a Wo0t 4K in the pistol and a bonus round conversion to go up 4-0 before EDG could pick up their first. Heretics looked incredibly comfortable on their map pick. Sunset has proven to be Heretic's best map thus far in 2024 with an 80% win rate. EDG managed to come back slightly towards the end of the half with two rounds in a row thanks to some sharp shots from ZmjjKK to end the half at 8-4.

EDG managed to pick up the second pistol to close the gap to just two rounds before Heretics ran away with the rest of the map. Heretics took the map comfortably 13-6 with strong performances across the board. Wo0t continued a strong streak of form in the duelist position with 198 ADR and 21 kills.

Heretics opened up Split with Wo0t and paTiTek swapping roles after their lacklustre match against G2. Wo0t was placed back onto Raze duty after temporarily swapping to Viper in their previous showing. The swap seemed to provide instant value with Wo0t picking up an important opening kill to claim the pistol for Heretics. EDG could not handle the mid-rounding from Heretics that enabled frequent site stacks throughout the half. Wo0t racked up repeated multikills while benjyfishy's A site remained impervious.

A 10-2 half and a pistol win for Heretics all but sealed the game for the Europeans as the home team mustered just a single round in the second half. Heretics eased past Split 13-3 to pick up the series in a clean 2-0.

Heretics have moved to the upper bracket semifinals and will play G2 on Sunday, June 2. EDG have been relegated to the lower bracket and will face off against Paper Rex in an elimination series tomorrow.