With victories over
Paper Rex
Paper Rex
Asia-Pacific
Rank #1
mindfreak
Aaron Leonhart
Jinggg
Wang Jing Jie
f0rsakeN
Jason Susanto
d4v41
Khalish Rusyaidee
something
Ilya Petrov
and
FUT Esports
FUT Esports
Europe
Rank #10
MrFaliN
Furkan Yeğen
yetujey
Eray Budak
AtaKaptan
Ata Tan
cNed
Mehmet Yağız İpek
qRaxs
Doğukan Balaban
,
100 Thieves
100 Thieves
North America
Rank #4
bang
Sean Bezerra
Cryocells
Matthew Panganiban
eeiu
Daniel Vucenovic
Boostio
Kelden Pupello
Asuna
Peter Mazuryk
and
Team Heretics
Team Heretics
Europe
Rank #1
MiniBoo
Dominykas Lukaševičius
Wo0t
Mert Alkan
RieNs
Enes Ecirli
benjyfishy
Benjamin David Fish
Boo
Ričardas Lukaševičius
round out the Masters Shanghai top four. They will next play against each other on June 7, with the winner keeping their trophy hopes alive and advancing to the top three at the event.
Their 2-1 victory over Paper Rex means 100 Thieves extend their stay at Masters Shanghai, the first international event the organization has qualified to since Champions 2022. Their in-game leader, Boostio , remains the only player at the event with an international title to his name, but he has a long way to go if he wishes to repeat this feat.
Team Heretics, meanwhile, continue their dominance over FUT Esports with the third 2-0 victory against them this year. One EMEA team remains, as Heretics seek redemption for the region and themselves after a disappointing Masters Madrid.
100 Thieves send Paper Rex home with 2-1 win
The day started off with a triple kill from bang , which gave his team the pistol round on Breeze, their map pick. Along with Cryocells , they gave the team an early lead, their entrying and multikills helping win an additional seven rounds in the first half. The map continued in similar fashion, as Paper Rex were only able to win one more round in the second half. In the end, X managed to close out the map 13-5 in 100 Thieves' favor.
Map two was Paper Rex's opportunity to stay in the game. Sunset, their map pick, started with an early lead for the Southeast Asian squad. f0rsakeN led the charge on their attack, finding 21 eliminations and six assists by the end of the half. After a six-round lead, 100 Thieves were able to adapt to their opponents, but only managed to win four rounds on defense.
They continued to win rounds, however, eventually closing the gap and forcing a timeout from Paper Rex. Boostio denied a 1v3 from something to grant his team the lead, setting the score 10-9. 100 Thieves called their own timeout after two rounds from Paper Rex, but they were unable to break through their opponent's defense. After a couple of impressive rounds from something and Jinggg , a double sniper setup shutdown 100 Thieves' final attempt, closing out the map 13-10.
The final map, Icebox, would define the outcome of the series. After 100 Thieves went up 4-0 on defense, Paper Rex had hopes of a comeback. They were able to win two rounds, with something netting a four kill to start round 7. Recognizing their advantage, they called a rotate to A, but Asuna was able to find two before the spike was planted. Paper Rex looked to take a quick 2v1 to prevent Asuna from getting into site, but he lined his opponents up and closed out the round with a quadruple of his own.
Asuna recovers the roundThe match continued with a back-and-forth, but the lead for 100 Thieves was too much to overcome. In the end, eeiu ended the half with a 2v1, with the score at 7-5 in his team's favor by half time. A pistol and anti-eco win from Paper Rex tied the score, but 100 Thieves were able to identify and exploit the opposition's weak site to regain their lead with an 11-7. An aggressive round from Paper Rex kicked off a series of round wins to tie the score once again, and the map went on to overtime.
The two teams opted for aggressive overtime attacks after initial exploration, but in the end 100 Thieves sealed the map 14-12, advancing to the top four for the first time since Masters Berlin in 2021.
“This was definitely one of the most intense games we've ever played,” Cryocells said after the match. “Everyone on the team believes we should win this tournament. We're all feeling super confident.”
Team Heretics win EMEA matchup 2-0
The second elimination match of the day started on FUT Esports' map pick, Bind. After the teams traded rounds at the beginning of the half, FUT were able to pull ahead and earn a 6-4 lead. Heretics were not left behind, as benjyfishy and RieNs helped their team close the gap by halftime, denying a clutch from AtaKaptan and securing rounds via their anchoring.
In contrast, the second half was anything but close. Heretics were dominant the remainder of the map, only losing one round. After winning Bind, neilzinho mentioned they left the map open knowing FUT would pick it. “Last night [against G2], we took a risk by playing our permaban, but we knew if we banned Bind FUT would pick it today,” he stated. “The previous comp wasn't working,” he added, “so we decided to prep a few days ago just for this.”
The dominance continued into map two, as Heretics shut down any idea FUT had on their offense. Despite allowing them to plant six times in the half, Heretics were still able to turn rounds around thanks to their trading and practiced retakes. FUT, meanwhile, were only able to win three rounds before the break: a thrifty, the following anti-eco, and snowballing an out of place defensive push from Heretics.
Boo contributes to the scoreboard with a 4kAfter halftime, FUT won the pistol round, but were defeated the next round after their mistimed peeks were punished by Heretics. The momentum continued from that point, Heretics' reads and individual skill pushing them over the line to finish the map 13-4.
With these victories, 100 Thieves have returned to the top four at an international event for the first time since September 2021. The top four finish is Team Heretics' best performance at a Masters tournament, an improvement over their first-ever international event earlier this year, Masters Madrid. As for the losing teams, FUT are also ending with their highest placement at an international event, but this is Paper Rex's worst finish since LOCK//IN.