Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #1 Foxy9 Jung Jae-sung (정재성) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) yoman Chae Young-moon (채영문) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) have reached their second international grand final in a row after defeating G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #3 jawgemo Alexander Mor trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf 2-0. Including Pacific tournaments, Gen.G have participated in four out of four possible grand finals during the 2024 season. The second match of the day went Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius ' way, as they defeated 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #6 zander Alexander Dituri Cryocells Matthew Panganiban eeiu Daniel Vucenovic Boostio Kelden Pupello Asuna Peter Mazuryk in a resounding 2-0.

Gen.G will next play on Sunday with hopes of earning Pacific's first-ever international title. G2 will go down to the lower bracket, where they will play a best-of-five against Team Heretics to define the second finalist of Masters Shanghai.

The day's results mean there will be no repeat international event winners this tournament, as Boostio and coach Zikz were the last remaining team members to win a title.

Gen.G advance to Shanghai grand final with 2-0 win

Gen.G opened the series with a pistol round win, and continued on to comfortably win the next few rounds. Meteor was a standout player in the beginning of their defense half, securing a series of multikills and first eliminations to help his team win seven rounds in a row. In round five, he found a 4K, which he capped off with a clutch to turn around what appeared to be a G2 stronghold on B. A tactical timeout after that round didn't immediately show results for G2, but they were able to win their first attack on round eight.

G2 maintained the momentum for another seven rounds, but Gen.G made sure to keep their lead for the remainder of the map. A nice thrifty round gave G2 their eighth point, but they were unable to win any rounds afterwards. With four round wins in a row, Gen.G closed off their opponent's map pick 13-8.

The Gen.G dominance carried over to Ascent, as they gained an early lead on their offense. Statistically both teams' best map throughout 2024, Ascent slightly favored Gen.G on the attack side compared to G2. Gen.G were unrelenting, as four of their eight round wins in the first half came off the back of quadruple kills. Their round wins were not simply due to mechanical superiority, however. Munchkin and Karon had 11 and 12 assists in the half, respectively, which helped set up the team's entries for success.

As on Lotus, G2 began their recovery towards the end of the first half and the beginning of the second. They were slightly more successful this time around, but it was not enough. An ace against Gen.G's half buy earned icy the tenth round for his team, but Gen.G won the next two rounds to win the map 13-10.

“We're the favorites,” Meteor said after the win. “We'll make sure we prove ourselves [in the grand final].”

Team Heretics stay alive with 2-0 against 100 Thieves

The day continued with the lower bracket match between Team Heretics and 100 Thieves. The North American team earned the first map pick, taking the match to Bind. They won the pistol round to kick off the series, but paTiTek answered back with a 1v2 clutch on the eco. Heretics took the lead the following round, and kept the advantage throughout the half. On their attack side, Wo0t and benjyfishy won eight of the ten opening duels they fought, giving their team multiple advantages to start the map.

After halftime, 100 Thieves were back in the game. They complemented a pistol win with two four-round winstreaks, eventually reaching match point with a 12-9 score. The next three rounds involved three separate triple kills from the Heretics squad, stopping 100T's ideas in their tracks and sending the match to overtime. The teams continued trading attack rounds, but another defensive 3K from Wo0t left their opponents weak enough for Boo to clean up, ending the map 15-13.

“I'm definitely very confident going into [Sunset],” 100 Thieves coach Zikz said after Bind. “We've seen a lot of film, so it should be easy for us to read them out.”

Team Heretics were eager to prove him wrong. Their mastery of the map gained them the lead to start the map. For a brief moment, eeiu was the sole player fighting back, winning a 1v1 to give his team a round and coming close to winning the next round. By the end of the fifth round, 100 Thieves had called a timeout. They could not stop the bleeding, as any slight advantage they gained was quickly countered by Heretics' individual skill and teamplay. A second timeout after round eight proved just as futile. To summarize the first half with a statistic, Wo0t ended the first half with more eliminations than the bottom four 100 Thieves players combined.

After the break, Heretics did not allow 100 Thieves back in the game. Wo0t kept the previously mentioned statline, with 22 eliminations compared to 100 Thieves' 20 (excluding eeiu). Boo , meanwhile, had more assists by the end of the series than any player on the opposing team had eliminations. Heretics sealed Sunset 13-1, moving on to the Masters Shanghai top three.

The victory means that Heretics will have an opportunity to take revenge against G2 Esports, who have defeated them twice 2-1 in this tournament. “We will just play our game,” Wo0t said after the match. “We're learning; it's good for us,” he added.

Heretics will also have the chance to uphold EMEA's trend of winning the second international event of the year. Should they win, they will join Gambit Esports Gambit Esports Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Chronicle Timofey Khromov d3ffo Nikita Sudakov sheydos Bogdan Naumov nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin , FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix Inactive SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin Zyppan Pontus Eek ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky ardiis Ardis Svarenieks , and FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #3 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder as EMEA Masters winners.