Trace Esports Trace Esports China Rank #2 LuoK1ng Zhang Zhanpeng (张展鹏) Kai Lu Zhinan (卢智楠) FengF Song Xuefeng (宋学锋) heybay Ho Shun Hei Biank Zhong Jianfei (钟剑飞) Zhao has defeated DRX DRX Korea Rank #4 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Athan Na Ha-jun (나하준) freeing No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) 2-0 to stay alive in the Radiant Asia Invitational. They will go on to face Paper Rex in the lower final, while DRX is eliminated from the tournament.
The two map series was played out on Sunset and Split. Trace took the first map 13-7 and the second map 13-10.
Trace came out of the gates on Sunset with a vengeance. After DRX won the pistol and second round, Trace would win nine rounds unanswered before a 3K from HYUNMIN finally stopped them.
DRX would start the second half with another pistol win, trying to claw back from the 9-3 deficit. Another HYUNMIN 3K put them on track to win the bonus, but heybay and Kai would orchestrate a 2v5 to curb the DRX comeback. It wasn't long before Trace closed out the map 13-7.
Kai put up a dominant performance on Neon, with 26 kills on the map, and numerous round winning multi-kills for his team.
DRX had no answer for Kai's Neon on Sunset.DRX started out the second map of split with their third pistol win of the series, letting them take an early 6-2 lead. Trace would find their footing towards the end of the half and win the last four rounds to end the half an even 6-6.
LuoK1ng holds down the site.In the second half, DRX would once again win the pistol round, making it their fourth of the series. This time, they would also convert the bonus round, and looked to run away with the map as they took a 10-6 lead. However, once Trace got their attack side going, there was nothing DRX could do to stop it. Despite consistently finding first bloods on the rounds, DRX could do nothing but watch as their lead slipped away one round at a time. Trace won seven rounds in a row to snatch the map out of DRX's hands.
In this win, Trace take their revenge on DRX after being eliminated by them in dominant fashion at Champions.
Trace continue their tournament run through the lower bracket, with Paper Rex standing in the way of a rematch against DetonatioN FocusMe DetonatioN FocusMe Japan Rank #3 Meiy Ibuki Seki Art Jinboong Kim Jin-won (김진원) Akame Yu Gwang-hui (유광희) gyen in the grand final.