G2 Esports G2 Esports Inactive swept 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) 2-0 in the Swiss Stage of Masters Bangkok, in both teams' first international game in VCT 2025. G2 looked like one of the strongest teams in VCT after winning Americas Kickoff, and after recovering from a muddy first half on Lotus, comfortably secured the series win.

The match began on Lotus, a strong map for Trace and G2 regionally. Both teams continued to run their standard compositions for the map, with Trace opting for the Vyse, Fade, and Viper, while G2 chose Tejo, Yoru, and Breach. Starting on the defense side, Trace won the first pistol thanks to a solid A site hold but could not convert the bonus round after a strong eco round from G2.

It looked a bit shaky as jawgemo fumbled on an A site hit with his Yoru ult, but the round after he made up for his mistake with four entry kills on a fast B hit.

jawgemo gets four on a quick B hit against Trace.

Trace was keeping G2 off of sites, but it was an uncharacteristic attack side from the Americas champs. The Yoru ults somehow made the team's attack side rounds worse, as the team would make mistakes and panic, which Trace took advantage of. However, the Trace defense on C site proved to be their key weakness, as leaf 's Viper helped save G2's attack from disaster and ended the half up 7-5.

G2 won the second-half pistol round on Lotus with a quick flood on the plant, but FengF secured four kills on 10 health to win Trace the bonus round. G2 started to build on their lead with coordinated reclears, but heybay fought back with a hero round with a Bulldog. All the eco round wins across the map from Trace were balanced in the end by a back-breaking flawless eco from G2, and a small mistake from Kai ended the map 13-8 for the top team from the Americas.

The next map was Abyss, a strong map pick from G2 despite their loss on it in the Americas Grand Finals against Sentinels. G2 continued to run Chamber and Yoru, while Trace ran a more standard Jett and KAY/O.

Trace tied a mid-rush to B to start, but G2 was quick to it and won the first pistol on Abyss. G2 was unable to convert the bonus, while FengF held a retake on his own to tie the map early on.

Just as it seemed that G2 was struggling to hold A site, trent and leaf took risks to prevent any spike plants from Trace. Even when Trace got the rare plant down, G2 played smart to get the defuse. Trace was struggling to attack B site, as jawgemo once again surprised Trace to win a round single-handedly. G2 ended the half up 9-3, looking just as strong on Abyss as they did when they first introduced the Chamber composition earlier this year.

jawgemo flashes out to get three kills on Abyss defense.

G2 won their attack side pistol round to boot, thanks to aggressive IGL valyn and their backpack full of utility for post-plant. After that, it seemed automatic as G2 won Abyss 13-3 and got the 2-0 win. Across both maps, it was the Americas Kickoff MVP trent who stayed hot on initiator with a match rating of 1.52 and a series-leading ADR of 177.

The next matchup for G2 will be against 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) on February 22, while Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #1 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso will face DRX DRX Korea Rank #3 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) free1ng No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) later that day. As for the teams who are 0-1, Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #12 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kamyk Maks Rychlewski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak will face Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #3 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid for their tournament lives on February 23, and T1 T1 Korea Rank #4 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Meteor Kim Tae-oh (김태오) Sylvan Go Young-sup (고영섭) BuZz Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) will face 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) afterward.