In a relatively quick four-map day, T1 T1 Korea Rank #3 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Sayaplayer Ha Jeong-woo (하정우) Rossy Daniel Abedrabbo Carpe Lee Jae-hyeok (이재혁) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) xccurate Kevin Susanto and Dragon Ranger Gaming Dragon Ranger Gaming China Rank #4 nizhaoTZH Tang Zehao (唐哲昊) vo0kashu Ilya Ushakov Shion7 Zhang Haozhe (张昊泽) Nicc Shao Yi-qun (邵逸群) TvirusLuke Chen Cheng-ching became the first teams eliminated from Masters Shanghai. Leviatán Leviatán Latin America South Rank #1 tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena Mazino Roberto Rivas aspas Erick Santos C0M Corbin Lee dominated T1, and FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #4 MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan cNed Mehmet Yağız İpek qRaxs Doğukan Balaban squeaked by DRG to qualify to the deciding round of the Swiss stage.

LEV roll over T1

Both LEV and T1 lost in the opening round of the Swiss stage to teams that reached the playoffs in 2-0 fashion. One of the third seeds from the Americas and Pacific regions would go home having only ever faced teams from their counterpart's region.

T1 tripped and fell flat on their face right out of the gate. They gave up the first six rounds in a row on their Breeze attack after tex and kiNgg landed back-to-back 1v2 clutches. It took an eco win to get them on the board. Unfortunately for them, they only managed two more rounds in the half when Sayaplayer bailed them out with 1v2 clutches of his own.

It was a bit of a struggle for LEV to close the map. T1 took the first three rounds, and LEV had to win an eco round to keep their defense from spiraling out of control. The LATAM squad failed to string together any gun rounds, but they did manage to reach a 13-9 conclusion.

Mazino bounced back from an underwhelming performance against GENG with 24 kills in 24 rounds. T1's double duelist dive comp struggled to control space around the map, and iZu's Yoru finished with four more deaths than anyone else on the server.

T1 mixed up their agent comp heading into Sunset. They decided to pick up Sage over the near-ubiquitous Cypher, and they rotated iZu onto duelist instead of Sayaplayer.

For the third straight time, a team won the bonus round when LEV jumped to a 3-0 start on their defense. This first half was even more dominant than the last one. LEV waltzed to a 10-2 lead with ease.

T1 finally became the first team to lose a bonus after they won the final pistol round of the series. It was only a matter of time before their meager resistance slipped away. A 13-7 final score sent them back to Korea.

The Sayaplayer Gekko experiment did not work at all. He finished with a disastrous 5-18 statline, and xccurate and carpe were close behind him. iZu did perform on Raze, but it was outclassed by yet another dominating showing from aspas and his 23-10 statline.

This series ended C0M's streak of 11 straight matches without going positive. The last two times he went positive were his first game with LEV and his world championship crowning. His return to form provided a nice boost to LEV's momentum in this event.

FUT survive DRG

Somewhat surprisingly, FUT picked Bind first, a map that was tied for their worst record and DRG's best this year. It was a mainstay of their success in previous years, and they showed why in a win against DRG.

DRG swapped Harbor in place of the Viper pick that they and most other teams were opting for all year. Typically, the teams that choose Harbor on Bind replace the Brimstone instead.

Initially, it looked like this series was going to be even more one sided than the previous one. FUT stormed out to a 6-0 and then 8-1 lead without a single DRG player finding individual success. It wasn't until the final three rounds of the half that DRG showed signs of life.

Down 8-4, DRG mounted a comeback, finally making a map close for the first time all day. They won the pistol and extended it through yet another bonus round win. With the map getting away from them, FUT stemmed the bleeding with an eco round win. A late surge from DRG couldn't quite close the gap, and FUT took the map 13-10. TvirusLuke led the server with 23 kills, ten more than he had gotten all series against Heretics.

Ascent started much the same way as Bind. FUT won their defensive pistol and ran out to a 6-0 start. However, once again, DRG battled back into the game. FUT's retakes were dominating, so DRG moved to aggressively take the fight to them in the postplant. DRG fought back for five rounds in the half, a very acceptable scoreline attacking on Ascent.

FUT won the second-half pistol, but DRG stopped the snowball by winning the anti-bonus for just the second time in eight tries all day. Both teams battled back and forth, tying the game at ten, 11, and 12 rounds each.

In overtime, DRG finally ran out of gas, and FUT took the series with a 14-12 victory. cNed and qRaxs each ended up with 29 kills to 17 deaths.

Across the series, nizhaoTZH's 45 kills led his team with TvirusLuke and vo0kashu right behind him, but their firepower wasn't enough to lead to DRG's first international win. Despite AtaKaptan struggling with just 21 kills and an 0-7 first kill record, FUT stayed alive to fight another day.

Coming Up

The matchups for the deciding round have been drawn. FUT will face LEV while the two teams that lost in the winners matches, Heretics and FPX, will match up tomorrow. The winners of those matches will move on to the playoffs.

The four teams already qualified to the playoffs from winning their regional titles will draw for positions, then pick their opponents out of the four teams that qualified through the Swiss stage. There is a two-day gap between the Swiss stage and the playoffs.

Banner image by David Lee/Riot Games.