100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #7 bang Sean Bezerra Cryocells Matthew Panganiban eeiu Daniel Vucenovic Boostio Kelden Pupello Asuna Peter Mazuryk beat FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #6 MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan cNed Mehmet Yağız İpek qRaxs Doğukan Balaban and Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #1 Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) Meteor Kim Tae-O (김태오) Lakia Kim Jong-min (김종민) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) beat FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #1 hiro Emirhan Kat Derke Nikita Sirmitev Boaster Jake Howlett Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder on the first day of the Masters Shanghai playoffs. 100 Thieves and Gen.G moved on in the upper bracket of the playoffs, while FUT Esports and Fnatic were sent to the lower bracket.

Fans got to see the first games of both 100 Thieves and Fnatic, the respective first seeds from Americas and EMEA. 100 Thieves were nothing but dominant in their match against FUT Esports, while Fnatic were the first regional one-seed to lose at Masters Shanghai.

100 Thieves speedrun through FUT Esports

The map veto began with FUT picking Icebox and 100 Thieves picking Bind, leaving Ascent as the potential third map.

On Icebox, the only difference between the two teams was the choice of the second initiator. Asuna chose Gekko, while qRaxs chose KAY/O. 100 Thieves won the first pistol round thanks to a smart read, expecting FUT to push up tube. Cryocells then got an Operator on their bonus round, using it to get two clean headshots and a bonus round conversion.

Cryo was the key factor early in the game as 100T cycled him around the map. Duels constantly went in favor of 100T, forcing early fights when FUT were scaling. Even when FUT funneled the Operator to cNed and got the pick against Cryo, other players on 100 Thieves stepped up to prevent any easy site takes.

Fut struggled until round nine to simply plant the spike, needing to invest both Viper and Killjoy ultimate to seal their first round win. 100 Thieves either sniped early picks that made their defense easier or forced out so much utility from FUT that they could not plant or protect the spike. 100 Thieves entered the half up 11-1; a near-perfect defense half from the Americas top seed.

FUT won the second pistol on Icebox with some snappy Sherriff shots from cNed, but 100 Thieves stole a win on their eco round. Boostio snuck past all of the Killjoy utility from FUT in kitchen and killed both cNed and AtaKaptan on B site, delivering two guns to his team and the thrifty win. The map ended 13-2; a stomp in favor of 100 Thieves.

Asuna, from 100 Thieves. (Image via Riot Games)

The teams went with significantly different comps on Bind, with both teams opting for different initiators and a different secondary controller. 100 Thieves won the first pistol round, with Asuna getting a lucky flank around FUT to secure a 2v2 win. The defense continued to be strong for 100 Thieves, as they used the Fade seize and Brimstone ultimate to lock two enemies into guaranteed death just as FUT got their first rifle buy of the half. Cryo ended up ulting his teammate Boostio a couple of rounds later, but the team laughed the moment away.

Despite moving from Jett to Brimstone, Cryo maintained his form from map one. In back-to-back rounds, he was crucial in converting what looked like losing scenarios. This was where the strategy change from Icebox shone through. For Icebox, 100 Thieves would hold FUT back from even getting onto the site. On Bind, they emphasized retakes instead. FUT took a couple of rounds with the space that 100 Thieves tactically gave up, entering the half down 8-4.

Cryo was the key reason 100 Thieves had the lead on Bind defense. He had 24 kills for the first half, which was more kills than any player had on Icebox earlier in this series.

100 Thieves went aggressive on their second pistol win of the map, putting FUT on comeback watch. A bonus conversion from 100T effectively ended the half, and by extension, the series. Bind ended 13-5 for 100 Thieves, making this a quick sweep for the top Americas team heading into Shanghai. The entire match took only an hour and a half, including breaks at halftime and between maps.

Gen.G grind out win over Fnatic

The map veto began with Gen.G picking Lotus and Fnatic picking Bind, leaving Breeze as the potential third map.

Gen.G started the map with a pistol win, as Meteor showed off his skills with the Sherriff. Both teams then traded thrifty clutches – first a Sherriff 1v1 win from Derke , then a Lakia 3K clutch. Fnatic ended up winning more of those close rounds as the half went on. Leo and Alfajer looked just as impeccable as they had at the EMEA Stage 1 finals, and the rest of the team played off of the momentum those two created. Fnatic ended their defense up 9-3.

Munchkin battled his way to a 4K on the second pistol round to give Gen.G life. On their bonus round, t3xture snapped two kills on rubble to get the win. Gen.G secured early picks often, which led to Fnatic attempting to save weapons multiple rounds in a row. Those saves failed, as Gen.G hunted Fnatic down each time to remove those weapons and hurt their economy. Broken buys led to a 10-10 tie, but Fnatic then forced Gen.G to make some egregious mistakes.

Normally one of the best Operator players in the world, t3xture was caught out multiple times trying to position onto aggressive angles. Fnatic played very slowly, getting the timings needed to punish t3xture and regain their lead. The comeback hope ended as quickly as it began, as Fnatic closed the map out 13-10.

There was a near-mirror matchup between the two squads on Bind. The only difference was that Gen.G opted for Cypher while Fnatic ran the Gekko. Gen.G won their third straight pistol round thanks to a tense ranged Frenzy 1v1 from Karon . As the rifle rounds began, Fnatic struggled against the slow style of Gen.G. Fnatic lost early attack rounds to overthinking, teleporting constantly to no avail. After taking a timeout, Karon got a 3K on low health to ruin what looked like a good post-plant for Fnatic.

A hero 3K from Alfajer redeemed another potential lost round, as Fnatic used that win to start performing better as a team. Gen.G had a 5-1 lead, but Fnatic pulled it back to a 6-6 tie.

Fnatic hustled their way into their first pistol win of the series in the second half of Bind. Alfajer landed a 4K, fully cementing his takeover as the rounds were traded back and forth. Fnatic looked to be pulling away until an unfavorable trade B long and a bad ultimate from Derke allowed Gen.G to take the 11-9 lead. The Fnatic heroics faded away, as Gen.G won Bind 13-10 and took the series to Breeze.

Lakia and Gen.G celebrate a round win versus Fnatic. (Image via Riot Games)

Ending on Breeze, both teams ran Yoru with different intent. Gen.G ran double duelist with t3xture on Jett, allowing for Yoru to push aggressively and take space on site; Fnatic ran double initiator, allowing Yoru to both function as duelist and initiator due to his multiple flashes.

Gen.G won the first pistol round due to an early pick from t3xture and a tense but successful defuse. Meteor and t3xture earned some early kills on the bonus round and converted, but Fnatic followed it up with a thrifty win, sparking a five-round run from Fnatic as they pulled apart the double-duelist defense.

Fnatic entered the half up 7-5. Gen.G now moved onto their attack side, where their planned Yoru site executes could catch enemies off guard. Fnatic took the second pistol round on Breeze off of an aggressive defensive push that caught Karon off guard. Though Fnatic failed to convert their bonus, Munchkin made a crucial error the round after to lose to another thrifty.

The end of the map was defined by Gen.G winning gun rounds, then losing when Fnatic had worse weaponry. Tied 11-11, Gen.G cleaned up their act and planned some fancy set plays to push onto B site. Gen.G used Yoru clone to find trips, Sova dart to spot enemies, then a teleport to get deep into site along with an Astra smoke to hide safely in. When it mattered most, Gen.G constructed their best attack rounds of the game. Gen.G won the map 13-11, and the series 2-1.

With this win, Gen.G will face 100 Thieves next in the upper bracket semifinals. Fnatic will fight off against regional rivals FUT Esports for their Masters Shanghai lives in the lower bracket.