T1 T1 Korea Rank #2 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) BuZz Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) crashies Austin Roberts has defeated Trace Esports Trace Esports China Rank #13 LuoK1ng Zhang Zhanpeng (张展鹏) Kai Lu Zhinan (卢智楠) FengF Song Xuefeng (宋学锋) FKEY Ke Chen deLb Delbert Tanoto 2-0, eliminating them from Masters Bangkok. They will continue on in the Swiss stage, with one match standing between them and playoffs.

The series played out on Lotus and Haven, with T1 winning both maps 13-3 and 13-8 respectively.

Both teams were coming off 2-0 losses in their opening matches of the tournament. Trace were put down in dominant fashion by G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #4 trent Trent Cairns leaf Nathan Orf , but T1 had a relatively competitive series with Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #1 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen PROFEK Dawid Święć Chronicle Timofey Khromov Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu . Facing elimination, T1 decided to adjust their starting roster, subbing out carpe and bring in Sylvan to face Trace. Sylvan was T1's initial starting controller, playing with the team throughout all the offseason and the beginning of Kickoff, but has been sitting out for the past four matches, with carpe taking his spot.

For their map pick, Trace opted into Lotus, a map that T1 was undefeated on in Kickoff. This proved to be a huge mistake, as they got absolutely blasted on the map. T1 continued their undefeated streak with their unorthodox double duelist comp with Iso. After blunders from Trace led to a flawless round 2 eco, T1 took complete control of the map, easily winning 13-3. iZu in particular was on fire, with several multikills singlehandedly winning his team rounds.

Someone check iZu's PC.

In his post-match interview, T1 IGL stax thanked Trace for picking Lotus, it being one of their strongest maps. Trace's head coach destroyeR explained the rationale behind the map pick in the post-match press conference. “Based on our scrims and our performance during the whole last year, I think we could solve any problems on that map. Our loss was because we made some wrong decisions in-game.”

T1's momentum from Lotus carried into their map pick of Haven, as they started the map up 4-0. Big plays from Kai helped Trace stabilize and even the score to 6-6 at the half.

Kai on Jett does his best to keep Trace in the game.

In the second half, the dynamic duelist duo of Meteor and BuZz fully came alive, and quickly put away the map 13-8. Fittingly, they both ended Haven with a 1.36 rating.

Meteor showers Trace's heads with bullets to earn match point.

Trace Esports are eliminated from Masters Bangkok, going home without winning a single map.

T1 survive elimination, and will go on to face one of KIWOOM DRX KIWOOM DRX Korea Rank #5 Flicker Kim Tae-hee (김태희) , G2 Esports, or the winner of Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #10 OXY Francis Hoang brawk Brock Somerhalder canezerra Alex Banyasz johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid vs. Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #7 GSR Ognjen Bondžić kamo Kamil Frąckowiak . In all of T1's previous international outings, their run ended in the group stage, but one more win will send the organization to the playoffs for the first time.