Wolves feasts on Bilibili, earns Masters Toronto playoff slot

The last time these two teams faced each other regionally, Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #4 whzy Wang Haozhe (王昊哲) Levius Lu Yinzhong (卢胤中) rushia Wang Xiaojie (王晓杰) nephh Marcus Tan Knight Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔) swept Wolves Esports Wolves Esports China Rank #3 SiuFatBB Pong Gaa Hei (庞加曦) Yuicaw Huang Yung-chieh (黃湧傑) Spring Liu Jiunting (刘俊霆) Lysoar Liang Youhao (梁优好) Juicy Tyler James Aeria in the lower bracket final after both teams qualified for Masters Toronto. However, in Toronto, Wolves swept BLG and earned the advantage over Bilibili on the year, making them a Masters: Toronto playoff team.

Both teams have had a recent match where they defeated the other, but now one team had to break the split record with both of their Masters Toronto lives on the line.

The first map was Ascent, with Wolves running double Sentinel and starting on the defense side. SiuFatBB sniped crucial kills to hold B Site and win the first pistol for Wolves, but multiple Guardian purchases cost them in a scrappy anti-eco loss. There was a chance that it would spiral into a bad defensive half, but Lysoar clutched a 1v2 retake to calm his team's nerves.

A thrifty win led to some momentum from Wolves, albeit a bit late after a defensive pistol round win. The Odin spam and aggressive flood plays from Wolves proved useful against BLG, but they only led 7-5 at the half.

Wolves won the second pistol round to extend their lead and were able to win the anti-eco on their second attempt. A bonus conversion proved to truly be redemption after the shaky start from Wolves, running up the score to 10-5. Just when BLG had their chance to get back in the game, Spring continued his top form in Toronto with four clean kills for a post-plant.

Add onto that an amazing fake call from IGL SiuFatBB, and the map was over, 13-5. Both SiuFatBB and Spring were the stars on Ascent, as both finished with 17 kills and a match rating above 1.38, which only whzy managed on the Bilibili side.

Split had compositions with more in common, with the Fade from SiuFatBB as the only difference between the teams. Wolves began on the attack, but they were unable to win their third pistol round in a row thanks to some clutch shots from rushia . BLG was unable to convert the bonus, but whzy took his great performance from Ascent and continued it after swapping to Raze on Split.

Even as whzy kept performing, swapping between his signature shotgun and sniper, Wolves kept it close. It took Spring stepping up, as he has done all of Toronto to this point, and a risky wide swing by Juicy in a 1v1 for the Wolves to enter the half up 8-4.

BLG won the second pistol on Split, with Knight running through Mid Vent and getting two big kills. Wolves showed some confusion on a B Site retake, losing the bonus round and watching their lead disappear. It looked like their passive defense side could cost them, but it did throw BLG off their regular site hits as Wolves hit 10-8. Then, while it was tense, Wolves were able to close out Split 13-10, win the series 2-0, and earn their spot in the Masters Toronto playoffs.

Spring was the MVP of the series, continuing his outstanding run of form at both his and his organization's first international tournament. He ended the map with a lobby-leading match rating of 1.32, 38 kills, and 170 ADR playing smokes.

With this loss, Bilibili Gaming is eliminated from Masters Toronto, and will have to earn their next try at an international event through Stage 2.