Tickets to finals weekend in Tokyo were on the line on the second day of the VCT Pacific Stage 2 playoffs, with the upper semifinals taking place.

TALON finds first-ever win over DRX to punch Tokyo Ticket

Entering Thursday, DRX held a dominant 6-0 record against TALON in VCT play. The series started on TALON's map pick of Bind, a map that both teams played sparingly in Stage 2. TALON was fast out of the gates, winning the first four rounds on their attacker side to threaten a snowball forward. However, eight straight uninterrupted rounds gave DRX the halftime advantage. Neither team called a timeout in the half, setting up for a tight second half.

HYUNMIN with a big ace to earn DRX an eighth-straight round on defense.

TALON won the second-half pistol, but DRX flipped an eco round onto them, which spelled the beginning of the end for TALON. Staying within arm's reach of map point, DRX staved off a TALON surge of six wins in eight rounds to steal their opponents' map pick 13-11.

On DRX's pick of Lotus, TALON started on attack once again, seemingly with a lot of work to do. With a double-Sentinel team comp, the Thai team picked apart DRX's defense, entering halftime with a 9-3 lead. While they did drop their first pistol round of the series to start defense, TALON took care of business to steal the DRX map pick 13-9.

HYUNMIN had a strong opening two maps, finishing with a server-high 41 kills, while primmie led the way for his team with 35.

After stealing each other's map picks, DRX and TALON went to the decider map of Lotus. DRX was the second team in the map ban process and had the choice between Icebox, a map they were 3-0 on in Stage 2, and Lotus, which they were 2-0 on. Meanwhile, TALON was 2-2 on Icebox and 2-0 on Lotus.

TALON had their usual double-Duelist look, while DRX went for the popular Omen-Viper pairing. TALON began the map red-hot, picking up six straight rounds on attack. DRX managed to recover a bit, switching over to attack down 8-4. On defense, TALON's double-Duelist comp put pressure on contested areas of the map. That side of the map saw DRX win an eco round after giving up a fourth pistol round in the series, but it was not enough. TALON won 13-7 and never seemed to be in a losing position.

Rookie Initiator Killua put up a dazzling performance on Lotus, dropping a game-high 20 kills while shooting at a stellar 57% HS.

TALON moves on to the upper final, which secures a top-three finish, and will await the winner of T1 and Paper Rex. Meanwhile, DRX slides down to the lower bracket and will await the winner of Rex Regum Qeon Rex Regum Qeon Asia-Pacific Rank #7 Monyet Cahya Nugraha xffero David Monangin Jemkin Maksim Batorov Kushy Bryan Carlos Setiawan crazyguy Ngô Công Anh and Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #3 Xiesta Jung Si-hwan (정시환) Ash Ha Hyun-cheol (하현철) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) Efina Kim Nak-yeon (김낙연) Raxcal Kim Min-seok (김민석) .

Paper Rex dominates T1 to punch tickets to Paris and Tokyo

In a clash between the winners of the two Masters events this year, T1 and Paper Rex met in a high-stakes clash. The winner of the match would not only secure a top-three finish, meaning entry to finals weekend in Tokyo, but would also qualify for Champions Paris on championship points.

The series opened on T1's pick of Sunset. While the Bangkok winners, who went 3-0 on the map in Stage 2, have a strong Sunset, the Toronto winners have arguably the best in the world.

While T1 went for a double-Duelist comp pairing BuZz 's Yoru with iZu 's Neon, Paper Rex fielded a comp that has since become iconic, pitting d4v41 on Sage, something on Sova, and Jinggg on Raze.

T1 opened on attack, and from the very start, the match was one of ebbs and flows. Momentum changed hands several times, with Paper Rex winning the pistol and anti-eco, followed by T1 winning five straight. Just when it seemed like T1 might snowball their way into a blowout on their map pick, Paper Rex responded with five of their own to enter halftime up 7-5.

Armed with two Duelists, T1 began their defense side with an approach that looked to take more space. It worked early on, as T1 won the first three rounds, but again the streaky nature of the game saw Paper Rex take command to win six straight rounds to close out the map 13-8.

Jinggg was particularly lethal on the map. On his trademark agent, he put up a game-high 20 kills and went 5-1 in first duels. Complementing him was f0rsakeN , who tallied on 19 kills of his own.

The map then shifted to Paper Rex's pick of Bind, a map that T1 beat Rex Regum Qeon Rex Regum Qeon Asia-Pacific Rank #7 Monyet Cahya Nugraha xffero David Monangin Jemkin Maksim Batorov Kushy Bryan Carlos Setiawan crazyguy Ngô Công Anh on 13-9 just the day before. T1's team comp was delay-heavy, arming all five agents with some kind of molly, while Paper Rex went for a double-Duelist comp, putting Jinggg back on the Raze and something on Yoru.

With a double-Duelist comp, a weaker defender side may be expected, but Paper Rex's Bind seemed extremely well-prepared. Set plays, execution shutdowns, and clean retakes highlighted Paper Rex's defender half, which ended with them up 8-4.

Jinggg does damage to help Paper Rex cap off a dominant defender side.

Shifting over to attack, it seemed as though the only thing holding the Paper Rex players back was themselves. The only rounds lost on that side of the map came from them pushing into a T1 stack and giving up a thrifty round. In a 13-6 win, Jinggg was again the strongest force in the map. His Paint Shells caused damage as a key piece of utility to deny entries and clear corners, but his usage of the Judge on both sides of the map was effective to a level that few can replicate.

Jinggg ended the match with 44 kills, a 1.61 rating, a 320 ACS, and nine first kills. He led the match in all four statistical categories. f0rsaken's 35 kills were the second-highest of any player in the lobby.

Paper Rex earns three days of rest as they move on to the upper final, where they will play TALON. Meanwhile, T1 slides to the lower bracket, awaiting the winner of the Nongshim RedForce Nongshim RedForce Korea Rank #1 WoohyuN Moon Woo-hyun (문우현) Xross Jeonghwan (정환) Rb Goo Sang-min (구상민) Francis Kim Mu-bin (김무빈) Ivy Park Sung-hyeon (박성현) and DetonatioN FocusMe DetonatioN FocusMe Japan Rank #3 Meiy Ibuki Seki SSeeS Tomonori Okimura Caedye Amon Mateus Okakura Akame Yu Gwang-hui (유광희) match.

Up Next

Elimination matches are here. While the lower bracket opens up play with a gauntlet of big-name teams, TALON and Paper Rex will clash in the upper bracket three days later.

The next matches are as follows: