After a week's rest, Americas is back in action with the final three days of the Stage 2 playoffs. Today featured the classic matchup of Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #4 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid vs. G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #1 jawgemo Alexander Mor BABYBAY Andrej Francisty stand-in trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice in the upper final, while Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #7 Xeppaa Erick Bach v1c Victor Truong mitch Mitch Semago neT Michael Bernet OXY Francis Hoang and NRG NRG North America Rank #2 s0m Sam Oh brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch skuba Logan Jenkins Ethan Ethan Arnold faced off for the final spot at Champions in the lower bracket.

G2 Esports dispatches Sentinels in leaf's return game.

G2 has been without leaf for all of Stage 2 due to a health related hiatus. BABYBAY stepped up to take his place, but being a fresh face to the VCT Stage, Sentinels took advantage of his first match inexperience in the group stage, only just nabbing a 2-1 win over G2. Whilst BABYBAY has grown into his own and become a formidable player, leaf has made his return to the stage in the upper final against Sentinels.

Despite the time off, leaf seems to have not missed a beat, as he came in and completely took over the server. In their sixth match against Sentinels this year, G2 once again established themselves as the top team in Americas with a convincing 2-0 victory. They have reached the grand final, where they will get the chance to lift their third trophy and completely sweep Americas for the year.

The match started on G2's pick of bind, where it was shaping up to be an even and competitive match. A pistol round from Sentinels gave them the lead early, but G2 quickly tied it up at 3-3. Then, once leaf came alive, they ran away with the map. Sentinels were only allowed two more rounds on the half, trailing 5-7 at halftime.

G2 continued their momentum in the second half with a pistol round, then with the Stingers they've become so known for, forced Sentinels to save on the bonus round, and quickly took an 11-5 lead. Sentinels fought back to get three more rounds, but it wasn't long before G2 closed out the map with a 13-8 win.

The next map was Sunset, a home turf of Sentinels where they hoped to stabilize and tie the series back up. However, continuing to champion an all new Chamber composition throughout playoffs, G2 stunned Sentinels in the first half. Another pistol round and another bonus round spiraled into an 8-1 lead, supported by clutches from leaf and JonahP . Suddenly, Sentinels were facing a 3-9 deficit at halftime.

Believing in the comeback, Sentinels started to build their own momentum with four rounds in a row to start the second half. However, stalled by JonahP's Sage utility, Sentinels ran out of time to plant the following round. With that loss, their momentum petered out, and G2 was able to win the map 13-9, taking the series 2-0.

NRG takes revenge on Cloud9 to book tickets to Paris

Ever since Cloud9 ended NRG's season in 2024 with their infamous 12-5 comeback, a rivalry has formed between these two teams. In their previous two matches, Cloud9 was able to best NRG, with the first win being a shocking upset at the time. However, with their newest pickup skuba , and Ethan now at the helm, the new NRG was able to bring it across the line this time, denying Cloud9 a Champions berth, just as they had done in 2023.

With NRG's qualification to Champions, their three rookies, mada , brawk , and skuba, will get to make their debut on the global stage in just their first year in VCT.

Starting on NRG's map pick of Haven, Cloud9 came in heavy with anti-strats, exploiting their attack side weaknesses to dominate the defense. Starting with a 7-0 lead, Cloud9 looked ready to take a quick sweep on the map. OXY was frying on Neon, while neT was getting crucial picks while site holding as Viper. NRG did well to get four in the first half, but when the second pistol went the way of Cloud9, they were in dire straits. Cloud9 eventually got up to match point, with seven chances to close out the map.

NRG did their best to fight back into the map, even winning crucial rounds where Cloud9 invested big ultimates. They closed the gap to 10-12 off the back of mada's ninth ace of his rookie season.

However, the following round, Cloud9 was finally able to get onto a site, giving neT the opportunity to use his Viper's Pit that he'd been holding on to, giving them the checkmate needed to close out the map.

While they lost map one, momentum was in NRG's favor as they moved into their opponent's map pick of Corrode. It was looking rough when Cloud9 forced into the second round and won, invalidating NRG's pistol win, but from round four onward, it was a complete highlight reel for NRG.

mada and brawk were standouts on the map, ending with 2.00 and 1.85 ratings respectively. Both earned an Ace, a 4k, and a 3k in the map, leaving no room for Cloud9 to get anything done. brawk in particular showcased the power of the Odin, using it to cut down Cloud9's attack on the paper-thin walls of Corrode. NRG won 12 rounds in a row, winning the map in dominant 13-2 fashion.

That left the final map to decide the final Champions attendee from Americas. Lotus was the battleground, and was the most evenly matched map. NRG took an early advantage when they won a full eco on round two after Cloud9 won pistol. A 1v3 from Ethan kept them in the lead, but Cloud9 eventually took control of the map, though the half ended at a dead even 6-6.

Hope dwindled for NRG when Cloud9 won the second pistol as well as the bonus round to take a 9-6 lead. However, a full five Stinger buy let them win the eco round right after, keeping themselves in the map. That one round swung the whole momentum towards NRG, as it gave them enough money to buy an Odin for brawk, who proceeded to terrorize Cloud9 with the weapon. Cloud9 only mustered one more round before NRG punched their Champions tickets with a 13-10 map win.

Americas playoffs continue tomorrow as the remaining three teams fight for Champions seeding and the hopes of lifting the Stage 2 trophy. NRG will take on Sentinels in the lower final to decide who will challenge G2 in the grand final.