Gentle Mates deconstructs EDG to start Swiss at Santiago

In the debut match of Masters Santiago, Gentle Mates Gentle Mates Europe Rank #7 starxo Patryk Kopczynski bipo Taranvir Singh marteen Martin Pátek GLYPH Conner Garcia Minny Patrik Hušek defeated EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #2 ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) cb Wang Qingchuan (王庆川) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) 2-0, settling the first victor and loser of the initial international tournament in VCT 2026.

Chile first saw Haven, with EDG running Chamber and Neon on its map pick, as M8s ran double-Duelist with Neon and Yoru. ZmjjKK earned the first kill of the tournament with a trap play in garage, as EDG won the first pistol. M8s played slowly and converted the eco after, shifting the economy quickly. A strong retake from EDG tied the game at 2-2, but M8s stepped up to take the early lead. EDG used its first timeout down 4-2, and despite taking some time, ZmjjKK styled on the Operator to save the half from disaster. M8s entered the half up 8-4.

The reads from M8s were dominant, setting up two different trap plays to win the second pistol. Reaching double-digit rounds, M8s just needed to prevent an EDG comeback to earn the first map of Santiago. EDG won a flawless round to stop the bonus conversion from M8s and started clawing back round wins. The confidence from EDG was sky high as the game reached a 10-10 tie, but M8s finally stopped the bleeding with a chaotic round win on round 21. M8s fought tooth and nail, ending the map 13-11 to prevent overtime and take the series lead.

Pearl was next, as M8s chose the map and ran more double-Duelist, forcing EDG to match it. EDG won the first pistol, with ZmjjKK retaining his form from map one even after moving to Neon. M8s prevented the bonus round win, but lost multiple early thrifty rounds soon after. The first half was scrappy, as the game reached a 6-6 tie at the half.

EDG managed to win the second pistol, but lost the antieco for the second time in the series. M8s once again read all the EDG plays and dominated the defense side, winning the map 13-7 and the series 2-0.

With this win, Gentle Mates earn the first win of the Swiss Stage at Masters Santiago, while EDG ends up with the first loss. The two teams will face a team with the same record as them in the near future to continue the Swiss Stage.