In the second match between early Swiss Stage victors at 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 Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #8 purp0 Semyon Borchev wayne Wayne Chang MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin kamo Kamil Frąckowiak 2-0 and earned the second playoff slot available via Swiss so far. This all-EMEA matchup was formed after the original draw was done incorrectly, resulting in the first regional matchup in Santiago.

Starting on Pearl, Team Liquid chose Harbor for the first time this event alongside a double-Duelist comp, while M8s simply matched the double-Duelist. Liquid won the first pistol and, despite losing the bonus round, showed skill in its B-site executes. It took until round 8 for M8s to properly adjust, with starxo and marteen leading a comeback in the half. In what seemed like a dominant start for Liquid, M8s pulled the half back to 6-6.

M8s won the second pistol, even as nAts nearly converted a 1v3 clutch. Liquid stopped the bonus round conversion and tied the game 8-8 soon after. The retakes from Liquid looked just as clean as the executes that started the map, taking a late lead. Both MiniBoo and purp0 stepped up and forced a timeout from M8s, but starxo pulled M8s back with an ever-important all-Polish 1v1 clutch, reaching 10-10.

Minny lands the hardest possible piece of utility right on the head of an opponent.

A flawless round just after earned M8s that edge at the end of the map, and prevented overtime with a 13-11 map victory on Pearl.

Moving to Bind, where both teams have shown skill, both teams continued running variations of double-Duelist. M8s took the first pistol and converted the bonus to start the map off strong. Just as it looked like Liquid could stop the bleeding, marteen won a big 1v2 clutch to keep the pressure on.

marteen wins a big 1v2 clutch over Team Liquid.

The aggressive strategies from Liquid turned into desperation, managing to earn its first round win on round 9. M8s entered the half up 10-2, in complete control, and Liquid needed a miracle to come back.

Liquid barely secured the second pistol, but M8s stole its eco round and prevented Liquid from even taking a breath. Reaching series point on round 15, it was only a matter of time for M8s. In this all-EMEA matchup, the new blood in Gentle Mates won Bind 13-3 to sweep the series and qualify for the Masters Santiago playoffs.

With this loss, Team Liquid will face one of the victors of the next two matches for a final shot at the Masters Santiago playoffs.