In the final game of the Masters Santiago Swiss Stage, G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #2 jawgemo Alexander Mor BABYBAY Andrej Francisty trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio leaf Nathan Orf defeated T1 T1 Korea Rank #2 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Meteor Kim Tae-oh (김태오) BuZz Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) 2-0 and moved on to the playoff stage of the first international tournament of VCT 2026.

Starting on Breeze, both teams ran their own variations of double-Duelist, which has become a standard choice on most maps at Santiago. T1 started strong with a pistol win and bonus conversion, but an early timeout from G2 turned the momentum. G2 won six rounds in a row, ending the half up 7-5.

G2 Esports converts a 2v5 round over T1 on Breeze.

Then, moving to the defense side, the protocol from G2 was clean throughout. After winning the second pistol, the only loss for G2 in the entire half was the bonus round. Both leaf and jawgemo had a great time on Breeze as G2 ended the map 13-6 to take the series lead.

Haven was next, with G2 sticking to the Chamber and Phoenix composition, but T1 threw a curveball and ran the Yoru and Iso composition that helped the team win Masters Bangkok. G2 won the pistol, fumbled the antieco, and converted round three anyway. Then, the executes from T1 started to really confuse G2, as iZu dominated on the attack side Cypher. On the opponent's map pick, T1 entered the half up 10-2.

G2 had to win the pistol to have a hope of sweeping the series, and a 2v3 win gave some hope. The bonus conversion from G2 really started to make the comeback real, forcing a timeout from T1 for the first time on Haven. The 10-2 lead quickly turned into 10-9, with T1 stumbling at the final hurdle. Up in a 1v2 situation, trent clutched to tie the game at 10-10.

trent clutches a 1v2 to tie Haven after going down 10-2.

Just like how iZu was rolling through G2 on the attack side, trent was outperforming him as the Fade in this comeback. G2 earned the lead after a tough first half, but T1 finally won its first defense round to tie it back at 11-11. T1 stopped all G2 attempts on round 23 and reached map point, but G2 forced the map to overtime.

BuZz and trent both won overtime rounds for their respective teams, but it felt like the first team that won a defense round in OT would win the map. BABYBAY secured a defense round, but T1 tied it up again. Yet, the second time G2 earned a defense round win, it was converted. G2 completed the 10-2 comeback, won Haven 16-14, and swept the series to eliminate T1 from Santiago.