Global brushes aside T1 to set up Grand Final rematch with Nongshim

In an already historic year, Global Esports Global Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #3 PatMen Patrick Mendoza UdoTan Go Kyung-won (고경원) Kr1stal Savva Fedorov xavi8k Xavier Juan Autumn Kale Dunne has inched closer to lifting its first VCT trophy, reaching the Stage 2 grand final, by downing T1 T1 Korea Rank #2 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Meteor Kim Tae-oh (김태오) BuZz Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철) DH Kang Dong-ho (강동호) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) in four maps in the Lower Final.

Global banned Abyss, and T1 banned Summit in the series. The match was played out on GE's Split, T1's Lotus, GE's Ascent, and T1's Haven. GE won Split 13-5, T1 won Lotus 13-10, and GE won out the remaining two maps 13-5 and 13-10.

To open the series, Global looked red-hot. With its Yoru-Raze comp on Split, GE navigated the map well on attack, historically the weaker side of the map. T1 could not get anything going early, letting up a 10-2 halftime advantage that was finished soon after a pistol, anti-eco, and bonus round win for T1.

T1 has been arguably the region's best Lotus team throughout all of Stage 2, and proved it against GE. While the three-site map has historically been attacker-sided, T1 has shown off a dominant defense on it, with GE the latest to fall victim to it. While Meteor 's Chamber continued to get wins in early engagements, GE's unorthodox comp seemed to thwart the T1 attack early, with a run of seven straight rounds building up into an 8-4 halftime lead for GE.

Once the teams switched sides, though, it was a different story. T1, as part of a sweep of both pistols on the map, had a near-flawless defense side, thanks in no small part to BuZz , who picked up 10 of his 16 kills in the second half to wrap up a 13-10 win.

After losing out on both pistols in a tight map, GE rebounded accordingly, using its Sage-Chamber comp on Ascent to craft a dominant attack side. Winning both pistols on the map, Global navigated the map well, piecing together a 10-2 attack side. After dropping the anti-eco after the second-half pistol, Global re-calibrated its economy soon after, closing out the map 13-5.

A clash of concepts took place on Haven, with T1 opting for its Neon-Yoru comp with Cypher, which it has favored since the beginning of the Play-Ins. Meanwhile, Global, in just its second Haven appearance in Stage 2, dropped the Sage-Chamber comp it used in the loss to 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) Dambi Lee Hyuk-kyu (이혁규) Ivy Park Sung-hyeon (박성현) , instead opting for Kr1stal 's Killjoy in a comp that had PatMen on Waylay for the first time since Masters London.

Starting on attack, it seemed as though T1 had things figured out after dropping the pistol. A run of five straight rounds after the anti-eco gave T1 some real momentum, but GE clawed its way back in. By halftime, honors were even at 6-6.

On GE's attack side, play was back and forth. GE won four of the opening five rounds to hit double digits first, but T1 did not go down without a fight. Fueled by iZu , T1 went on a run of three straight rounds to tie things up. Global quickly re-seized that momentum, and, at the death, down 12-10, everything was left in iZu's hands in a 1v5 clutch. While the Initiator player downed four with the spike still left to be defused, he was one kill short, falling to Autumn to close out the map 13-10.