The first decider match of Champions Shanghai has concluded. G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #4 jawgemo Alexander Mor BABYBAY Andrej Francisty trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio leaf Nathan Orf eliminated Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #8 nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin GSR Ognjen Bondžić kamo Kamil Frąckowiak trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Kicks Kimmie Laasner , marking the EMEA team's sixth straight group stage knockout at an international event.

The match started on TL's pick of Split. In the defense-sided map, TL showed their expertise on the attack side. A quick 3K by Kicks shut down G2's retake and led to a quick 2-0 lead. G2 converted the third round, but the two teams would trade the next three rounds, as the score reached 4-2. kamo 's 5-1 FK/FD on Raze helped TL capture a 7-5 lead on the attack side of Split.

The future looked bright for TL as the squad racked up another pistol round with a GSR 3K. A patented G2 Stinger force failed to convert the second round, but a thrifty round with heroics by BABYBAY looked to start momentum for G2.

And that it did. After the thrifty round, TL went on to win one round in the entire half. A second half filled with a trent 1v1, valyn 's masterful calling, and another 1v1 clutch by valyn helped G2 steal Liquid's map pick of Split.

Abyss followed up, with G2 picking the map. Both squads opted for a double-Duelist comp, with the only difference being leaf 's Astra, the Cypher of nAts , jawgemo 's Neon, and GSR 's Yoru. The Sentinel seemed the right choice for Liquid. The EMEA second seed stuffed three straight attacks to take a quick 3-0 lead. G2 finally converted two post-plants on the A and B sites to clap back with two rounds of their own before TL responded.

G2 finally found their rhythm as they did in the second half of Split. The North American org stole six straight rounds. Crucial picks and clutches by trent and BABYBAY helped G2 take an 8-4 lead as they switched to defense.

A G2 pistol round win looked to write the final chapter for TL's run at Shanghai. But a crucial kamo 1v1 against valyn sparked hope for Liquid, keeping them in the game as they would also win the next round.

This series featured a pattern of Liquid stopping the bleeding, but G2 ripping open the bandage. In the last five rounds of the game, the Waylay and Neon entries of BABYBAY and jawgemo proved overwhelming for Liquid. Even with nAts on the Sentinel, the utility wasn't enough to slow G2 down. Relentless site hits helped G2 close out Abyss and eliminate Team Liquid from Champions Shanghai.

trent took no prisoners on Split and Abyss. The Initiator main posted a 41/26/12 KDA and a server-high 1.34 rating across the series. For Team Liquid, the EMEA squad can't break the 1-2 group stage curse at international events, ending their run at Champions Shanghai.

G2 now advance to the playoffs, one step closer to the international trophy that has escaped them for years.

From the Press Room

TL GSR on his international stage debut: “Not happy. My main goal was to just find myself on the stage. I don't think I was able to do that. I don't know. Something was wrong, and I wasn't myself. I'll try to make up for it next time.”

G2 BABYBAY on the team's group stage journey: “It was a good one, it was crazy. Going into the tournament, we were like, ‘We just need to beat TYLOO TYLOO China Rank #1 splash Moses Christophe Jonathan Scales Zhang Zhen (张震) Erv Shen Zhiwei slowly Kelun Sun (孙科伦) SiuFatBB Pong Gaa Hei (庞加曦) xihe Peng Wenbo (彭文博) and then we feel like we can win it all.' I think that still stands. We gave an extremely hard fight to Paper Rex, and this one felt different. It felt like we were more ready for them than we were in the past. Going into the Liquid game, we've always been a team that's bounced back from losses. They put up a good fight, but overall I'm really happy with the group stage that we had.”

Up Next

The final deciding group stage matches at Champs continues this weekend.

Karmine Corp vs. Nongshim RedForce (Group D decider)

LOUD vs. Global Esports (Group B decider)

FUT Esports vs. T1 (Group A decider)