Even with a slightly different squad, NRG NRG North America Rank #2 keiko Georgio Sanassy brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch skuba Logan Jenkins Ethan Ethan Arnold might be truly back to Champs form. In the first match of the Champions Shanghai playoffs, NRG swept 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) 2-0 to move on to the upper bracket and send T1 to lowers.

T1's first map pick of Lotus didn't go as planned, with a close 13-11 loss to put NRG ahead. Summit started close, but the second half was all NRG as the Americas squad took the map 13-7 and the series 2-0.

Lotus had been T1's trademark map through Pacific Stage 2. A Chamber-centric, Omen-Viper comp with BuZz 's Neon as the lone Duelist seemed to have the answer for every Pacific team that came T1's way. In the group stage, T1 had a shaky showing on the map against JD Gaming JD Gaming China Rank #7 jkuro Yong Haochong (杨浩聪) zhe Niu Zhe (牛哲) Yuicaw Huang Yung-chieh (黃湧傑) crownfisher Li Ao (李翱) BerLIN Zhang Bolin (張柏霖) , coming back from down 11-6 to claim a narrow victory over the Chinese squad. Despite only playing it three times in Americas Stage 2, NRG proved that its Lotus was nothing to bark at, either.

Early on, it looked like T1 had the upper hand. The Korean squad has historically been stronger on defense than on attack on the map, and wrapped up its attack side leading 7-5. However, T1 seemed to have trouble going up against NRG's Vyse comp. Despite winning both pistols, T1 failed to keep up the pace, at one point dropping six straight before losing 13-11. brawk seemed unkillable on Lotus, dropping a map-high rating of 1.35 with an 18/12 scoreline while mada paced the lobby in kills with 21. Despite going 0-for-3 on his Showstoppers, mada and NRG did just enough to nudge T1 aside and claim the win on Lotus.

A composed keiko shuts down the late T1 low buy.

While T1 entered Shanghai as one of the world's best Lotus teams, NRG had a claim to be one of the world's best Summit teams. The team had paved its own way through Americas, settling on a KAY/O-Sova double-Initiator look with keiko's Brimstone as the lone Controller. After hitting below expectations in the group stage, T1 came out with a tweaked comp on the map, continuing with the Sage-Chamber double-Sentinel but swapping out stax 's Omen for Harbor.

Unfortunately for T1, the result was about the same. Despite BuZz and Meteor combining for 24 kills on attack, T1 was unable to enter halftime with an advantage. Early on, it seemed like T1's game, that was until a well-timed timeout from bonkar turned the tide.

What seemed like a half in which T1 might go contact-heavy and find the gaps in the NRG defense turned into a half in which NRG dictated the tempo. The delay-heavy comp, with KAY/O's FRAG/ment, Brimstone's Incendiary, Sova's Shock Darts, and Cypher's full setup, frustrated T1, at times making them look uncoordinated with the timings of split pushes.

On attack, NRG was smooth. Despite giving up T1's third pistol of the series, NRG could do no wrong, working both extremities of the map and capitalizing on some moments where the T1 players simply didn't look ready. After T1's anti-eco, NRG found six straight rounds to run away with the map and the series.

NRG remains undefeated on Summit.

brawk was the standout performer in the series, with his 1.46 rating and 39 kills both match-high marks, while mada and keiko were close behind with 36 and 34. BuZz and Meteor dropped 33 and 30, which were not enough in the losing effort.

NRG moves on to the Upper Semifinals, awaiting the winning team between Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 invy Adrian Jiggs Reyes Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov and LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #1 lukxo Lucca Travaioli DaviH David Cruz Darker Sebastián Castro Cicuamia erde Roberto Lobos tkzin Enzo Zimiani loan , while T1 will take on the losing team in the lower bracket.

From the Press Room

NRG mada on his "unorthodox" Duelist approach: "I think that's just how my brain works. I just kind of do what I think is right. And I mean, they joke about it in practice a lot where it's like they say I'm very unorthodox, which I take as a compliment. I think it's a good thing to be a unique player."

NRG Ethan on the team's ability to play from behind: "Everyone on our team is very good at problem solving. That's not a strength that a lot of teams have with all their players, and I think that's something that helps us. I think once we go down, we're able to problem-solve and adapt very quickly, especially with the help of coaches and timeouts. Um, and just mental resiliency as well."

T1 KDG on Summit: "It's not so much an issue, but from what I felt, the opponent played well. The opponent adjusted well, I think. As a result, there were peeking situations where we could have won if we had taken them. Because we lost those, if we had won those, we would have easily won the game. But because we lost, we were reversed in a situation where we were favorable, so that is actually a matter of results, and I just find it a pity."

Up Next

VCT Champions Shanghai will continue with the following matches: