In the first of two elimination battles between first seeds, G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #1 jawgemo Alexander Mor trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf has eliminated China's Xi Lai Gaming Xi Lai Gaming China Rank #3 Midi Zhang Jiajun (手张嘉俊) Viva Lifan Ran (冉立凡) Rarga Arthur Churyumov happywei Deng Minwei (邓闵维) coconut Colin Patrick Chung (钟弘祖) , making quick work of them with a 2-0 sweep.

The matchup between the pair of Ascension teams also guaranteed the American squad's qualification for Champions 2025 through championship points, securing their survival in VCT for one more year.

The series played out on Xi Lai's Icebox, and G2's Haven, leaving the decider map of Pearl unnecessary. G2 won Icebox 13-3, and Haven 13-8.

Xi Lai's pick of Icebox was a relatively surprising one. Throughout their nine-game, trophy-lifting China Stage 1 run, the map was played just two times, banned by themselves or opponents a total of six times. G2 has historically been known to run a zero Duelist team comp on Icebox featuring jawgemo on Gekko. This match was their first time on the map since the Tejo nerfs, and that incited a change, seeing the team switch to a double Controller, double Sentinel comp that put jawgemo on Sage.

G2 elected to start the historically attacker-sided map on defense, giving star Duelist Rarga an opportunity to heat up after a disappointing showing against Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #2 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid .

Xi Lai started slowly in their opening match, and a win against G2's would-be bonus seemed to show a sign of changing times. However, that win would be Xi Lai's only for the next eight rounds. G2, riding a hot hand from leaf , started the match with a 10-1 lead. While Xi Lai would claw back a round to end the half, the match was as good as over. leaf ended his defense half with a map-high 17 kills.

A pistol round victory for Xi Lai would have been the first step in a near-impossible comeback, but a trademark G2 buy featuring three Stingers tore the anti-eco apart. G2 would not look back from there, closing out the map 13-3.

Battle Sage jawgemo rolls for three to help close the map out.

The series moved to Haven, a map on which G2 was 6-3 on in 2025. While G2 opted for the double Controller comp pairing of Omen and Viper, that's become popular on the map in recent times, Xi Lai went for a double Initiator comp of Breach and Sova.

Xi Lai converted the opening pistol and anti-eco rounds to open the map, this time not met with any Stingers, but again would be met with a stronger punch back. G2 would again roll on defense, winning six straight rounds to claim a 6-2 lead. Xi Lai did convert three of the last four rounds, including a flashy Rarga ace on a save round, but moving over to the defender side of the attacker-leaning side of the map, trailing 7-5, was cause for concern again.

After giving up the pistol and anti-eco rounds, G2's bonus was a must-win for Xi Lai. While four guns were dropped at the end of his team's bonus round, leaf converted a 1v1 against Viva to reach 10 rounds and destroy XLG's economy. The Chinese squad put up a valiant effort with a buy of four Sheriffs and one Stinger, leaving leaf and Viva again as the last two standing, with the outcome the same as the round before.

Ice cold leaf.

The round forced a timeout from XLG head coach hvoya , which did result in his squad finding its footing. They picked up three straight rounds, forcing a timeout from G2 head coach JoshRT right as his team's economy had recovered for a full-buy.

After recalibrating with their coach and being able to afford a proper buy, G2 won the final two rounds, with the ultimate match-winner coming in flawless fashion.

Xi Lai leaves Toronto with more questions than answers. After dominating in the regional circuit, an unexpected change to their roster forced them to make an adjustment, one that saw the team never quite play the same. Meanwhile, G2 finishes the first step of its lower bracket run, awaiting the loser of the Wolves Esports Wolves Esports China Rank #1 SiuFatBB Pong Gaa Hei (庞加曦) Yuicaw Huang Yung-chieh (黃湧傑) Spring Liu Jiunting (刘俊霆) Lysoar Liang Youhao (梁优好) Juicy Tyler James Aeria and Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #1 Foxy9 Jung Jae-sung (정재성) Ash Ha Hyun-cheol (하현철) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) Suggest Seo Jae-young (서재영) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) match.