Version1 came out on top of a close battle between North America and Japan’s VCT Masters Two representatives.
Version1 swept Crazy Raccoon in today’s play-in match and move on to the upper quarterfinals of VCT Masters Two Reykjavík. But their road to the finals won’t be easy with EU stars Team Liquid up next.
Ascent, the series’ first map, was a tight back-and-forth that ultimately went in Version1’s favor, 13-11. The North American team won three of the last four rounds to secure the victory, but it definitely went down to the wire. In the match’s final round, Crazy Raccoon’s An “Medusa” Min-cheol stormed onto the A site with a Bulldog to try and save the game. The Korean pro claimed two kills before sticking the defuse. But a 16-health Jamal “jammyz” Bangash peeked at the last second to take out Medusa and win game one.
The second map was also close, but Version1 took Icebox 13-10.
In terms of agent compositions, neither team departed much from the norm. Both squads ran a double-duelist comp on each map, sprinkling in initiators, sentinels, and controllers to supplement the carries. While Astra got picked by both teams on Ascent, Omen was the smoker of choice on Icebox.
Version1 hit a small bump in the road after Maxim “wippie” Shepelev was forced to sit out of Masters Two due to visa issues. Jammyz has played well as wippie’s stand-in, despite having little time to practice with the team. But the team’s true test comes tomorrow where Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom and crew look to settle the NA vs. EU debate. Sentinels, the NA favorite of the competition, will also take on an EU squad in Fnatic tomorrow.
After this play-in loss, Crazy Raccoon will drop to the lower bracket and take on the loser from tomorrow’s X10 Esports vs. Team Vikings match on May 26. Version1 will go head-to-head with Team Liquid tomorrow at 12:30pm CT.
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