T1 is the VCT Masters Bangkok champion after beating G2 Esports 3-2 in the grand finals.
T1 spent most of the match on their backfoot, as G2 opened the match with a 13-5 win on Lotus. The Korean team kept G2 in check with a 13-9 on Haven, but let a comeback slip through on Abyss, which G2 used to take a 13-11 win.
T1 outlasted G2 during the Split overtime, which they won 15-13, and ultimately took the crown with a sweaty 16-14 victory on Pearl.
In a game as competitive as Valorant, it's hard to forget several historic wins snatched from the jaws of defeat. Many recall FNATIC's win over LOUD at LOCK//IN, or DRX's reverse sweep against Paper Rex in last year's Pacific Stage 2.
But none of them were shaped the way T1's win over G2 Esports was.
G2 and T1 are two different beasts. They are regional titans, a title they bled to earn, but barely have any grand finals experience. In fact, of the 10 players in the server, only two — Meteor and jawgemo — had reached an international final prior to today.
The result was an incredibly emotional grand final that elicited chaos throughout the match. T1, especially, had to keep their emotions in check after spending most of the match on their backfoot. T1 started out with a huge disadvantage, as G2 won Lotus 13-4.
“I think we were honestly pretty level-headed. Even in the moment, we knew our win conditions, we understood how to play the rounds out. It's hard to say because everyone's so fresh off the loss,” valyn said. “We were so locked in, we were so focused, that I think we were just in flow state.”
Coach JoshRT said he was expecting “a counter-punch right back on Haven,” and T1 delivered. The Koreans took the second map with a 13-9, and actually seemed to be on track to reach match point with an early 7-1 run on Abyss.
But it wasn't meant to be. An iconic moment from jawgemo saw him clutch against four, paving the way for a G2 victory and tournament point, which they doubled down on by going 8-4 up on Split.
T1 held strong, though, and found a second win to push the map to overtime, where T1 won 15-13. It was the hardest mountain they'd had to climb at Bangkok, but the match was far from over. Pearl was still next.
T1 carried all of their Split momentum over to Pearl, opening the map with a 4-1 lead. In the sixth round, BuZz came out swinging into mid and quickly 4K'd with Neon's Overdrive ultimate. The next few rounds were all T1, but G2 kept their opponent on a leash. Five retakes in a row flipped the match from a 9-6 deficit to an 11-9 advantage for G2. It was going to take a hero moment to stop them dead in their tracks.
A much-needed hero moment appeared at this moment. G2 seemed set for a sixth-straight retake, but stax was still alive and hidden behind B Long's pillar. There was a small gap through which he could barely see trent's Sova's model.
It was enough to pepper away at G2's initiator and, in one of the most unlikely rounds, steal a win that kept his team alive. Shortly after, Meteor single-handedly mauled three of G2's players to push the map to overtime.
Pearl's overtime was the longest of the final, but it went by in a flash. In a match whose latter stages were so dominated by emotion and individual play, the final round win from T1 was structured. Everyone swung at the right place, at the right time, to find their own kill, and win the match.
It was the culmination of so many years of effort for BuZz and stax, who immediately leapt from their chairs and hugged, cried — screamed — at the reality of finally winning a trophy after nearly four years together. Just behind them, Sylvan and Meteor were also hugging in celebration.
“Right before the game ended, I saw BuZz almost losing it, being too exhausted. I was wishing ‘oh my god please cry, please cry, please cry BuZz' but he didn't,” stax said. “I went and hugged him. I don't know. Even yesterday, before coming into today's grand final, I knew that we had what it takes.”
“It was definitely a special moment. Being able to do this with stax, because we've been playing together for so long, it really adds to how special this moment is,” BuZz added. “I had a lot of ups and downs, a lot of tough times. But I would tell [past me] to just keep pushing. There's always a light at the end of the tunnel, so pick yourself up when you fall and keep going forward. You'll get there.”
For Meteor, it's also a landmark win. This trophy makes him one of just eight players — alongside TenZ, Sacy, and the 2023 FNATIC roster — to have two international wins. It also means he is the only player in the Pacific to hold this honor, all while being nominated the Masters Bangkok MVP by the broadcast, a reward he himself didn't expect.
“Definitely feels great to be part of history,” Meteor said of being one of those eight players. “It means a lot that I was able to do this with my teammates sitting next to me right now. Being able to do this on a new team, I think, will allow me to stay humble and keep trying my best.”
He tied with stax in terms of rating amongst the T1 players, with a 1.00 rating across the final. Meteor's only standout statistic was actually first kills: he racked up 18 across the five maps, second only to BuZz's 19. Across the tournament, he actually stood out for his total kills, second only to teammate BuZz with 366 frags.
Meteor dropped his best performance on Split. Wielding Viper, he was the best in the server with a 1.38 rating across 30 kills and over 200 ACS, as well as nine multikills and two clutches, all while tying for the most first kills (five).
jawgemo sits pretty atop the G2 scoreboard, with some of the best numbers of the match. He racked up the highest rating (1.19), ACS (243), KAST (78%), ADR (160), kill differential (+14) and the most kills (103) of the grand final by one-tricking Yoru for its entirety.
A few steps down was valyn, who looked the most distraught at the press conference, sitting down with his head in his hands. When asked about the silver lining, valyn let out an emotional, but motivating answer.
“I think that was some of the best resilience I've ever seen out of my team, honestly,” he started. “I told them earlier: the life of a competitor is the hardest thing ever, man. You go through the lowest lows and you also reach the highest highs with the team you have. There's no life without losses in everything you do, so I told them: ‘what's a life of only winning? We never wanted that.'”
“I wish I could show them how much my team means to me, because I wouldn't want it any other way. All the hard shit we've been through, man, you guys make life everyday so fun. It's alright we lost, I'm already coming to terms with it because, fuck it bro, we're gonna win the next one 100%. Sorry, I'm rambling a little bit, but it's tough. It happens, you know? We'll win the next one.”
For G2, it's time to go home. There is still a lot of VCT action this year with two stages of league play and two more international tournaments. They already showed they are one of the best teams in the world; this loss won't undo their run at all.
“We always bounce back. That's the team identity. We're resilient, we embody a fighter's mentality and, like [valyn] said, life isn't without losses,” coach JoshRT said. “This program was built on making sure we were always building up to something, no matter what the goal is. We can always move the goalposts.”
“There's steps to this sometimes. We were losing regional finals twice, and we won one. We just got to an international final finally, right? What's gonna happen next?” He continued. “We should be pretty optimistic about this so, yeah, of course we're gonna bounce back.”
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