The South Korean esports juggernaut adds another trophy to their ever growing collection.
Thailand bore witness to the rise of another potential superteam as South Korea’s very own T1 became the Masters Bangkok Champions. They faced America’s G2 Esports at the UOB Live in one of the closest grand finals to date.
Coming into the tournament, many were eyeing DRX, another South Korean powerhouse, to become the Masters Bangkok champions. They defeated T1 in a close 3-2 in the VCT Pacific Kickoff tournament to enter Masters as the first seed. T1, however, had other plans and would get their revenge as they were the ones who knocked DRX out of the tournament on the Swiss stage.
From there, T1 would slowly gain momentum as they advanced through playoffs. While they did lose to EDward Gaming in the upper bracket semifinals they would once again get their revenge. They would meet the 2024 world champions at the lower bracket finals and defeat them 3-1 in a massive upset.
Facing them in the grand finals, however, was G2, another favourite to become Masters Bangkok champions. They looked nigh undefeatable in the VCT Americas Kickoff and were in championship-winning form as they entered playoffs. They 2-0’d both EMEA’s first seed, Team Vitality, and EDG to get to the grand finals so T1 had their work cut out for them.
Proving that grit and tenacity can win championships, T1 would take it to G2 in a nail-bitingly close final. It was a match measured in inches and won by slight margins as both teams perfectly matched against each other. Three of the five matches even went into overtime but in the end, it was T1 raising the Master Bangkok trophy after defeating G2 3-2.
Banner photo by Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games.