GenG take down Aspas to secure their first Masters Shanghai win

The second day of VCT Masters Shanghai kicked off with the Pacific second seed taking on the Americas Superteam.

The fixture pitted two exceptionally strong duelists against each other in aspas and t3xture. Likely the best game of the opening Swiss stage, the game extended to three maps and some strong showings from both the duelists.

Gen.G 2-1 Leviatan

The map veto had Leviatán banning Ascent and Split followed by Gen.G banning Sunset and Bind. The game started on Icebox, Leviatan’s map choice.

Starting on attack, they dismantled the Gen.G defense taking an early lead in the game. Gen.G did come back towards the end to close the first half 5-7.

On Leviatán’s defense, they shutdown Gen.G hard, closing the first map 13-7 and going 1-0 up in the series.

Talking about the map loss, Gen.G’s IGL Munchkin said:

I still think that we have a pretty strong Icebox, but I think it had to do with us adjusting to the circumstances of the new stage here.

And also, Leviatan had a lot of good individual performances. So, I think that's why we struggled on that map.

Gen.G came back stronger on Lotus. Despite a struggling start, they concluded the half with a two-round lead. In the second half, GenG dominated their opposition, winning the map 13-5, forcing a third map.

On Breeze, Gen.G were completely dominated by Leviatan, securing a strong 8-4 scoreline. They comfortably converted the lead to a strong 13 -7 scoreline, winning the series 2-1.

Talking about facing Leviatan and aspas, t3xture said:

Well, coming into today, I knew Aspas was good. And today, he was indeed very, very good. I don't know how he managed to farm up those kills, but somehow he managed to. 

But at the end of the day, Valorant is a five-person game and team to team, I thought we were a better team. 

Even before the match started, I thought we could be a stronger team versus Leviatán. I just had full faith in my teammates and it was definitely a good experience going up against them.

Despite the loss, aspas had a tremendous performance on the map, when asked about facing Gen.G and t3xture, he said:

I think it was a pretty hard game. It was close.

We got the first map, we lost the 2nd and 3rd, but it was a lot of close rounds and they are a really good team. 

They already played Masters Madrid as well. They got second place, they played the Pacific and got second place as well.

So they are a really good team and it was a good match. So now we're gonna prepare for the next match tomorrow.

Talking about the loss, Leviatan coach Goked said:

I think it was a lot of close rounds, you know, and they can go either way. If those rounds or those advantages had gone our way a bit more, it could have been a 2-0, 2-1 for us. 

So, you know, we just need to get a bit cleaner in those situations. Some of them we can get a bit cleaner, and some of them were unlucky. We just need to really look at those and hope to do them slightly better tomorrow. Overall, it was a pretty close situation, so we need to really grab that for tomorrow and it will be good.

Replying to Goked’s statement, Munchkin said:

So that's the way Lev wants to look at it. Ok. I guess they were the unluckier ones, but I feel like the next time we face them, if we ever get to play them again, they're still going to be the unlucky ones.

The VCT Masters Shanghai action continues tomorrow with the Swiss Stage 1-0 bracket.

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Featured Image Credits: David Lee/Riot Games

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