FUT Sends NRG Home
The defending world champions are out of Masters London after FUT Esports completes a 2-1 comeback to reach the playoff bracket.
NRG are eliminated. FUT Esports beat the reigning world champions 2-1 today and are through to the Masters London playoff bracket. The Swiss stage is over.
That's the sentence nobody expected to write when this bracket started.
How It Happened
NRG won Lotus 13-11. They were up 1-0, keiko was playing out of his mind (he finished the series with a 1.31 rating -- the best individual number on either side), and it still wasn't enough.
FUT came back and took the next two maps. xeus closed with 66 kills and a 1.25 rating across all three. sociablEE added 49 kills at 1.17. NRG's skuba was right there with them at 52 kills and 1.25. These teams were nearly matched statistically for long stretches. The difference was FUT kept finding rounds when it mattered and NRG kept not.
That's a hard thing to watch as an NRG fan. Your best player was the best player in the series and you still lost. Sometimes that's just how it goes.
What Comes Next
For NRG, the year isn't over. Champions in Shanghai is still out there and that's the one that actually matters for legacy. But going home in the Swiss stage at Masters as defending champions is a rough start to a defense. There are real questions about where Americas stands internationally right now with LEV already knocking them to the losers' side before FUT finished the job.
For FUT, this is remarkable. Turkish team, first international event, took down the world champs in their debut. xeus and s0pp have been scary all tournament but nobody outside of the EMEA scene was sleeping on FUT like they should have been.
The playoff bracket is set: Leviatán, Vitality, FUT, and Xi Lai Gaming join the four seeds. I'm watching every one of these.