Filling Out My Masters London Bracket
Every playoff pick through the grand final: a FUT upset, a Vitality lower bracket run, and Paper Rex finally lifting one.
Paper Rex win Masters London. I've flipped this bracket around all week and I keep landing in the same place: the team NONGSHIM cooked 3-0 in the Santiago final is still the best team in this field, and NONGSHIM isn't here.
The Upper Bracket
G2 over XLG and PRX over LEV are the comfortable picks. LEV worry me a little. They put NRG in the losers' bracket and went 2-0 through Swiss. But PRX are 19-6 on the year and they've been here before.
EDG vs FUT is my upset pick, except I'm not sure it counts as an upset anymore. Is the team that just sent the world champions home really a worse bet than an EDG side that finished 11th in Santiago? I watched xeus drop 66 kills on NRG yesterday. FUT 2-1.
Heretics vs Vitality is the EMEA grand final rematch, and Heretics won that one 3-2 three weeks ago. I'm flipping it. Heretics took the bye and arrive cold. Vitality went 2-0 through Swiss with the best map differential in the stage, and I already said it in the hot takes: they look like the only team here that scrimmed real comps. Vitality 2-1.
The Bottom Half
This is where I'm probably wrong, and I'll say it once: the lower bracket is chaos and every one of these picks can die on day one. I've got LEV ending FUT's fairytale, Vitality grinding all the way to the lower final, and G2 stopping them there 3-1.
The Final
PRX vs G2, PRX in five. G2 took fourth in Santiago and the gap has closed. But Jinggg and f0rsakeN in a bo5, with three months of that 3-0 sitting in their throats? PRX lift it.
Book it.