The CS:GO Major never ceases to amaze and surprise in equal quantity, and this one is of course, no different. We're only on day two of the final Major of the game's history and we have already lost one of the cornerstone organisations throughout those eleven years, while ENCE powered past FaZe in the upper bracket.
We almost lost a second, as Team Liquid survived a scare and put Fluxo away in map three.
We can't wait to find out what the rest of Paris will bestow upon us.
G2 were once again largely untroubled as they put to bed any lingering doubts around their level coming into the event.
While Apeks have shown plenty to suggest they can exist in the top tier at this event, G2 made them look ordinary, stealing away Apeks' Anubis curveball and punishing them on their own Inferno 16-3.
Star of the show was jks, who averaged over 100 ADR and boasted 44 kills in 46 rounds, closely followed by the inevitable NiKo.
HooXi, clearly au fait with the French climate, was overjoyed with the second map. "It was a bit of a walk in the park in the second map so it feels good not having to sweat too much."
There wasn't much sweating going on today, let's say.
Meanwhile, ENCE pulled off a huge victory by picking off FaZe, who will be desperate to avoid another 2-0 > 2-3 situation.
FaZe took their own pick of Overpass convincingly, while ENCE returned the favour on Nuke, thanks to a timely step-up from Maden. Maden had been quiet in other games, but was unstoppable on Nuke.
The series came down to Anubis, and despite a close first half ending with eight rounds for ENCE, a smooth T side saw them quickly double their tally and hit 16 in just 9 T side rounds.
Maden's reward for this performance? A trip to Disneyland. No, seriously. He claims it was the "main motivation to go 3-0 and get the off days".
Not the peace of mind of qualification, it was to see Mickey Mouse and friends.
To each their own, we suppose.
RobbaN, meanwhile, was making no excuses, but seemed relaxed about FaZe's chances. "The maps were fine, we kinda expected the maps as well, I feel like it's in our hands to step up tomorrow."
After a gruelling first day, four teams found themselves staring down the ignominy of an 0-3 failure.
One of those teams was GamerLegion, who were the surprise package last time round but this time, reality had come crashing down. A tough draw against MOUZ - whom two of their players had previously represented - made the outlook even harder.
That didn't cause them any issues, though, as they swiftly picked up revenge on MOUZ and eliminated them in two.
A dominant performance from acoR contrasted well against the weaker one of the incumbent torzsi, who struggled to match his counterpart.
"Today we showed up finally, not like yesterday" said a buoyant siuhy, who was happy they showed a "completely different version" of the team today, while Sycrone was far more dejected.
"We came to the conclusion after Rio that we really needed to push our map pool, our tactics, our individual level to a much higher place... I think we did that, I think we put in good effort, it just wasn't enough, at all."
Team Liquid came within inches of elimination in their 3-0 game after losing map one to Fluxo, but held firm and denied the upset to at least see one more day in Paris.
"We expected every game to be difficult, you know, with the state that we started off in," uttered NAF through a deep sigh of relief, "they still played really well, and, yeah, we just played better at the end of the day".
For Fluxo, this does mean the end for them, but they can take some solace in their performance in this game, even if the rest of the event wasn't quite what they had hoped for.
paiN blew past Complexity with consummate ease, to leave the North of America below the South. Complexity got nothign going, while the paiN triple threat took over the whole of Nuke.
Grayhound moved to the 2-1 bracket after beating fellow Asian RMR qualifiers TheMongolz thanks to a superb showing from INS - and it wasn't even on Inferno. INS claims his "team are just playing good Counter-Strike" and he's just "taking his own space".
Turns out that's why we don't play well. Our team just don't play good Counter-Strike.
FORZE smashed Monte on the T side of Ancient to move one game from elimination, while NIP pulled off a huge comeback to recover against OG, much to the chagrin of niko, who felt "destroyed"
"We had a good T side and we didn’t pick it up on CT side. So… yeah, I don’t know. We’ll have to go home and look at stuff and talk it through."
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