Today we lost our first two teams and saw our first two teams through the Legends Stage.
As is the way with cut-throat competition, it's always sad to say goodbye - but it's a necessary part of it.
For FURIA and 9INE, they have missed their final chance to win a CSGO Major officially - though one likely leaves with their heads held higher.
FURIA's miserable run at the Legends Stage has been cut abruptly short, which perhaps seems merciful in retrospect.
Two weak BO1 showings and a schooling at the hands of G2 leaves the Brazilians completely out of contention in disappointing fashion.
G2, on the other hand, can be happy with their showing. They felt in control from round one to the closing round, and will move on to their second elimination BO3 tomorrow.
"Feeling much better than we felt yesterday, that's for sure," huNter- told BLAST.tv through a sigh of relief.
"It went fast, honestly. It's FURIA. They played really fast."
arT won't be happy with that. He told us they don't play as fast any more.
drop wasn't happy either: "We didn't show anything in any of the games we played."
"We're trying to change our playstyle, it went well in Rio and in practice, but in this tournament we couldn't make it work."
There you go. drop said they're changing too. We didn't imagine it.
FaZe Clan were dominant as they soared past a 9INE team unable to repeat the heroics of the Challengers Stage.
FaZe flew out of the blocks into massive leads on both maps and 9INE struggled to ever recover.
ropz picked up a +22 scoreline with broky and Twistzz not too far behind - which will no doubt be an encouraging sign for anyone involved in FaZe.
ropz bemoaned a "really shit day" yesterday in his post-game chat to us but believed that in many ways, it wasn't a disaster.
"I think we play our best when our backs are against the wall and it showed today that we are all feeling good and on fire."
What amazing strategy did they cook up to get his 45 frags? "My thoughts were "don't give a fuck and shoot hard."
Can't wait to try that one out in matchmaking later.
Vitality moved to 3-0 without dropping a map as they pushed past a plucky Monte team.
Monte weren't blown away, but the star power of Zywoo and the experience of dupreeh and Magisk was too much for the underdogs to deal with.
ZywOo ends the stage with a 1.38 rating, as he basically forced Vitality into a 3-0.
"I’m just so happy to be able to play in front of a French crowd," apEX told BLAST.tv.
"I’m feeling really good, not dropping a map yet - close game for sure - but playing solid Counter-Strike. We’re going to give everything for playoffs, for sure."
It's fair to say, apEX felt extremely happy.
"Anubis... I don't know. I need to watch this. I don't know what happened," was what kRaSnaL told us.
We'll tell you what happened. Vintage Magisk happened.
Team Liquid finally lost a map after winning eight in a row as Heroic proved why they're potential tournament winners.
stavn showed up in spades to drag Heroic through some difficult rounds and move the Danes into the playoffs and give them a couple of days off.
Team Liquid will drop into the 2-1 bracket and will have two more chances to qualify.
Starting with... ah, we'll get to that...
"We know how special this is to [cadiaN], but also the whole team. Every Major is special for every team but Casper has been through a lot and everyone wants to do this for him," TeSeS told us.
How heartwarming.
"The way for us to be truly number one, and really create this era that we want, to lift trophies, to lift more trophies."
That's more like it. Fighting talk.
ENCE picked into the feared Into the Breach Vertigo and paid the ultimate price.
Well, not the ultimate price. They're still in.
ITB are a dangerous upset team and have proven once again why you cannot afford to underestimate them as they smacked ENCE around and won 16-7.
ITB will move on to face Team Liquid in a 2-1 game tomorrow, while ENCE drop to play their first of two mandatory BO3s.
"Vertigo, I think, for us, was the best thing that could've happened. If we played them multiple times on the map we would beat them multiple times on the map."
It's fair to say volt was happy with how the map veto went. That would come off as bravado if they hadn't, you know, smashed them.
"They were shooting better than us, and we went into the game like pussies", Maden told BLAST.tv.
That's, uh, a stark reminder of the emotions of the Major.
jL's rise to stardom continued as he destroyed Bad News Eagles in a 16-6 win.
Apeks are on the brink of qualification and they've got jkaem and jL to thank for a complete shutdown of the Kosovar squad.
"We knew that there was going to be duels everywhere, and we said “let’s fucking take them, and if we take them, take them together” and… yeah!"
jL enjoyed the game, it's pretty clear to see. And who can blame him? Few things are more satisfying than the aggression coming to you, and you shutting it down.
s1mple moved to the top of the ratings as NAVI outmuscled NIP 16-9.
Between the dominant sniper and a resurgent b1t, NAVI look scarier than they have done in a little while.
NIP didn't look completely out of the game, but every so often s1mple or b1t would strangle them out and let them know who's boss.
"I'm feeling that we just got outclassed" said headtr1ck to BLAST.tv. "We didn't make the right decisions, and we didn't hear each other."
Worryingly for NIP fans, that sounds quite similar to what he said after a loss yesterday.
siuhy is *really* good.
He once again took over the whole map as fnatic struggled to contain a rampaging GamerLegion T side and fell too far behind.
GamerLegion keep performing at the Major and they look like they can beat anyone on their day.
For fnatic, it was quite a flat showing.
"We're feeling good" Keoz told us, perhaps unsurprisingly. "But honestly, I don't count this win as quite as important as it seems like, because I feel like we are the better team in the end here."
It's pretty hard to argue that, after all.
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