Complexity dominated by FlyQuest: Shanghai Opening Stage round one recap
The Perfect World Shanghai Major is now underway and we're already through with the first round of matches.
We know that these games are at difficult times for Europeans, so we thought it would be a good idea to give you a quick recap of the games and their results.
Just look away now if you're a fnatic fan, your boys got upset by a team who was playing the map for the first time in six months.
MIBR clean against Virtus.pro
Being one of the highest ranked teams in the Opening Stage, Virtus.pro are expected to advance from the group with ease.
However, if they're going to, they'll now need to do so in the same fashion as they did in the RMR - they lost their opening game to MIBR.
A 13-7 win for the Brazilians on Ancient, only Jame went positive for VP as Insani and lucaozy combined for 37 kills.
Photo: Michal KonkolDominant T side takes GamerLegion past FURIA
GamerLegion were one of the heroes of the RMR, bouncing back from an 0-2 start to go 4-2 and qualify for the Major.
They won't have to worry about recreating that run in the Major itself, they kicked off their Shanghai campaign with a comfortable 13-8 win against FURIA.
7-5 down at the half, GamerLegion showed why they're such a strong Vertigo team as they recorded an 8-1 T side thanks to nine kills a piece from Tauson and sl3nd.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenFlyQuest batter Complexity
Anyone make the mistake of putting FlyQuest 0-3? If so, you really should have learned by now.
In all fairness, they were underdogs against Complexity, but it really didn't seem that way with how Complexity played their CT half.
11-1 down at the half, Complexity tried to fight back and picked up five T rounds, but FlyQuest's advantage proved to be too much and the Aussies took Anubis 13-6.
Photo: Michal KonkolLiquid come back against Cloud9
There's high hopes for Liquid in this Major but those high hopes almost disappeared as CLoud9 kicked off Ancient with a 9-3 CT half.
No one on Liquid was fragging in that half, but it was particularly concerning for NAF and YEKINDAR who were both restricted to just two kills each.
Liquid did warm up into the game though, they battled back to win the map 13-10 thanks to 19 CT sided kills from their AWPer, ultimate.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenBIG come out on top against Passion UA
Considering BIG qualified for the Major with a win over Passion UA, they would have been confident coming into their opener against the Ukrainian side.
They played that way, the Germans kicked off Mirage with a 9-3 lead on their CT side thanks to 12 kills a piece from JDC and syrsoN.
Passion UA held on for a while in the second half, fear was instrumental in that with 11 CT kills, but it wasn't enough and they eventually fell to a 13-9 scoreline.
Photo: Stephanie Lindgrenfnatic upset by Wildcard
Like GamerLegion, Wildcard were one of the big success stories of the RMRs. 3-0 in the Americas RMR, they continued their winning run by taking down fnatic in their opener.
The map began with a huge surprise, it was played on Mirage, which has typically been Wildcard's perma-ban.
A gamble that paid off, they won 13-11 despite blameF picking up 21 kills.
Photo: Michal KonkolThe MongolZ make light work of Rare Atom
The Asian teams in the Major kicked it off with a game against each other, but calling it a game might be a generous term.
In reality, it was a simple win for the Mongolian team, they dispatched Rare Atom with a 13-2 scoreline on Anubis.
910 was the star, he shattered the hearts of the home crowd with his 19 kills.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenpaiN comfortable against Brazilian rivals
What would a Swiss system be without a game between two Brazilian teams?
We got exactly that in the final game of round one, a Dust2 game contested between paiN and Imperial.
A map that ended up being far more one-sided than these games tend to be, it ended 13-5 thanks to 19 kills from lucaozy.