IEM New York NA: FURIA, Liquid, EG Take the Lead

After the first two play-days of IEM New York, a few top teams start to emerge from the two groups – teams which we already know to perform from ESL Pro League.

FURIA LEADING GROUP A

The Brasilians had the privilege of completing two matches already, which obviously gave them the opportunity to gain a headstart over the other competitors. Rebirth fell in a relatively short 2-0, but Triumph mounted an actual defense.

On the first map, the Americans got into the game well and secured themselves a 9-6 half. FURIA were able to close the gap again and dragged Triumph all the way to overtime. After two overtimes, the Brasilians came out on top. Nonetheless, Paytyn “Junior” Johnson was the absolute star of the match. He managed to contest the best Brazilian Team with a 1.37 rating, even stealing the show from Yuri “yuurih” Santos. Unfortunately, the same didn’t hold true for Rahul “curry” Nemani, who wound up taking only 11 kills home.

But Triumph weren’t finished just yet. On Inferno, they got the 10-5 at halftime and ran away with the rounds on their T side. On a 16-7 scoreline, they unexpectedly sent FURIA to a third map. There, the Brazilians were much better prepared and handed Triumph a 16-8 loss. Even though FURIA have now completed almost half of their matches, this Best-of-Three has uncovered some weak spots. Evil Geniuses, for instance, only needed two maps to dispatch of Triumph and only lost 9 rounds against them.

100T, CHAOS AND LIQUID WIN OPENERS

The Opening Matches of Group weren’t all to exciting. The seeding had put the three top teams up against total underdogs, leading to some one-sided victories. 100 Thieves had a comparatively harder time beating RBG Esports, but still managed to make it a decisive win. On the first map, Nuke, the team got up to 12 points before Justin “jks” Savage sealed the deal with a 1.37 rating. After 20 rounds, Vertigo was over as well, as Aaron “AZR” Ward snatched 26 kills and a 2.12 rating.

Liquid had a similarly casual go at Team oNe. The Brasilians only managed to secure single-digit scores and Jonathan “ELiGE” Jablonowski almost got up to 50 Kills on these two short maps. Jake “Stewie2k” Yip, who surely didn’t have a hard time calling the strats in this match, also put up a solid show.

The third match of Group B was dominated by Chaos, who managed to impress even in the absence of Edgar “MarKE” Maldonado. Colin “wrath” McSweegan was recruited as a temporary replacement and was given enough freedom to let his individual prowess shine through. After two short maps, he sat on a 1.51 rating and 46 Kills.

But now, Chaos will have to face a team of a different caliber. In 100 Thieves, they meet their first tough opponent of the tournament and we will see the first tense match between top teams. With a hint of luck, Chaos might manage to get revenge for being booted off the ESL Pro League playoffs spot by 100 Thieves. Evil Geniuses will go up against the New England Whalers, hoping to get a second win on the board. This would put them right next to FURIA in the standings.