While Natus Vincere and Complexity took some time to get their wins in Group A, Heroic and G2 Esports got theirs easily in Group B. FaZe and MIBR in particular are looking to regroup following weak outings today.
NAVI 2-1 MOUSESPORTS
The day started off with a banger match, as Natus Vincere and mousesports were both looking to redeem themselves after weak performances at recent events. On Nuke, Robin “ropz” Kool reeled in the big kills for his team. The player broke the 30 kills mark and with his Deagle shots, he helped to secure crucial force-buy rounds. With a 16-10 victory, mouz were looking great going into the second map.
NaVi, however, didn’t want to let go of the game this easily. On Train, Denis “electronic” Sharipov and Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev teamed up to create a huge lead for their team early on. While mouz did manage to get up to 7 rounds at half time, this wasn’t nearly enough to help them survive their T side. Natus Vincere quickly ran away with the map victory, sending the two teams onto Dust2 next.
On Dust2, Egor “flamie” Vasyliev and s1mple had a field day. They shut down mouz’s every move and as soon as they got onto the T side, they steamrolled towards victory. A 7-16 loss spelled the end of mousesports’ Upper Bracket journey.
Complexity 2-0 MAD Lions
The Lions took quite a gamble in adding Pawel “innocent” Mocek to their Danish-speaking roster. Until now, the move has unfortunately not panned out as they intended. The team showed severe deficits in their match with Complexity, who showed no remorse on the first map. On Overpass, they ran away with a 16-3 victory.
There, innocent was actually the top performers for the Danish side. He continued to display a strong performance on Nuke, where the two teams bitterly fought until overtime. There, Complexity took quite a few rounds to finally deliver the match victory on a 22-20 scoreline. In both games, Valentin “poizon” Vasilev sat on top of the scoreboard. The Bulgarian ended the match with 65 kills and an impressive 104 ADR.
HEROIC 2-0 FAZE
The international super-team isn’t ready for primetime competition just yet. Signing Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye to the roster just days ago has given them very little time to work with. So far, the player seems to fit right into the squad – in the sense that he underperformed just as much as the rest of the lineup today.
Only Helvijs “broky” Saukants was able to really hold his own with a 1.12 rating, but obviously that’s not enough to win against a skilled team. Marcelo “coldzera” David was the worst offender, netting just 26 kills over the course of two maps. Heroic’s 16-10 and 16-9 victories on Nuke and Mirage sent FaZe down to the Lower Bracket.
G2 2-0 MIBR
This really wasn’t a great day for Brazilian Counter-Strike. After coldzera had struggled so much against the Danish prowess of Heroic, MIBR completely faltered against G2. To call it anything else than a blowout performance would be a misstatement. In total, MIBR got 6 rounds over two maps.
There’s no point in going into detail here. Nemanja “nexa” Isaković ruled the match with an impressive 1.74 rating, whereas MIBR’s newest addition, Alencar “trk” Rossato, scored an abysmal 0.32 rating.
They will have a shot at redemption soon, although their chances against FaZe Clan aren’t looking too good following this crushing defeat. Mousesports will square off against MAD Lions in Group A’s Losers’ Match. Meanwhile, Natus Vincere will clash with Complexity and Heroic will duel G2 Esports for playoffs spots in this ESL One Cologne rendition.
