Photo Credit: HLTV
The matches for the first day of the CS:GO major went about as expected except for one major upset. Still, it was a day of exciting games as the underdogs fought tooth and nail before succumbing to the higher seeded teams. The tournament kicked off with Gambit taking on the Danish team, North. Both teams were relatively close in the power rankings so it was expected to be a close game, but alas, Gambit came out strong and took out the Danes, 16-8. The next two matches were between G2 and Fnatic while defending major champions SK Gaming fought HellRaisers. Both G2 and SK triumphed with comfortable scores to bring us to the first close match of the day, Virtus Pro vs OpTic Gaming.
The OpTic Gaming team were on home soil in the United States and had been steadily on the rise in the past months, claiming the number 2 spot on the HLTV power rankings. Virtus Pro weren’t that far behind at 4th place. It looked like OpTic had an advantage at half with a 3 round lead, but several clutch rounds by Virtus Pro closed the distance quickly and the Poles took the game 16-13. The next game was a slaughter as a very strong Natus Vincere team took down mousesports, 16-3 to bring about the most exciting game of the day.
Liquid had been virtually non-existent in the past few months while rumors about breaking up have surrounded the EnVyUs team. Despite this, both teams came to play and the result was a triple overtime match. The biggest highlight came when EnVyUs was up 15-9 and needed only one round to win the match. JDM from Liquid won an unbelievable 1 vs 5 situation that helped propel his team to a 15-15 tie. However, it was not enough as EnVyUs won out 25-21 at the end of the third overtime.
The excitement didn’t stop there as the number one team in the world, Astralis, took on GODSENT. Many viewers expected a win by Astralis, but the unthinkable happened as GODSENT not only defeated them, but crushed Astralis convincingly, 16-6. The last match of the day was between FaZe and FlipSid3 and FaZe took care of business, 16-9.