Day 1 of ECS Season 6 LAN finals has come to an end and we have two teams who qualified for the Playoffs. We saw some interesting results on Day 1 with Astralis, the tournament favourites yet to qualify for the Playoffs. Let’s take a quick recap of Day 1 below.
Group A
The first Group saw Astralis start out with a very comfortable 16-3 win over Cloud9. This was a very normal result since Astralis should easily be able to dominate over the NA side. With Cloud9 missing out on Golden’s presence, any possibility of an upset looked extremely remote. The Astralis performance was a thorough performance all around the team, with all members contributing evenly to the win. Despite the map being Inferno, a Cloud9 favourite, Astralis took home the map and the lead early in the event.
The second match saw MiBr compete against Mousesports. Both teams are competing for a spot into the Tier 1 teams of Counter-Strike. Having undergone roster changes either via players or coaches, the two teams seem to be on a similar trajectory towards victory. This time around, MiBr seemed to be the much stronger especially with their coach YNK’s influence clearly showing on the team chemistry and playstyle.
The decider match between Made in Brazil and Astralis, however, was the most interesting match of all. The two teams Made in Brasil and Astralis are not really considered equals. But MiBr showed why they should not be taken lightly. The maps were extremely close with Train going into Overtime while Inferno went the distance to all 30 rounds. Eventually MiBr won the series, however, the matches were way too close to call it a comfortable win. With this win, Made in Brazil cements their position in the Playoffs.
Group B
Group B is a much closer group when it comes to raw skill and talent. With teams like NIP, North and NRG in this Group it was always going to be a roller-coaster. NIP start off strong in this group with a dominating win over NRG. To be fair, NRG has been woefully inconsistent in their performance and today was no different.
North won Nuke against Team liquid and that seems to be a poor roller-coaster map choice by Team Liquid. Team Liquid is a decent Nuke team, but when up against a Danish roster on Nuke, you have to be cautious of your approach on this particular map.
We will see the elimination matches and the end of the Group stage tomorrow. Mibr is the only team already with a sure place in the Semifinals. Three more teams will join the team after tomorrow. You can catch all the action live on Youtube.
