With the FACEIT Major 2018 Qualifier in full swing, let us take a look at how the tournament is progressing after two full days of play.
The FACEIT Major 2018 Main Qualifier started on 5 September in London and has so far produced a slew of exciting matches from 16 different professional teams. With more matches to come in the next few days, it is prudent to take a look back and see how the tournament is progressing.
Match Overview
As of this writing, 14 matches have taken place on 5 and 6 September, with more to come later in the week.
Day One – 5 September
Rogue and Space Soldiers had the honor of playing first and the map of choice was Inferno. The match ended with Rogue scoring 16 rounds won over Space Soldier’s 10. They were closely followed by Virtus.pro and Ninjas in Pajamas, where the match was much more even sided, with NiP coming out ahead on Mirage at 16:5. After that we saw the heated battle between Gambit and TYLOO on Inferno, going into overtime and culminating in TYLOO’s victory at 19:17. Following that, the match between BIG and Renegades was much more one-sided, with BIG crushing Renegades 16:6.
The second-to-last match of the day was between Vega Squadron and Spirit on Mirage, where VS just managed to come out ahead in 16:14. The closing match of 5 September was given to North and HellRaisers and viewers were certainly treated to a wonderful display of skill and precision. Overpass was where the two teams met and after going into overtime, HellRaisers managed to pull in the victory with 19 rounds won against North’s 17.
Day Two – 6 September
The second day of Qualifier was when things became heated and the quality of the games skyrocketed. The day was opened by Team Liquid and OpTic Gaming on Mirage, where Liquid dominated their opponent, only losing 4 rounds out of 20 played. Astralis went up next with compLexity and we saw something similar to the previous game, with Astralis winning 16:4. That game was followed by NiP vs TYLOO on Train and despite TYLOO’s best efforts, NiP brought in the victory at 16:12.
BIG had a much harder time against Vega Squadron than it did against Renegades. The match took place on Train and after going into overtime, Vega Squadron snatched the win at 19:16. With the bar already set high, Team Liquid proved that they are one of the best teams in the CS: GO professional scene by triumphing over HellRaisers on Inferno, only losing 9 rounds and winning 16. Astralis won their second match for the day, this time versus Rogue, in an intense game that lasted 29 rounds on Inferno.
The only game so far to be played on Nuke was between North and Spirit and it was the closing match for the day. Here we saw Spirit just barely coming ahead at 16 to 13, though both teams performed great. Spirit’s Dima managed to pull off a quad-kill, while MSL again showcased his mastery of the AWP, sniping down three of Spirit’s players in one round.
Statistics
After two days of competition, there are some clear lines that can be drawn. From the 16 teams that competed in the Major, NiP, Team Liquid, and Astralis look to be the top performers, winning both of their matches, with the lowest number of rounds lost. In terms of individual performance, device, Lekr0 and dupreeh look to have played the best.
There are seven maps lined up for this event – Cache, Dust2, Mirage, Inferno, Nuke, Train and Overpass. Over the last two days, Cache and Dust2 were banned each time, while Nuke was chosen only once. Eight matches took place on Mirage, Train and Overpass combined, while Inferno was the most commonly picked map, where six matches were played.
FACEIT Major 2018 Qualifier continues today and the event will last until Sunday, 9 September.
