The festival of Counter-Strike is underway, and with the new format incorporating more teams, we have been blessed with a chaotic day that might as well have thrown most Pick’Ems out of the window. Besides a few obvious outcomes on the opening day, Round 1 has been filled with a few significant upsets.
Round 1 at a Glance
| Team 1 | Score | Team 2 | Map |
|---|---|---|---|
| Imperial | 13 – 11 | Rare Atom | Dust II |
| B8 | 11 – 13 | M80 | Mirage |
| Legacy | 10 – 13 | FlyQuest | Train |
| PARIVISION | 13 – 8 | The Huns | Mirage |
| Ninjas in Pyjamas | 7 – 13 | NRG | Overpass |
| GamerLegion | 10 – 13 | Fluxo | Nuke |
| FaZe | 13 – 5 | Lynn Vision | Nuke |
Opening day upsets
While it was easy to predict most of opening day, there were a few results that took the CS2 community by surprise. B8 losing to M80 should have gone the way of the Ukrainians if recent results were anything to go by, but a defeat donning a tight scoreline got fans scared about their PickEms.
Right in the following round of play, FlyQuest pulled off another shocking result, beating Brazilian hotshots in Legacy with a 13-10 scoreline. NRG with daps pulled another upset, taking down Ninjas in Pyjamas convincingly, and became the second NA team to pull off a miracle. The last upset of the day came with the highly touted GamerLegion falling to Fluxo, a result that has kept fans on their toes.
Favorites take away the W
Imperial, having proven themselves as a tough team coming out of Brazil, edged out a narrow win that could have gone either way against the Chinese side, Rare Atom, a team that hangs mostly in tier-2 of CS2. PARIVISION convincingly took down The Huns with a comfortable scoreline of 13-7. FaZe taking on Lynn Vision started a little sketchy, but the superteam stabilised a dominant rest of the game to close their opening day with a 13-5 scoreline. The final game of Round 1 saw Fnatic fight it out on a tight scoreline as it took overtime to get a win against RED Canids.
Once again, the CS2 gods have humbled the best of the best out there and let us know that Round 1 of tournaments will have more upsets than any other round, and if you are upset about your Pick’Ems going the wrong way, then rest assured, you are not alone.