The Day 1 of MLG X Games in Aspen brought us a real uncertainty which probably no one could expect.
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The first day of MLG X Games kicked with Fnatic just walking past Team Liquid which was expected by the wide crowd. The North American team has just failed on giving Fnatic opportunity to pick a side and map as well, which resulted on de_inferno and CT side for Fnatic. The first upset was seen in the second match of the day, where the DreamHack Winter champions met another North American team which was recently acquired by Counter Logic Gaming. The NA squad was probably already crossed on the paper by the majority, however they proved one that on best-of-one there are no favorites, especially not on de_dust2.
Group A matches were next on schedule, where we had NiP taking on Dignitas. In a very interesting match, which also featured a overtime the Swedes came on the top claiming the first points for them. The following match of this group brought another shock, not only that KaBuM has beat Cloud9 but they did it in such a fashion. C9 guys were just without the compass in that match, losing 16-4.
The second pair of matches for both group had probably the most interesting match of the group stages, Fnatic vs Team LDLC. With a lose against CLG, the French team had to win this match in order to stay at the tournament and the Swedes could directly eliminate their the biggest rivals. The clash was on none other than de_inferno, statisticly the best map of both teams. However, on the wings of Happy the French team didn't had much trouble of scoring their first win here on the tournament leaving Fnatic on 1-1 score. The last match of the day for Group B was between two North American teams, CLG was the one with momentum after their great victory against Team LDLC they were looking forward to secure a straight pass for the Semi finals, however Team Liquid showed that they weren't just a replace team here in Aspen and they just snowballed through this match taking the first win and making everyone in this group to have a 1-1 score.
Group A matches were the one closing the Day 1. Another upset happened in a Cloud9 and NiP's match, where the North American team pulled off the best they could and showed that the match against KaBuM was just a bad map for them. They beat the Swedes with 16-7 and secured a survival in this tournament, at least until the next day. KaBuM didn't used a chance to be the only team with the two wins in this tournament after the first day, since the Danish team, dignitas, convincingly won this duel and causing everyone to finish Group A with 1-1.
The second day of MLG X Games will kick off today at 19.00 CET where the Group B is again to open it with it's matches. Counter Logic Gaming will take on Fnatic, while Team LDLC and Liquid will also fight for the spots in semi finals. On the other side we will see a Brazilion team trying to upset NiP and a battle between Cloud9 and Dignitas for another slot in the semi finals. We can't expect nothing less than at least the same entertainment we had during the initial day.
So far, MLG X Games have proved that nothing is certain and that the favorites can keep their titles only on the papers.
Headline image by Adam Apicella and MLG.
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