The day has started at ECS in the SSE Wembley Arena where the public are finally allowed in to witness the finals of the first season of the tournament – where $750k is on the line for the winner in this $3.5mil tournament.
The first game was NiP up against G2. These two sides who have been making major strides in their form as of late so seeing them face up in the first elimination game would be an interesting and potentially close task. The first map would be Cache where G2 were completely dominating against the Swedes, taking the first half 12:3. They kept stringing multiple rounds along before NiP even managed to answer back – when they were just completely shut down preventing a further push in to collect more rounds. The second half beckoned and not much came from the NiP side as G2 killed the map off 16:3. Next up was Dust 2, which was a tad more of a close affair. NiP picked up the pistol before losing the next rounds to G2, but a round NiP did pick up was an eco where Pyth managed to collect an ace off of a 1v4 allowing them to collect a round, but the strength of G2 was too much. Half-time saw the score at 11:4 in favour of the French, giving NiP a lot to do. The second half was much closer, but a similar vein kept in. NiP managed to get a number of rounds down but it wasn’t to be as G2 knocked NiP out of the ECS 2-0, winning the map 16:10.
RpK going strong in his series against NiP (Credit: ECS)
Next up would be Astralis up against Cloud9, a matchup thought to be in the Danes’ favour. First up would be Dust 2 where Cloud 9 started off strong, as they swapped multiple rounds on occasion before going ahead strong taking an unchallenged six round run to take the half 11:4. Astralis looked to pick up the pace after losing the second pistol, as they went on to take a straight five round run but then a single mistake ended it for them as the game ended 16:9 to the Americans. Next up was Overpass where Astralis would be looking to make ground to avoid a quick exit. This, wasn’t as simple as you’d think the Danes dropped the pistol round and those following, but then managed a few more rounds when round ping-pong occurred for Astralis and C9 to end the half 6:9 in the American’s favour. The second half changed little, if not made it worse for the match favourites as they only managed two rounds between C9’s final demolition of them as the second map is taken 16:8 and the series 2-0.
These results took G2 and Cloud 9 into the next set of games in ECS, as they now face off against Team Liquid and TSM respectively
