Article written by guest author Umesh "Kripz" Kripalani

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BEST-OF-THREE MATCHES

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The Cathedral of Counter-Strike saw quite a lot of surprises and upsets today. ESL One Cologne is turning out to be super hot and action packed. Let’s take a look at what went down on the first day of the biggest non-major tournament of the year. Liquid were supposed to steamroll MVP PK; however, the map chosen was Nuke throwing a curveball the North American favorites truly weren’t prepared for. MVP PK had some great moments, especially from stax, with an excellent 1vs2 clutch and juicy opening frags. Unfortunately, experience showed its efficacy, and while the kings would sweat, they’d still prevail, maintaining composure and closing it out 16-14.MIBR attempted to go towards Banana far too frequently, ultimately feeding Fnatic too many rounds due to their predictability. Failure to bait out utility on the T side led to Fnatic running away with a phenomenal 12-3 lead. Fnatic were leading 15-6 when MIBR started making a comeback. It seemed like they could force overtime, but a great A execute from Fnatic put the final nail in the coffin at 15-11. Heroic on Mirage started with a bang, acquiring 10 rounds on the CT side. Several of them were thanks to blameF hitting some ridiculous shots and clutching out insane rounds. He was the first player in the tournament to drop 30 frags, with only 15 deaths and 2 KDR. Heroic caused the first big upset of the tournament by beating ENCE 16-10. FURIA seemed pretty happy with the Nuke pick, but their smiles turned into frowns as NRG went on to dominate the first half 13-2, closing the map 16-7 soon after. Astralis too, won their game against BIG 16-4 as expected. FaZe struggled against Renegades but finally won 16-14 on Mirage. Jkaem and AZR were having a phenomenal day. However, NEO bottom fragged for FaZe. While a simple misstep to brush out now, these errors will not fly for the European squad when they face tougher opponents later on in the tournament. To top it all off, we got to see some #NiPMagic once again on the world’s favorite map - Dust2. Vitality was leading the game 10-5 after the first half, but things quickly went awry as soon as NiP came on to the CT side. With classic NiP flair, each and every remaining round went to nip, finishing things off 16-10.Let’s start with the most important moment of the day—something that will hauntfor a long time to come. Na`Vi was pitted up against Liquid, with the first map being their pick - Dust2. Na`Vi were in a comfortnig lead at map point 15-11. Nick “nitr0” Cannella found himself in a 1vs3 situation with no other choice but to pull off a miracle. S1mple tried to knife him, but style points did not pay off. He died and ended up gifting nitr0 his AWP, which he used to clutch out the round and keep Liquid alive. The match should have ended right there, but Liquid seized that opportunity to force the map into overtime. In a gruelling double-OT brawl, Liquid triumphed 22-19. The next map was overpass - Liquid’s pick obviously favoured them. Na`Vi managed to come close. The Ukranian team lost 14-16 and moved on to the third map - Mirage, where Liquid demolished their defenses to win 16-8. With this, Liquid secured themselves a slot in the Upper Bracket finals.held no surprises in its conclusion—a complete washoever. The Korean squad was blown out of the water 2-0. To add insult to injury, none of the players maintained a positive KDR by the end of the match, marking the end of their journey.The first and foremost mistake that Renegades committed to was letting Furia pick Nuke. The Brazilians overwhelmed Renegades with their signature T side, bagging 8 rounds in the first half. That enabled them to easily close out the map 16-9, conceding only two rounds to the Australians in the second half. Mirage was an all out display of power by Furia, as KSCERATO and arT both had a mind blowing 1.57 Impact Rating by the end of the game, which let them clinch the map 16-12, thus eliminating Renegades from the tournament.What better way to finish a day than moments of grandeur? Faze selected Mirage first, justifying their pick with a 5-0 lead. Momentum was held and then crashed shortly thereafter. NRG stepped up and demolished the once domineering Faze to win 8 rounds in a row. They then won a round each to end the first half 9-6 with NRG in the lead. NRG threw Faze off their feet with some well timed contact plays in the second half to win 16-11. Enough about Mirage; let’s talk about one of the most beautiful matches we’ve witnessed in professional CS:GO. NRG started off on the T side and wonCollecting themselves, FaZe took a tactical timeout. What followed was a moment of clarity for the team, and the formulation of a well-excuted counter strategy for the American team,helping secure 5 rounds of their own. NRG pulled off a ridiculous eco round due to brilliant flanking by Brehze;NRG pulled off a ridiculous eco round due to brilliant flanking by Brehze; alas, FaZe continued to win every other round in the half to make it 8-7. A well placed strategy only takes the best teams in the world so far. What really shines in talent is their intuition. Reading the mind of their opponents, NRG was ready for whatever FaZe had accumulated, and ended up pulling off the win 16-2. The level of Counter-Strike displayed in this match was on another level. In the words of Matthew “sadokist” Trivett himself - “If this is just day one, prepare to have your mind blown”.Check out our CSGO Hub for more coverage. Images courtesy of ESL.