Day 2 - Group Stage (Part 1)

Information About Day 1 - Group Stage:

Match 1 - Astralis vs Gambit Gaming:

Match 2 - Team Dignitas vs Counter Logic Gaming:

Match 3 - Natus Vincere vs Ninjas In Pyjamas:

For Day 2 - Group Stage, there are 8 games being played. 4 matches are upper bracket matches where the winning team goes to the quarter finals on day 4 and the losing team plays in the elimination stage the next day on day 3. The other 4 matches are loser bracket matches where the winning team plays in the elimination stage the next day on day 3 and the losing team gets knocked out of the tournament. All the matches are best of 1 map. For the Team Pick'em Challenge it self on day 2, each match that you pick the correct winning team, you will gain 2 points. As I also said in day 1, if you end up getting a pick or 2 wrong on day 2, it won't affect you to much in the final results towards getting you the Gold Pick'em Badge but in the end, every point counts. Day 2 for me is a bit easier to choose matches as you have seen each team play the day before so you have a lot more information to go off of. Also, just for placing your picks / stickers on the matches for day 2, you will receive an extra 1 point.Even though Astralis have been a bit shakey these last few weeks, they eneded up doing fairly well in my opinion against Team Dignitas. They started off excellent with Dupreeh's great entry frags. Towards the middle of the game, Astralis began to choke, losing a lot of rounds that Team Dignitas shouldn't have won but towards the end of the game, Astralis were able to pull through. Device playing excellent like he should be doing as well g1ave and karrigan pulling through majorly, get a lot important impact frags. Gambit Gaming on the other hand played pretty averagely in my opinion. Only just being able to beat Counter Logic Gaming who in my opinion are the worst team in the whole tournament. Gambit Gaming made a lot of mistakes which will cost there in future games. AdreN and spaze did play really well though with mou also getting a lot of impact frags with his AWP. I do feel that Gambit Gaming won a lot of rounds because of Counter Logic Gaming's mistakes. For that reason I feel that the more experienced Astralis should be able to take this game as they will be able to punish Gambit Gaming for those mistakes. If device plays like he did yesterday as well as the rest of the team get impact frags like they did yesterday then Astralis should have a very good chance at winning this game.Astralis 16 - 12 Team DignitasAstralis 0 - 2 Cloud9Astralis 12 - 16 Team SoloMidAstralis 1 - 2 Ninjas In PyjamasAstralis 2 - 1 Counter Logic GamingAstralis 2 - 0 FnaticGambit Gaming 16 - 13 Counter Logic GamingGambit Gaming 0 - 2 Virtus.ProGambit Gaming 1 - 1 ComplexityGambit Gaming 1 - 1 Virtus.ProGambit Gaming 0 - 2 Team EnVyUsGambit Gaming 16 - 10 G2 EsportsHaven't played each other in over 3 months.Astralis 65% - 35% Gambit GamingAstralisTeam Dignitas had a fairly good game yesterday against Astralis. K0nfig holding sites amazingly and cajunb getting long angle picks with his AWP. I feel if the other 3 players (MSL, TENZKI and RUBINO) picked up their game and got important frags when they needed, then Team Dignitas would have had a really good shot at winning that game. Team Dignitas did make a few mistakes though but they did do well in captivating off of Astralis' low economy and not being able to buy as many grenades. Team Dignitas looked strong and I feel that they can make it out 2nd in this group. Counter Logic Gaming on the other hand played really averagely against Gambit Gaming. They made a lot of mistakes which helped Gambit Gaming to win a lot of rounds. I have to admit, hazed played insanely good but the very poor performances from tarik and retuC really let them down. Counter Logic Gaming's replacement player is their coach who ended up 2nd fragging which shouldn't be happening. I feel that Team Dignitas should be able to win this game if they play like they did yesterday. Team Dignitas did make a few mistakes as well as some players performing averagely but I think that's definitely enough to be able to beat Counter Logic Gaming who had a fairly poor performance. For those reasons, I will be choosing Team Dignitas to win this game.Team Dignitas 12 - 16 AstralisTeam Dignitas 1 - 2 FaZe ClanTeam Dignitas 2 - 0 Team SoloMidTeam Dignitas 0 - 2 FnaticTeam Dignitas 0 - 2 FaZe ClanCounter Logic Gaming 13 - 16 Gambit GamingCounter Logic Gaming 1 - 2 AstralisCounter Logic Gaming 0 - 2 AstralisCounter Logic Gaming 0 - 2 Team SoloMidCounter Logic Gaming 0 - 2 Team LiquidHaven't played each other in over 5 months.Team Dignitas 65% - 35% Counter Logic GamingTeam DignitasNatus Vincere played really well against Flipsid3 Tactics yesterday. All the players from Natus Vincere played really well with Guardian really standing out for the first time in a while. This game is quite hard to judge if Natus Vincere played well or not as they were only vsing Flipsid3 Tactics who is one of the weakest teams in this tournament but not only that, Natus Vincere have played them a lot in the last month or so. I didn't see anything spectacular come out of Natus Vincere other then Guardian playing really well. I thought that Natus Vincere would of won by more but Flipsid3 Tactics had a really good start in the 2nd half. On the other hand, Ninjas In Pyjamas played amazingly against Optic Gaming. Ninjas In Pyjamas clearly showed how a top tier team should handle an unexpected underdog. I saw every single player in Ninjas In Pyjamas playing really well. On terrorist side, I saw friberg and pyth getting the opening pick almost 85% of the time as well as GeT_RiGhT, f0rest and Xizt playing amazingly mid round, getting the frags they need to, to be able to get into a site. They didn't get to show themselves much on counter-terrorist as they won all 5 rounds to finish the game, letting Optic Gaming get no rounds in the 2nd half. I would of liked to of seen Ninjas In Pyjamas more on their counter-terrorist side but I could clearly tell that Ninjas In Pyjamas were dominant on their terrorist side. This match up between Natus Vincere and Ninjas In Pyjamas is going to be really close as this should be a quarter or even a semi-final. This is a best of 1 so it's going to matter a lot of what map is played but I feel Xizt from Ninjas In Pyjamas and their coach Threat will be able to do well in the veto as they are known for being good at that. This match is a pure 50/50 but i'm going to have to go with Ninjas In Pyjamas winning this one as they seemed more dominant on their terrorist side. If they play like they did yesterday then they should be able to just win this one.Natus Vincere 16 - 7 Flipsid3 TacticsNatus Vincere 2 - 0 Echo FoxNatus Vincere 1 - 1 MousesportsNatus Vincere 1 - 1 Echo FoxNatus Vincere 0 - 2 Virtus.ProNinjas In Pyjamas 16 - 4 Optic GamingNinjas In Pyjamas 0 - 2 G2 EsportsNinjas In Pyjamas 12 - 16 SK GamingNinjas In Pyjamas 0 - 2 ImmortalsNinjas In Pyjamas 2 - 0 AstralisNatus Vincere 14 - 16 Ninjas In PyjamasNatus Vincere 14 - 16 Ninjas In PyjamasNatus Vincere 50% - 50% Ninjas In PyjamasNinjas In Pyjamas