Hometown heroes rise while big names falter: Summary of Day 1 of the Shanghai Major Opening Round
CS212/01 18:01
Day one of the Shanghai Major is over, and despite all the odds, the two Asia-Pacific teams still come out on top. Meanwhile, some big names failed to find their vitality on opening day and had to bounce back — or fly home early on day two.
The following is a summary of rounds one and two at the Perfect World Shanghai Major Opening Round.
FlyQuest, MongolZ on the brink of qualifying for the Qualifiers after stellar opening matches
The classic line "F**k your PickEm's" was uttered again when Australian team FlyQuest created a stir with a resounding victory over Complexity and BIG.
FlyQuest, once again considered an outsider by many in the community, was placed in many PickEms as an 0-3 team, but once again, the Australian team proved its world championship prowess when most necessary.
The Australian team opened with a thrilling 13-6 victory over Complexity, going 11-1 in T on Anubis. This North American team didn't put up much resistance in the best of games. Joshua "INS" Potter (19-7, 1.67 HLTV rating) was the best player in the opening match.
Not many people expected FlyQuest to counterattack so fiercely against BIG, but they did: FlyQuest exploded from the start and took down the German team. Another excellent T round led by captain Chris "dexter" Nong (20-12, 1.70 rating) quickly turned into a 13-5 map win. FlyQuest will face Team Liquid (including Australian Justin "jks" Savage) for a spot in the Qualifiers.
Other APAC representatives, The MongolZ, were equally successful on the opening day. The top 10 team was expected to easily qualify for the Qualifying Round, but set a record early with resounding wins over Rare Atom (13-2) and MIBR (13-6).
They will face GamerLegion in the second qualifying match tomorrow.
Complexity, Fnatic stumbled as they were eliminated 0-2 after a shocking first day
Complexity's day got even worse after losing to FlyQuest. The team then suffered an embarrassing 13-9 loss to Passion UA. Ukraine's young squad struggled from the start but recovered thanks to Anubis, while apart from Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski, Complexity fans were left wanting.
The North American squad look a shadow of their former selves as they trudge into tomorrow's knockout match against an equally weak Imperial Esports. This was the exact opposite position for them at the Copenhagen Major, where they won their opening Legends Stage matches before losing 2-3.
The top four position at ESL Pro League Season 19 is a far cry from this CoL edition. Now they don't have a second chance in Shanghai.
Fnatic also struggled to start and joined Complexity and Imperial in being eliminated. The boys in orange were defeated 13-11 by Wildcard on Mirage — a map that Wildcard permanently banned — before losing 13-5 to Cloud9. They are favorites going into tomorrow's 0-2 match against Rare Atom, but the Chinese team will have the crowd behind them as they also want to keep their major championship hopes alive.
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