ESEA S23 GC day 1 recap

Not much of a sweat on the first day of play for Kinguin 

LDLC started their day out by beating the Danish-Bulgarian team Rogue on Overpass by a hefty 16-5 in a solid group effort and with all five players holding their own on the server against a team that just didn't seem to be up to par. 

The Belgian leader Kévin "⁠Ex6TenZ⁠" Droolans and his team then went on to beat Bravado in the group A winners’ match. They played Overpass once again and were able to take on the South Africans without much trouble, closing the match out with an ample 16-4 score line at the end largely powered by the Belgian duo Ex6TenZ and the young sniper Antoine "⁠to1nou⁠" Pirard.

The other team to go through the group stage in only two matches was one of the three European teams and one of the favorites, Kinguin. They started their journey playing Muffin Lightning—considered the weakest team at the tournament next to RUSH, and playing with a stand-in—on Overpass.

The Polish side only gave up 6 rounds with Mikołaj "⁠mouz⁠" Karolewski plowing through the North American team ending the map with 134.3 ADR and 28 frags in 22 rounds for a 1.83 rating. They ended their day with another one-sided map, beating Tainted Minds 16-9 on Cache to take first place in group B.

On the other side of the balance, Rogue and TSM played the best-of-three group A elimination match after their losses to LDLC and Bravado respectively.

The match started on Train, Rogue’s pick. The map favored the European side who showed a much tighter chemistry and had both Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller and Kamen "⁠bubble⁠" Kostadinov putting in over 100 ADR each to close the map out 16-4.

bubble’s side were able to beat TSM and stay alive in the tournament

Finally, the first disputed map of the day came on Dust2, TSM’s pick. The Danish-Bulgarian side started on the CT side, only being able to put in 5 rounds against a dominant TSM that were able to use individual ability and a puggy style to get ahead.

With the tables turned, though, TSM struggled putting together strong setups as Rogue managed to squeeze ahead in some of the important rounds to bring it to a 12-12 ahead of the last stretch of the match. With the momentum on their side, the European team was then able to push through and take the second map 16-12 against the North Americans.

Tomorrow, Rush and Muffin Lightning will play the elimination match for a spot in the group B decider where the winner will face Tainted Minds. Despite winning their opener, the Oceanic team has been waiting for a rival in the decider match since losing to the group winners, Kinguin.

The group A decider match will be played after the group B elimination match, and it will pit tonight’s winners, Rogue, against Bravado. Rogue will then be able to take another crack at the South African team, who beat the European combine in their opening match.