ECS S7 Week 1 EU & NA quarterfinals finished

12-3-2019 10:19

The first leg of the playoffs of the first week of ECS S7 has been played out in both regions, with Rogue defeating Liquid being the biggest surprise so far.

Eight teams take part in the weekly cups in both regions, with the single-elimination BO3 brackets set to decide who will earn a place at the $500,000 ECS S7 LAN Finals in London.

Liquid's run in the cup was cut short by MSL's men

In Europe, the following teams are competing in week one:

In the opening match, Astralis breezed past LDLC, while Ninjas in Pyjamas, debuting with William "⁠draken⁠" Sundin as a stand-in, managed a 2-0 victory over FORZE, a CIS squad on the rise.

The series between FaZe, ranked 6th, and Virtus.pro, ranked 58th, was a surprisingly exciting one, as the Poles claimed the first and were very competitive on the decider, Cache. However, Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač's heroics (74-53 K-D for the series) pushed his team over the edge and secured them a spot in the semi-final.

The final game of the European quarter-finals was between North and AVANGAR, and the CIS side, playing with Sanjar "⁠SANJI⁠" Kuliev instead of Bektiyar "⁠fitch⁠" Bahytov, managed a 2-1 victory. They started the series by winning Overpass and after losing a close Inferno, swept North 16-8 on Mirage. The standout player was, as expected, Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali, who finished the series with +34 KDD and a 1.49 rating.

With these results, we will see the following semi-finals played:

20:00 Astralis vs. AVANGAR, Tuesday, March 12
20:00 Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. FaZe, Wednesday, March 13

NiKo was in the zone in the game against Virtus.pro

On the North American side of things, the following eight teams are in competition:

The opening match between Liquid and Rogue turned out to be a big surprise as the underdogs, currently ranked 90th in the world, managed to take down the North American powerhouse. Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen's team dominated on the T-side of Nuke (10-3) to steal away the first map 16-12, but was then crushed on Dust2 as Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken and Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic had inspired performances. It all came down to Overpass, where a solid offensive half and a lockdown CT-side allowed Rogue to take the map 16-8 and advance to the semi-finals.

In the Brazilian derby between Luminosity and INTZ, it was Henrique "⁠HEN1⁠" Teles and Lucas "⁠LUCAS1⁠" Teles's team that came out on top 2-1, despite a great series by Vito "⁠kNgV-⁠" Giuseppe (90.2 ADR, 1.32 rating). In NRG's debut with Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik, Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele and co. dominated Spacestation, 16-5 on Mirage and 16-4 on Dust2, to move on in the bracket.

The last series of the day was between Complexity and eUnited. Kaleb "⁠moose⁠" Jayne and co. started the series with a win on their map pick, Nuke (16-9), but couldn't close out Inferno (16-14) and then fell flat on Overpass (16-6), seeing Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz and co. take the victory and advance to the semies. The hero for Complexity was Ricardo "⁠Rickeh⁠" Mulholland, who topped the charts for his team on all three maps, adding up to a 70-47 K-D for the series.

With the quarterfinals played out, the following matches will take place:

23:00 Rogue vs. Luminosity, Tuesday, March 12
23:00 Complexity vs. NRG, Wednesday, March 13

Only the best team from the bracket in both Europe and North America will earn a spot at the ECS S7 Finals this week, with others having to look for their chance in the following cups.