G2 overrun 100 Thieves; mousesports dispatch TYLOO

G2 and MOUZ are off to great starts at IEM Katowice following convincing victories over 100 Thieves and TYLOO, respectively.

The opening day of action in Katowice came to a close with a clash between two top 10 sides that turned out to be an anti-climatic bloodbath. It was a rematch of the recent BLAST Premier encounter, which G2 had won after two close maps, and though the outcome was the same, the map scores were significantly different this time around.

It seemed like a game between teams from completely different levels, such was G2's dominance from the offset. The French side, who have yet to lose a match this year, sent out a strong message and are staking a serious claim for the IEM title after one of the most dominant performances in the team's history.

100 Thieves opened up Mirage with a pistol round victory, but G2 responded immediately and took control of proceedings. The French side kept their defense compact for the remainder of the half, which ended with a 12-3 scoreline, and followed that up with four quick rounds on the T side.

Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage pulled off a 1v2 clutch in the opening round of Dust2 to wake up the Australians, but he was quickly outshined as Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković raised the bar with a spectacular ace that included four quick Desert Eagle headshots. More misery was to come for the Australians, who looked devastated as they lost 15 consecutive rounds, and Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward's troops can only hope for an improved performance on Wednesday against TYLOO after a night they will want to quickly forget.

Meanwhile, MOUZ hardly had to break a sweat to beat the new TYLOO roster over on the secondary stream. The Chinese team, who are attending their first event with Seon-Ho "⁠xeta⁠" Son, still put up a fight on Dust2 after a one-sided first map, but the ESL Pro League champions recovered from a slow start and steamrolled their opponents in the second half.

TYLOO opened up the action on Inferno with a clean pistol round, but there was no follow-up as MOUZ rallied back immediately. That was the start of a painful half for the Chinese side, whose round victories were few and far between, leading to a lop-sided 11-4 score in favor of Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen's troops.

Now playing on the CT side, TYLOO found a lifeline as they won the pistol without dropping a single player, but things spiraled from there. Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker put MOUZ back in control with a stunning 1v3 clutch, and the European team ran away with the game, winning the next four rounds en route to a clean finish.

TYLOO looked a much much different side on Dust2, forcing karrigan to call a tactical pause when his team was down 2-7. A couple of rounds later, the Danish tactician pulled off a quad-kill in a low-buy round, setting MOUZ for a great run as the half came to an end with just one round separating the two teams. After that rough T side, the European team put up a resolute defensive performance that saw them drop just two rounds before locking down the map.