NAVI and FaZe secure opening wins in Dallas

After Group A's favorites struggled, FaZe and NAVI came away with relatively comfortable wins.

In the penultimate couple of matches of the best-of-one opening round of IEM Dallas, Natus Vincere and FaZe picked up victories over underdogs BIG and M80, respectively.

Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen and company's victory has been the most convincing so far at the tournament after the other favorites struggled in their opening games. They ran away with the Terrorist side to start the Ancient affair and picked up a straightforward 13-6 win.

Meanwhile, it was more competitive between NAVI and BIG, who had Jon "⁠JDC⁠" de Castro firing on all cylinders to give them a chance in the match.

JDC's 14 kills in the opening half and four openers were crucial to giving BIG six rounds in the half, and he went on to add a superb quad-kill in the pistol round to his tally, but despite his efforts NAVI came out on top.

"I was getting fucked by Castro in Mid," Mihai "⁠iM⁠" Ivan said after the match. He had a hard time on the Terrorist side with just four kills, and NAVI relied on two Ihor "⁠w0nderful⁠" Zhdanov clutches to salvage it, but then the Romanian stepped up in the second half. He secured 16 kills and surprised with his affinity for the AWP, as he picked up this superb ace.