Sangal, fnatic among teams to secure opening victories at RES Regional Champions

Fluxo secured the first round's only upset by besting Aurora.

RES Regional Champions 2024 got underway with all four opening matchups played on the first day, with Fluxo, Sangal, PARIVISION, and fnatic securing victories to move one win away from the playoffs.

The first match of the day played host to the biggest surprise, as Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan's Fluxo defeated Aurora in a three-map affair. The Russian squad drew first blood on Nuke (13-7) before the Brazilians came back from 9-11 to win Mirage in regulation to force the decider.

Despite no Fluxo individual gathering a positive rating on Ancient, they were still able to eke out a 13-11 victory to set up a qualification clash against Sangal on Thursday.

Sangal vs. Nemiga followed, where the highest-ranked team in the tournament secured a hard-fought win. Linus "⁠LNZ⁠" Holtäng troops went a map down after an anonymous showing on Ancient (6-13) and needed to come back from 2-8 down on Vertigo, where they eventually won in double overtime.

Samet "⁠jottAAA⁠" Köklü, who had a relatively quiet series until that point, took over on the Anubis decider with a 1.98 rating to help his team secure a 13-5 win and move on to the winners' match.

PARIVISION were dealt a relatively kind draw in Solid for their opener and made light work of the Brazilians in a one-sided affair (Mirage 13-5, Anubis 13-3), with Andrey "⁠BELCHONOKK⁠" Yasinskiy putting up an incredible 2.55-rated performance on the second map.

fnatic met the ex-BLEED squad, now competing under the UNPAID tag, in the final match of the day. Matúš "⁠MATYS⁠" Šimko was the star of the show and helped his team begin RES Regional Champions 2024 with a one-sided victory that puts fnatic just one win away from the playoffs.

The victors will now face off against each other for a playoff spot. The Group A winners' match will be contested between Fluxo and Sangal before PARIVISION meet fnatic in Group B.

The losers of the opening round will also meet to fight for their tournament lives. Nemiga have been dealt a tough match against Aurora, while UNPAID need to beat Solid to stay alive in Belgrade.

The day 2 schedule is as follows:

Date	Matches
RES Regional Champions 2024
17/10/2024	Aurora 10:00 Nemiga	Match
17/10/2024	Fluxo 13:50 Sangal	Match
17/10/2024	Solid 15:45 UNPAID	Match
17/10/2024	PARIVISION 18:30 fnatic	Match