CSGO FACEIT Major Challengers Stage: Day 1
Today saw the start of the Challenger Stage of the FACEIT Major coming live from Twickenham. Though unfortunately there were a number of delays, we got to see some exciting Counter Strike. Some teams were fighting tooth and nail to get to legends stage. Other teams, maybe not so much. Here’s a recap of todays action.

Rogue (1–0) b. Space Soldiers (0–1)
A weakened Space Soldiers side came up short against Rogue in the opening match of the FACEIT Major. Visa issues forced the Turkish side to use their coach as a stand-in who struggled, only posting 3 kills in 26 rounds. Despite the handicap, Rogue struggled to finish off their opponents, notably losing both pistol rounds as well as the follow up eco rounds. Turkish fans might be left wondering what could have been. MVP: SicK
Ninjas in Pyjamas (1–0) b. Virtus.Pro (0–1)
NiP were rarely challenged as they eased past VP to start their tournament on a high note. A strong individual performance from MICHU wasn’t enough to provide any real competition as the veteran f0rest lead his team to a convincing victory. MVP: f0rest
TyLoo (1–0) b. Gambit Gaming (0–1)
A close match-up between TyLoo and Gambit gave us the first overtime of the major, which went the way of TyLoo. The Asian side came out of the blocks fast, picking up 10 rounds in the first half thanks to some impressive play by BnTeT. They seemed to struggle on T side however as Gambit, and in particular mou, found a way to halt TyLoo’s momentum and picked up 9 rounds in a row. TyLoo eventually rallied to force overtime where they managed to secure the win. MVP: mou
BIG (1–0) b. Renegades (0–1)
BIG hit the ground running after their exceptional run at ESL One Cologne with a convincing 16–6 victory over Renegades. gob b, an in-game-leader who isn’t known for his firepower, lead his team from the front on this occasion and was joined at the top of the leader board by the in form tabseN. Together, the duo secured more kills than the entirety of the Renegades team combined and picked up a comfortable win. MVP: gob b
Vega Squadron (1–0) b. Team Spirit (0–1)
Vega Squadron pulled off a miraculous comeback to steal a victory against their rivals from the CIS region. Spirit won the first pistol round and never looked back, securing 12 rounds on T side. However, Vega won the pistol round at the start of the second half and set about chasing the target set by Spirit. They fought back to 13–14 before crush picked up a pivotal 2v1 clutch in round 28 to break Spirit’s economy and give Vega a clear path to victory. MVP: crush
HellRaisers (1–0) b. North (0–1)
In another close matchup, HellRaisers managed to overcome North, who came in hot from a tournament win at DreamHack Stockholm. HellRaisers started strongly, with ISSAA and woxic leading the charge. They soon found themselves 15–8 up, but failed to convert on any of the 7 match points as North forced them into overtime. North drew first blood in overtime, before a quad kill and a triple kill on consecutive rounds from woxic gave HellRaisers back the lead and enabled them to close out the map. MVP: woxic
Team Liquid (1–0) b. OpTic Gaming (0–1)
Team Liquid emerged from their bootcamp to thrash OpTic Gaming in a very one sided affair. Liquid took a commanding lead in the first half as their opponents struggled to break down Liquid’s CT holds. A pistol round victory for OpTic in the second half led to a very brief resurgence, but any hope of a comeback was snuffed out in the first buy round. MVP: EliGE
Astralis (1–0) b. Complexity Gaming (0–1)
You know, probably. It’s 1am and the game has been postponed to tomorrow. MVP: me for staying up.
