Finally, the Major drought is over, and we have one of our favorite Majors of the year to enjoy, the StarLadder Major Berlin 2019. Saying it started off with a bang is an understatement, but we will get back to that. The One Million USD tournament will continue all the way to 8 September and we at Dart Frog will be following it with weekly updates so make sure to check back frequently. Day one of the Qualifier has already been action packed with plenty of games to go back and watch. The main ones being the first two of the day. NRG v DreamEaters and Vitality vs Syman.
At the start of the day we had two unexpected results in the Vitality and NRG games with Vitality losing to Syman in one of the biggest upsets ever at a Major. Vitality won 6 rounds and lost 16-6. Syman faced North after the fact, and fell in a much closer series at 14-16. Syman has already upset almost two of the favorites and is a threat worth watching over the next couple of days.
TYLOO, Complexity, Grayhound, and INTZ fell short today and ended with an 0-2 score line with CR4ZY, Mouse, North, and G2 topping the day at 2-0. As per the style of the tournament, the other eight teams finished 1-1 with some looking better than others. Syman, DreamEaters, and Avangar could rise up in their future matches. Meanwhile Vitality, Hellraisers, and Forze are going to need to bounce back hard to avoid elimination.
Overall, the day was a long one – a lot of close games stretched the day out to over fourteen hours. Luckily that means we saw many action packed back-and-forth matches. Avangar vs Mousesports became a quick favorite going into overtime. Avangar took the lead 17-15 under the wings of Buster and Jame but unfortunately fell 19-18 to Mouse with Karrigan, Ropz and Frozen. The Casters offered praise to Ropz and Karrigan with Frozen sliding under the radar, but he held even score at 59 with Karrigan and a better K/D/A.
The last game of the day featured CR4ZY vs Furia with CR4ZY down a nice handful of rounds and were able to come back and smash Furia 16-11. CR4ZY were able to rally together as a team and really slam Furia in the second half of the game and if you were to watch any of the games from Day 1 then this one should be on that list. OttoNd and Nexa outperformed themselves on the day and deserve a lot of credit
Going into Day 2 the favorites are now clearly set but anything can happen in the Swiss style. If I had to guess I’d say North, G2, Mouse and CR4ZY top the day again tomorrow, with a little more life coming out of Vitality. Syman and Avangar could hold some other team’s hostage as well if they keep up their performance. Watch Day 2 and the rest of the weekend and tournament Here at 0400 MST.
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