Yesterday we had the first day of the First Strike main event in both Europe and North America. Today, the action continued with the rest of the matches, finishing off the Quarterfinals. In this article we’ll be covering the First Strike EU & NA Quarterfinals recap.
Europe:
Team Liquid vs Heretics
In the European First Strike event, we first had Team Liquid taking on Team Heretics. The best of 3 series kicked off with a dominant win from Heretics on Split. The Team Liquid loss was closely followed by a win of their own on Ascent to tie up the series. The final map was on Bind and it went all the way to overtime, but Team Heretics got the better of Liquid and won the series.
G2 vs Orgless
For the 2nd match we had G2 facing off Orgless in another best of 3. Despite G2’s constant success during the past few months, Orgless still managed to put up a fight as they lost both maps 13-11 and 13-10 respectively, which was honestly not a bad score.
SUMN FC vs Purple Cobras
Predictions were off the charts for this series as no one knew how exactly this was going to go. SUMN pulled out the Viper agent pick to win out the first map (Bind) versus the Cobras 13-4. And then went on with their default line-up to win the 2nd map (Haven) 13-8.
FPX vs Nolpenki
For the final match of the day we had two of the strongest teams battle it out in another bo3. FunPlus Phoenix were the favourites for this one due to previous results, but Nolpenki has shown promising results as well. The series kicked off with a strong win from FPX on Bind as they ended the first match 13-10. Then came Split which was Nolpenki’s pick, but unfortunately for them, they lost 13-7 and hence, eliminated from First Strike.
This is how the current EU bracket looks like:
North America:
Envy vs Immortals
The North American First Strike event kicked off with a dominant win from Team Envy versus Immortals. Envy won the series 2-0, winning on Icebox with a 13-5 scoreline and Ascent 13-11.
Renegades vs TSM
The Renegades vs TSM series was almost a duplicate of the Envy vs Immortals series due to the one-sidedness from TSM. TSM had a dominant performance on both maps, winning Ascent 13-1 and Bind 13-5 respectively.
Sentinels vs FaZe Clan
The Sentinels also had a very strong performance versus FaZe Clan in their bo3. The maps picked were Bind and Split and both went in Sentinels’ way as matches ended 13-8 and 13-5 respectively in favour of the Sentinels.
100 Thieves vs T1
This was the most anticipated series of the entire night. These teams have had very close matches in previous events, and their match was certainly going to deliver. T1 kicked off the 1st map (Haven) with a huge lead on the Defender side; however, 100 Thieves’ Defender side was stronger, and this resulted in a 13-10 scoreline favoring 100T. The next map (Bind) was T1’s map pick, and in fact, they were the ones in the lead at the beginning. The match went back and forth multiple times, but ultimately, 100 Thieves were stronger and eliminated T1 from the event after winning the series 2-0.
This is how the current NA bracket looks like:
First Strike EU & NA – What’s next?
Tomorrow we’ll be seeing Team Heretics are tasked with facing off the Kings of Europe, G2. Whereas SUMN FC will be versing their rivals FunPlus Phoenix for the Grand Finals spot. In North America we have the two rivals, TSM and Envy taking each other on in a best of 3. And on the bottom half of the bracket we’ll be having 100 Thieves against Sentinels for a spot in the Grand Final.
Be sure to stay tuned on www.esportsguide.com for more esports news!
