The first Call of Duty LAN event of the new year and CoD: Infinite Warfare, Major League Gaming Las Vegas, kicked off on Friday with more than 160 teams competing for their shot at the $100,000 prize. Out of the 12 teams that competed in the group stage portion of the event, a staggering eight of them finished with a 1-1 record, showing how close the skill levels are early in the season. Let's take a look at just a few of the teams that found themselves tied up on the first day of MLG Las Vegas.
Inconsistent FaZe Clan
FaZe Clan entered MLG Las Vegas on a high note, looking dominant in a win at the PSX Invitational earlier in December. So it seemed only natural that they would beat the unheralded organization Gosu Crew to start group play in Pool A. Instead, Gosu Crew had arguably the biggest upset of the tournament with its 3-2 series win over FaZe. While James "Clayster" Eubanks has continued his hot start in the new season, repeatedly picking up critical kills throughout the match, Ian "Enable" Wyatt and the rest of the FaZe Clan were unable to pick up the remaining slack to help push the team to victory.
That shocking loss only seemed to fuel FaZe Clan however, as the team managed to grab a 3-1 series win over the defending 2016 world champions Team EnVyUs in its second match of day 1. After choking away a 100-point lead in the initial Hardpoint, FaZe Clan dominated the rest of the series, with captain Clayster leading the way. Between sniping, slaying and even dunking, the team captain of FaZe refused to let his team lose, keeping the squad's championship bracket hopes alive for another day.
Grey Skies for Cloud9
For Cloud9, a team still looking to prove it belongs in the elite category of competitive Call of Duty, Friday's matches could not have gone much worse. While it did manage to earn a 1-1 record heading into day 2, it could have been better considering C9 started both matches with a 2-0 lead. However, a reverse sweep by Team Kaliber in the first match, and a near reverse sweep by Echo Fox in the second match surely put some doubt in the minds of Cloud9 faithful as to whether the team can close out its opposition. Expecting to face one of several strong teams coming out of the Open Bracket, Cloud9 is by no means assured a chance to move out of Pool C, especially if it plays to the level it did in day 1.
A Hole in the Green Wall
The theme of Friday's action was undoubtedly inconsistency, as Pool B's OpTic Gaming joined a long list of teams who were unable to string together two strong performances in a row. After trouncing Revenge in its first match of the day 3-0, the Green Wall found its hands full against a motivated Rise Nation squad. Despite a dominating performance in its earlier Search and Destroy match against Revenge, OpTic failed to continue that trend against Rise, losing both of its S&D rounds in the 3-2 series defeat. Truthfully, the results could have been much different had Seth "Scump" Abner been able to capitalize on any of his one-vs-one opportunities. As it stands, OpTic Gaming's lack of success in S&D will leave the team with a critical match against their group's TBD Open Bracket team. Should it lose, the Green Wall could be in a position to miss advancing from the group entirely.
Starting at 5pm ET on Saturday, the Open Bracket will decide the final teams to join pools and pool play will finish. The championship bracket will begin around 10:30pm ET the same day.