The first day of DreamHack Masters, taking place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, kicked off Wednesday with 16 teams looking to take home their share of the $450,000 prize pool. Here is how Day 1 of the double elimination group stage played out.
The defending ELeague Major Champions, Astralis, started Day 1 against the North American team compLexity with a blowout win. Astralis came out dominating in the first half, only allowing compLexity two round wins on the offensive side. Although compLexity's defense did earn three round wins at the start of the second half, Astralis came back swinging to win three straight rounds, closing the game 16-5. Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen had a big day for Astralis leading the team with a 26/10 KD (kills/deaths) along with an impressive 124.5 ADR (average damage per round).
The second match of the day saw teams who have each made recent roster changes, North and OpTic Gaming, do battle. OpTic Gaming came out of the gates strong, stunning the Danish offense in the first half by putting together an 11-4 lead going into the second half. Despite seeing OpTic quickly take the game into map point, North never gave up, winning five straight rounds to push the pressure back on OpTic. But recent addition Spencer "Hiko" Martin was too much to handle, earning OpTic the 16-11 map win thanks to a game-ending triple kill.
Cloud9 and Ninjas in Pyjamas both looked to make some noise on Day 1 after both teams missed the ELeague Major in January. NiP took the first pistol round away from the North Americans on the offensive side and expanded their lead to an early 5-0 scoreline before Cloud9 responded with three straight round wins of their own. Despite that, NiP continued to push the advantage, finishing the first half up 9-6. Cloud9 turned the tables in the second half, however, dominating on the offensive side to the tune of 10 round wins. That was just enough to edge out the Swedes 16-14, as Cloud9's Jake "Stewie2K" Yip was the catalyst of the second half resurgence, finishing Day 1 with a 122.2 ADR.
Natus Vincere and mousesports ended Day 1 with a highly contested Cobblestone match up. Both teams traded rounds in the beginning of the first half, but it was Natus Vincere who would earn the edge heading into the second half, finishing with a 9-6 lead. Despite taking the subsequent pistol round to kick off the second half, Natus Vincere had no answer to continual pressure from mousesports. The mice took control in the second half, at one point winning six straight rounds, en route to a 16-12 win.