The first day of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive action at the Intel Extreme Masters in Katowice, Poland is officially in the books. Group B will play tomorrow, but here's how Group A fared today.
After adding Nikola "NiKo" Kovac from mousesports, FaZe Clan was expected to plow over Immortals in its first match of the day, which is exactly what happened. Although Immortals have looked strong since adding Lincoln "fnx" Lau, a former major champion from SK Gaming, FaZe leveled Immortals on Overpass 16-6. NiKo raked in the kills, finishing with a 21/12 KD (kills/deaths), and Havard "rain" Nygaard was equally devastating with a 21/13 KD along with a 114.1 ADR (Average Damage per Round). FaZe carried its momentum through the rest of the day, finishing in first place for Group A at 4-1 after winning a tiebreaker against Immortals and Astralis.
Also sitting at the top of Group A is the aforementioned Immortals, which despite falling to FaZe also completed the first day with a 4-1 record. It beat OpTic Gaming 16-8 on the newly redesigned Inferno before taking on reigning ELeague Major champion Astralis on Cache 16-12. Astralis' star AWPer Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz was sensational with a 21/18 KD, showing off his long-range prowess, but Immortals rode an all-around team effort to victory. Lucas "steel" Lopes finished with a game-high 23 kills, and although fnx earned the least number of kills on his team, he finished with a game-high 109.6 ADR.
Also finishing with a 4-1 record was Astralis. Despite a shaky start against OpTic, Astralis regained its composure and won the map 16-12. After a grueling 28-24 overtime win against Ninjas in Pyjamas, the team fell 16-12 on Cache to Immortals. Astralis went to extra rounds again versus Fnatic in their next match, winning 19-17. Would a presumably exhausted Astralis -- which had played an ungodly 28 overtime rounds - have the energy for FaZe? It did, winning 16-8 in surprisingly swift fashion on the backs of dev1ce and Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen, who both finished with more than 20 kills and 100-plus ADRs.
With a three-team tie at the top, additional tiebreakers were played to decide the seeding. FaZe Clan came out on top, automatically advancing to the semifinals on Saturday. Immortals and Astralis advance to the quarterfinals on Friday. Fnatic (2-3), Ninjas in Pyjamas (1-4), and OpTic Gaming (0-5) have all been eliminated. Day 2 starts Thursday with a Cloud9 taking on SK Gaming at 5:00AM EST.