SK, Liquid survive Belo Horizonte day 1, Ghost disappear
The first day of ESL One Belo Horizonte has come to a close with SK's victory over Ghost, eliminating Joshua "steel" Nissan and co. from the tournament.
The day kicked off with SK taking on Space Soldiers in one of the two Group A openers. Cache, Inferno, and Dust2 were to be the battlegrounds, but the Brazilian team would fail to force a third map in the series after putting up an initial 11-4 half lead on Cache.
Space Soldiers bullied the SK B defense to crush Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo and co.'s lead on map 1, abusing Jake "Stewie2k" Yip and Marcelo "coldzera" David's setups to give up only two additional rounds on Cache before taking the map for themselves.
SK fared no better on Inferno, where the majority of their rounds came from heroic efforts by the hands of coldzera. Once again the remaining SK players found themselves repeatedly outplayed, making mistakes at crucial moments that the SK roster was famous for punishing themselves. Space Soldiers closed out Inferno with ease, seeing SK into the lower bracket after suffering a 0-2 defeat.
Space SoldiersSK| Space Soldiers |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş |
47 - 36 | +11 | 96.4 | 83.9% | 1.37 |
| Engin 'MAJ3R' Küpeli |
44 - 30 | +14 | 75.3 | 69.6% | 1.29 |
| Buğra 'Calyx' Arkın |
41 - 36 | +5 | 87.4 | 83.9% | 1.24 |
| Ahmet 'paz' Karahoca |
37 - 33 | +4 | 69.8 | 83.9% | 1.15 |
| Engin 'ngiN' Kor |
27 - 33 | -6 | 55.6 | 67.9% | 0.83 |
| SK |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Marcelo 'coldzera' David |
54 - 40 | +14 | 94.9 | 71.4% | 1.28 |
| Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
31 - 36 | -5 | 64.8 | 67.9% | 0.94 |
 Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip |
30 - 43 | -13 | 66.4 | 66.1% | 0.85 |
| Ricardo 'boltz' Prass |
26 - 39 | -13 | 62.9 | 64.3% | 0.82 |
| Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga |
26 - 38 | -12 | 62.5 | 62.5% | 0.81 |
While SK was busy being slowly brutalized by Space Soliders, Ghost found themselves completely shut out of the server by FaZe on Overpass and Dust2. Nikola "NiKo" Kovač and Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács dismantled the newly formed North American roster, leaving little reprieve as steel's squad was shut out of the game on both maps.
Liquid did battle with the German side of BIG shortly after Ghost's loss to FaZe, putting up a 10-5 T side half lead on Cache. They took the map in the end, although it wasn't without struggle — BIG forced the series to go the full 30 rounds, with Liquid not able to find a single round until BIG had taken the lead 13-10.
Inferno started off even worse for Liquid as BIG initially locked the North American side out of bombsites, working their way up to a 9-1 lead. Liquid managed to find four more rounds to give themselves a chance going into the second half, where a stellar defense of their own ensured victory by giving up only one additional round.
BIGLiquid| BIG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz |
47 - 39 | +8 | 94.5 | 73.7% | 1.30 |
| Johannes 'nex' Maget |
42 - 36 | +6 | 78.5 | 71.9% | 1.08 |
| Fatih 'gob b' Dayik |
30 - 40 | -10 | 64.3 | 66.7% | 0.83 |
 Owen 'smooya' Butterfield |
28 - 40 | -12 | 55.6 | 56.1% | 0.80 |
| Tizian 'tiziaN' Feldbusch |
20 - 35 | -15 | 44.8 | 66.7% | 0.71 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
49 - 33 | +16 | 85.9 | 71.9% | 1.36 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
42 - 32 | +10 | 93.1 | 82.5% | 1.35 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
42 - 35 | +7 | 68.9 | 71.9% | 1.08 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
30 - 29 | +1 | 56.0 | 75.4% | 0.98 |
| Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
26 - 39 | -13 | 62.3 | 66.7% | 0.84 |
SK met Ghost in the Group A decider match to close out the day, where the Brazilian side slightly redeemed themselves with 16-6 and 16-4 victories on Inferno and Dust2. The skill difference between the newly formed Ghost roster and the Brazilian core was notable, and Stewie2k didn't spare his countrymen as he tore apart the Ghost defense on Dust2.
Day 2 of ESL One Belo Horizonte will see BIG take on Lincoln "fnx" Lau's Não Tem Como roster in the Group B elimination match at 10 AM EDT. The two winners' matchups will follow, where best-of-three bouts will see FaZe face off against Space Soldiers and Liquid take on mousesports as the four teams fight for a slot in the playoffs.
BIGNão Tem Como| BIG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owen 'smooya' Butterfield |
63 - 44 | +19 | 92.2 | 76.7% | 1.42 |
| Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz |
66 - 45 | +21 | 89.4 | 78.1% | 1.31 |
| Johannes 'nex' Maget |
55 - 43 | +12 | 83.8 | 78.1% | 1.28 |
| Fatih 'gob b' Dayik |
43 - 47 | -4 | 72.4 | 68.5% | 0.98 |
| Tizian 'tiziaN' Feldbusch |
43 - 46 | -3 | 65.0 | 74.0% | 0.94 |
| Não Tem Como |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lincoln 'fnx' Lau |
54 - 50 | +4 | 75.4 | 79.5% | 1.12 |
| João 'felps' Vasconcellos |
47 - 59 | -12 | 80.4 | 71.2% | 1.02 |
| Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedes |
50 - 56 | -6 | 75.2 | 64.4% | 0.96 |
| Vito 'kNgV-' Giuseppe |
40 - 53 | -13 | 58.0 | 54.8% | 0.75 |
| Bruno 'BIT' Fukuda Lima |
32 - 55 | -23 | 50.7 | 57.5% | 0.64 |
SK waits in the wings to take on the loser of FaZe and Space Soldiers on day 3, while the loser of Liquid and mousesports will face the survivor of the Group B elimination matchup.
