Cloud9 and Liquid advance in Katowice group stage
The second set of first round matches for Group A saw Major Champions Cloud9 facing off against TyLoo on Inferno. An early lead was taken by Cloud9 after taking the pistol and subsequent round that followed, but was responded in kind by two for TyLoo, in light of a boosted economy from a round one bomb plant. Although the half was relatively back-and-forth between the two, Cloud9 was able to string more rounds together during their stints of success, allowing them to head into their T-side with a 9-6 lead.
An unknowing Cloud9 would begin the second half by walking into a stack of four members of TyLoo on the A-site. The North Americans scrambled in the chaos of pistol fire that would end with Ke "Mo" Liu coming out on top in a 1v1 situation against Timothy "autimatic" Ta. They would translate that small victory into two more rounds before Cloud9 would overwhelm them on the first gun round. On the cusp of match point, Cloud9's signature aggression struggled to break the defense of TyLoo, allowing the Chinese team to tie things up in a 14-14 scoreline. A massive 1v3 AWP clutch from Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham on round 29 was the precursor to Cloud9's eventual 16-14 victory over TyLoo.
TYLOOCloud9| TYLOO |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Hui 'DD' Wu |
28 - 22 | +6 | 98.1 | 80.0% | 1.36 |
 Hansel 'BnTeT' Ferdinand |
22 - 18 | +4 | 73.6 | 73.3% | 1.13 |
| Ke 'captainMo' Liu |
21 - 23 | -2 | 73.3 | 80.0% | 1.08 |
| Kevin 'xccurate' Susanto |
17 - 21 | -4 | 57.7 | 63.3% | 0.88 |
| HaoWen 'somebody' Xu |
9 - 20 | -11 | 43.2 | 66.7% | 0.69 |
| Cloud9 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Timothy 'autimatic' Ta |
27 - 21 | +6 | 95.9 | 83.3% | 1.39 |
| Tyler 'Skadoodle' Latham |
28 - 18 | +10 | 82.1 | 73.3% | 1.33 |
| Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip |
20 - 20 | +0 | 81.6 | 76.7% | 1.18 |
| William 'RUSH' Wierzba |
15 - 19 | -4 | 68.9 | 83.3% | 1.03 |
| Tarik 'tarik' Celik |
14 - 19 | -5 | 54.7 | 63.3% | 0.77 |
The final round one match of Group A saw Liquid and Gambit clashing on Mirage, a map that the North Americans have historically struggled on against the CIS team. Liquid began on the Terrorist side with a quick three round lead, but would struggle throughout the half to break Gambit's defense when their economy was deep and utility bountiful. The half would have stark momentum shifts as each team traded three and four round streaks until it's conclusion with scoreline of 8-7 in Liquid's favor.
Once on their CT-side, Liquid dropped the pistol round and followed up by buckling down their defense with their notable CZ-75 usage, converting the following four in their favor. Try as they might, Gambit proved unable to piece together a consistent T-side strategy that could be exploited against the North Americans. They would only claim two additional rounds in the half before Liquid would claim their first victory at Katowice with a 16-10 finish.
LiquidGambit| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
27 - 17 | +10 | 97.5 | 84.6% | 1.59 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
21 - 20 | +1 | 102.9 | 80.8% | 1.32 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
24 - 17 | +7 | 91.6 | 76.9% | 1.31 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
19 - 11 | +8 | 74.3 | 73.1% | 1.23 |
 Lucas 'steel' Lopes |
16 - 16 | +0 | 71.1 | 73.1% | 1.10 |
| Gambit |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov |
17 - 21 | -4 | 84.5 | 69.2% | 0.92 |
 Denis 'seized' Kostin |
18 - 21 | -3 | 79.3 | 61.5% | 0.86 |
| Rustem 'mou' Telepov |
18 - 23 | -5 | 68.9 | 61.5% | 0.82 |
| Mihail 'Dosia' Stolyarov |
17 - 22 | -5 | 65.0 | 69.2% | 0.82 |
| Dauren 'AdreN' Kystaubayev |
11 - 20 | -9 | 57.1 | 65.4% | 0.70 |
Liquid now await their round two match in the upper bracket of Group A against fellow patriots Cloud9. Matches for Group B will now begin with FaZe vs. ORDER and NiP vs. North.
