Dust2.us Eagle Masters Series 6 Day #1 recap: Wildcard start strong and LAG thrash Reign Above

The sixth edition of Dust2.us Eagle Master Series began last night, as a mammoth five matches took place in the first round of the Swiss Stage.

Four series ended 2-0, with Wildcard beating FlyQuest RED, Aether besting Outfit 49, LAG trouncing Reign Above, and SportsBetExpert defeating Chicken Coop. The last series was a three-map thriller as regain took down Blitzkrieg.

Wildcard 2-0 FlyQuest RED

Wildcard picked Mirage to start the series, but began the map by losing the pistol and conversions to go down 0-3 early. After that, they recovered handily and won 13 of the next 14 rounds to close map one with a comfortable 13-4 scoreline.

FlyQuest RED's nuke pick was even more one-sided as Wildcard ran them over in a flawless 12-0 CT-side. With their pistol win, Wildcard closed the 13-0 and took the series in a dominant 2-0 fashion.

Aether 2-0 Outfit 49

Aether showed exactly why they picked Ancient as they turned a T-side pistol win into a 10-2 half. Outfit 49 managed to win the second pistol and convert the next few rounds to bring the score to 10-6. However, Aether quickly found their footing and closed the first map 13-6.

Outfit 49's pick of Nuke started similarly, with Aether winning the first pistol and maintaining control through the first half to enter their T-side up 9-3. Though Aether won the second pistol as well, they struggled to find success on their T-side as Outfit 49 came back to tie the score 11-11. After nearly giving up a 10-3 lead, Aether finally broke through in the last two rounds and closed the map 13-11, winning the series 2-0.

LAG 2-0 Reign Above

LAG started on Reign Above's pick of Dust II with the first pistol and conversion before Reign Above responded with a round to bring the score to 2-1. LAG won the next round and never looked back, running an eleven round streak through the next half all the way to victory as they closed the first map 13-1.

LAG picked Inferno and things were much the same. They won their T-side pistol and replicated the 11-1 first half they found on map one. Reign Above did win their T-side pistol and bring the score to 11-4, but LAG got two more rounds soon after to win the map 13-4 and the series 2-0.

SportsBetExpert 2-0 Chicken Coop

SportsBetExpert started on Chicken Coop's map choice of Overpass with a lost pistol and conversion. What followed was a streaky half of both teams stringing together sets of rounds that ended with the score tied at 6-6. Chicken Coop won the next pistol and conversions, but more round streaks ensued until SportsBetExpert were down 9-11. After that, they managed to grab the last four rounds of regulation and take their opponent's pick 13-11.

SportsBetExpert also started their map pick down 0-2 after losing the pistol, but still managed to put up a convincing 8-4 half with a six-round streak in the middle. SportsBetExpert then won their first pistol of the series and, after a little back-and-forth, won the second map 13-6 and the series 2-0.

regain 2-1 Blitzkrieg

regain's Ancient pick started well for them with a T-side pistol win that they turned into an early 4-0 lead. However, Blitzkrieg responded with a six round run that put regain on the back foot until they finally won two more rounds to end the half tied 6-6. Blitzkrieg took the second pistol and kept regain from getting consecutive rounds, leading the Latin Americans to a 13-9 win.

Blitzkrieg's pick of Anubis also started with a regain pistol win and a slightly longer streak that gave them a 5-0 start. Like last map, Blitzkrieg fired back with several wins, but regain held their ground enough to keep a slim 7-5 lead going into the second half. Though regain lost the second pistol and conversion to tie the game 7-7, they found control on their CT-side and kept it up to take a 13-8 win and force the only third map of the night.

Dust II was the decider and regain had their first weak start of the series with a pistol loss and an early 0-4 deficit. They managed to rally back and lose only two rounds of the next eight to tie the score 6-6 going into the next half. regain lost the second pistol and conversions as well and were down 6-9 before winning five rounds in a row to take an 11-9 lead. A final back-and-forth brought the decider to overtime, where regain started it with a statement 3-0 half. Finally, regain held strong and took the map 16-12 and the series 2-1.

The performance of the night was easily LAG's veteran Jonathan "djay" Dallal as he annihilated Reign Above with 132 ADR, a 42/14 KD, and a 2.49 rating over the series.

The only match in the Dust2.us Eagle Masters Series 6 tonight will be:

• Zomblers v. InControl