SK crash out of WESG, tarik leads the way as Cloud9 advance, Onliners get a win!
It was another tough day for North America as the remaining groups were played out in Stage 1 of the WESG World Finals two-part groupstage, leaving only Cloud9 as the sole survivor for the region when the dust settled.
SK, who were one of the favorites going into the event, were eliminated in two maps against the likes of BIG and Mihail "Dosia" Stilyrov's Russia.
The recent Major Champions of Cloud9 tore through their first two opponents in Group H with the decisive scorelines of 16-1 against Japan's SZ Absolute and 16-2 against the MDL mix of The Onliners. They went on to face fnatic to decide who would end up topping the group and fell short on Mirage 8-16. Their two wins were just enough to advance them into Stage 2 of the groupstage.
Cloud9 has now been seeded into the new Group D where they will play another set of round-robin bo1's against GODSENT, Belgium, and MAX.
SK's demise began on Overpass against a surprisingly formidable Russia, where they uncharacteristically crumbled on their CT-side, putting them in a 6-9 deficit at the half. Their T-side would be more of the same, leading to their first loss of the day.
The Brazilians proceeded forth to take on BIG in a match that would ultimately lead to their grim fate. A reasonable 8-7 half on their CT-side of Train was a good change of pace from their previous match, but the air-tight defense of BIG after amassing a sizable economy was too great to overcome for an out-of-form SK.
Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo expressed his disappointment on Twitter following their matches:
The Brazilian team now exit the tournament and look to address the problems that have plagued them, not only in China, but in EPL as well.
Not to be forgotten are the boys of The Onliners, an MDL mix that did as well as any of them could have hoped for at an international LAN as a pug. While the team suffered fairly rough losses to fnatic and Cloud9 in their first two matches, they decidedly outplayed SZ Absolute in a 16-9 scoreline on Cache. Their efforts still resulted in the same fate as SK, but the LAN experience and international competition are priceless compensation.
Like Cloud9 for North America, oNe is now Brazil's last hope to stay alive at the WESG World Finals. Stage 2 of the groupstage will commence later today at 11:00 PM EST with the new Groups A and B being played out.
The next North American relevant matches to be played in China will not feature North American teams at all, but rather our new friends Bravado and oNe.
Space SoldiersBravado| Space Soldiers |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ahmet 'paz' Karahoca |
54 - 27 | +27 | 103.1 | 88.0% | 1.62 |
| Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş |
50 - 31 | +19 | 103.6 | 82.0% | 1.54 |
| Engin 'MAJ3R' Küpeli |
40 - 25 | +15 | 84.2 | 82.0% | 1.34 |
| Engin 'ngiN' Kor |
29 - 28 | +1 | 71.7 | 74.0% | 1.13 |
| Buğra 'Calyx' Arkın |
29 - 28 | +1 | 62.8 | 76.0% | 0.99 |
| Bravado |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
33 - 36 | -3 | 66.7 | 58.0% | 0.90 |
| Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
27 - 39 | -12 | 77.6 | 60.0% | 0.87 |
| Rhys 'Fadey' Armstrong |
32 - 43 | -11 | 67.3 | 62.0% | 0.86 |
| Ruan 'ELUSIVE' van Wyk |
30 - 42 | -12 | 61.7 | 58.0% | 0.67 |
| Dimitri 'Detrony' Hadjipaschali |
17 - 42 | -25 | 46.9 | 48.0% | 0.52 |
ORDERTeamOne| ORDER |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jay 'Liazz' Tregillgas |
35 - 35 | +0 | 75.7 | 75.9% | 1.15 |
| Liam 'malta' Schembri |
34 - 39 | -5 | 69.4 | 70.4% | 0.95 |
| Chris 'emagine' Rowlands |
35 - 37 | -2 | 66.7 | 70.4% | 0.92 |
| Jordan 'Hatz' Bajic |
32 - 35 | -3 | 60.5 | 61.1% | 0.92 |
| Callum 'BURNRUOk' Henderson |
29 - 40 | -11 | 70.5 | 63.0% | 0.89 |
| TeamOne |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Alencar 'trk' Rossato |
52 - 33 | +19 | 91.6 | 83.3% | 1.48 |
| Pedro 'Maluk3' Campos |
42 - 30 | +12 | 82.2 | 75.9% | 1.32 |
| Victor 'iDk' Torraca |
37 - 36 | +1 | 77.1 | 66.7% | 1.10 |
| Jean-Michel 'mch' D'Oliveira |
29 - 34 | -5 | 66.6 | 66.7% | 0.90 |
| Caike 'caike' Costa |
26 - 33 | -7 | 58.4 | 72.2% | 0.83 |
