Berlin Major Day 1 Key Takeaways: Brazil flying, NA stumbling, Korea shambolic

^{Image: Ubisoft/Kirill B.}

With Monday’s games now completed, here’s a quick summary of the day’s action.

The top teams

After two games, there are five teams with the full six points; Rogue in Group A, FaZe in Group B, w7m in Group C, and both FURIA and Elevate in Group D. 

Out of these, FURIA hold the best round difference after they beat MNM Gaming and Astralis, just like Elevate did.

Wolves and G2 also ended with two wins, but went to overtime against Gaimin Gladiators and Soniqs, respectively. This still puts both solidly in contention for a playoff spot, however.

The bottom teams

The biggest disappointments of day one were DWG KIA, SANDBOX Gaming, MNM Gaming, Astralis, and Oxygen Esports.

All five of these teams failed to win a single point, but DWG fared the worst with just three rounds won against both NiP and Rogue combined. 

MNM lost against two formidable teams, FURIA and Elevate, but did so on two maps they had never won in a professional game, Border and Theme Park. This was almost certainly a major tactical blunder from the team. 

Finally, while XSET won three points, the three American teams all fell flat. Astralis and Oxygen both failed to win any points, while the Soniqs won just one against G2. This is the region’s second-worst start to a Major ever, only ahead of the Sweden Major. 

The players

Without a doubt, the most impressive player of the event so far is Gustavo "Wizard" Gomes, NiP’s newest signing. After two games, he has a 1.58 SiegeGG Rating with 23 kills to nine deaths while playing Ace and Castle. 

Also of particular note is Saravut "Markshortboyz" Mandee, who secured 24 kills to 12 deaths while playing primarily Thermite on the attack. 

William "Spoit" Löfstedt, meanwhile, has excelled on entry with eight kills to one death. Finally, Jaime "Cyber" Ramoswas the best fragger on Day 1, as he averaged more than 15 kills a map against Soniqs and SANDBOX.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Park "Woogiman" Jin-wook, Jo "coted" Sung-Joon, and Jang "RIN" Byeong-uk have 13 combined kills across two games. Karl "Alem4o" Zarth, meanwhile, has averaged 14 kills per map. 

Three other players also only got five kills each, Seth "supr" Hoffman from Soniqs, Callum "Neonical" Humphreys from MNM, and João "Kamikaze" Gomes from NiP.

In what was somewhat of a surprise, though, it was FaZe’s Leonardo "Astro" Luis who has the worst entry record in the tournament so far. 

Finally, Jack "J9O" Burkard stood a head above the rest of his team as he got a 1.18 Rating, compared to his next best teammate at 0.88.

Play of the Day

Finally, the top individual play was a “ninja defuse” by Leonardo "Kyno" Figueiredo against Ninjas in Pyjamas.