Charlotte Major Group Stage Key Takeaways: Day two

_{Image via Ubisoft/Eric Ananmalay}

Winners and Losers of the day

Winner: America

After the three American-majority teams had a reasonably strong day one, they blew away that performance today as Astralis, Oxygen, and DarkZero won all 18 points on offer. OxG beat oNe and DW, DZ beat Heroic and w7m, and Astralis beat Wolves and Chiefs, all in regulation time. This meant that OxG and Astralis were the first two teams to qualify for the playoffs. 

Their NAL counterparts, XSET, didn’t fare as well as they lost 5-7 against Team Liquid. Nevertheless, the team then beat FURIA, putting them in a strong position with one playday remaining.

Winner: Team Liquid

Other than the American teams, Team Liquid was the next best performing team today. Winning six points against XSET and CYCLOPS puts them clearly at the top of Group B, tying DZ, BDS, and OxG’s total point count, with only Astralis having more.

Losers: APAC

APAC had the exact opposite record of the three American teams as CAG, DW, and Chiefs won zero out of 15 points. DW lost to OxG, CAG lost to Liquid and FURIA, and Chiefs lost to BDS and Astralis. 

This result meant that Chiefs Esports Club were the first team effectively eliminated from the tournament as regardless of tomorrow’s results, they cannot qualify for the Six Major’s playoffs. 

Losers: Heroic

After a 7-3 win and 3-7 loss on day one, the top-seeded European team’s hopes have been slashed today as they lost both of their games against DZ, 5-7, and G2, 3-7.

While they are one of four teams to have lost two games today alongside CAG, Chiefs, and Wolves, this is particularly bad as they now sit five points shy of G2 Esports in second place. This means Heroic must win all six points tomorrow just to catch up to their opponents while winning the group is already not possible. 

Stat of the day

Zachary "SpiriTz" Dionne’s 0.02 SiegeGG Rating against Liquid on Finka.

Despite the game finishing in a close 5-7 result in Team Liquid’s favour, the worst individual performance of the day came from XSET’s SpiriTz. This is as the Canadian player finished with one kill to 12 deaths and lost four out of four opening engagements, totalling a third of the game’s opening deaths, none of which were traded. These results came while playing on the operators of Finka and Jager. 

SpiriTz teammates Leonardo "Kyno" Figueiredo and Lucas "DiasLucasBr" Dias, totalled 30 kills across the 12 rounds, leading to close overall results.

Against FURIA SpiriTz then completely recovered with a 1.35 match rating which included an ace:

Day three games to watch

11:50 EDT -- Wolves Esports vs Team BDS

While Group D may look somewhat decided with five points separating second to third place, this could change very quickly tomorrow in Wolves' favor. If they win all three points off of Chiefs and BDS fall in regulation time to Astralis, both of which happened on day one, then the gap shrinks to just two points. 

Wolves vs BDS is, therefore, fairly crucial for both sides to win as BDS hopes to stop what would be a remarkable recovery from their French rivals. 

13:20 EDT -- Team oNe vs Dire Wolves

With Oxygen already qualified and Elevate unable to attend the tournament, the final spot in Group A is between oNe and Dire Wolves. There are just three points between them, and they play tomorrow. While oNe could lose this game and still qualify, it’s still a crucial game for the group and a must-win for DW.

16:20 EDT -- G2 Esports vs DarkZero Esports

While Heroic and w7m could still ruin DZ and G2’s plans, the latter rosters look best positioned to win the two playoff spots. This makes the G2 vs DZ matchup a key one as the winner will likely win the group while the loser risks dropping to third.