EUL Day 1 Key Takeaways: Rogue start off poor, “God Emperor” Fabian’s G2 struggle on debut

Europe is back in action with Stage 3. Keep on reading to know what happened in each game played this week.

Berlin Major champions Rogue stumble

It’s been a perfect start for Natus Vincere, who defeated the Berlin Major champions Rogue by 8-6. It could even have been a regulation victory, but Tom “Deapek” Pieksma’s clutch with Echo on the 12th round forced the first overtime of the stage.

EUL debutant Jake “Leadr” Fortunato led the NAVI squad with a SiegeGG Rating of 1.46 and three clutches -- two of them coming in overtime. Jamie “Skiddy” Diamond was also crucial in the team’s victory, helping his teammates with five opening frags.

Meanwhile, Edoardo “T3b” Treglia’s debut wasn’t as prolific as Leadr’s and he ended up with just three kills to his name and a SiegeGG Rating of 0.43. 

Team BDS off to a winning start with new hotshot

Team BDS defeated Team Secret by 7-4 in Théo “LikEfac” Mariano’s top-flight debut, as he stole the show with a SiegeGG Rating of 1.63, two entries, and 14 kills. Him and and Loic “BriD” Chongthep led the French squad even though Stépane “Shaiiko” Lebleu went quiet.

Team Secret gave BDS a good fight, with their debutants Dawid “Gruby” Marciniak and Reece “Astro” Lambert each clutching a round. The match also marked Marlon “Twister” Mello’s debut as a coach in Europe. 

Fabian returns, but G2 return with a loss

Heroic got off to a perfect start to Stage 3, as they took revenge on G2 Esports for denying them a Berlin Major berth. The new-look Heroic won 7-4 in a game where two of their players made their professional debuts.

While Marc “Jume” Steinmann’s debut wasn’t the greatest (he ended up with an Entry K-D of 1-3 and a SiegeGG Rating of 0.79), the French rookie Maxime “Meloo” Cahagnet contributed to the team with two entries and nine kills while mainly playing Finka and Mute.

Heroic’s five successful attacks on Villa meant they had the upper hand heading into the second half of the match. They eventually transformed the advantage into a regulation victory to spoil Byron “Blurr” Murray’s debut for G2 and Fabian “Fabian” Hällsten’s return to G2 as a coach.

TT9 Esports woes continue

After being picked up by TT9 Esports, the former PWNZ squad played its first match under a new banner against MNM Gaming.

Pavel “Amision” Chebatkov had a really strong performance, as he got 18 kills and ace-clutched in a 1v5 situation where he found and killed all the opponents. On the other side of the coin, Artyom “wTg” Morozov ended with a SiegeGG Rating of 0.44 and an entry split of 0-4.

However, it was a perfect start for MNM instead. Fatih “Solotov” Türker and Josh “Yuzus” Pritchard led in terms of entry kills, while Leon “neLo” Pesic got 10 kills and a SiegeGG Rating of 1.18 on Ying and Mute.

Wolves spoil top-flight return of former Empire trio

Outsiders became one of the teams to watch closely after the signings of Danila “Dan” Dontsov, Dmitry “Always” Mitrahovich, and Daniil “JoyStiCK” Gabov, though the latter was picked up as a coach.

But on Bank, it was absolute domination from Wolves from minute one. The French squad started off the game with five successful rounds out of six and only lost two more in the second half, winning 7-3.

Bastien “BiBooAF” Dulac secured a SiegeGG Rating of 1.46 as he got 10 kills and one clutch. Meanwhile, Dan and Always’ returns to Europe’s top-flight were less than stellar, as both failed to crack the 1.00 Rating mark.