StarLadder CS:GO Major – Round 1 full recap

Telling tales of esports, one word at a time, six years and counting

August 23rd, 2019

The opening series of games featured their fair share of upsets and stomps alike as the fifteenth CS:GO major kicked off in Berlin in explosive fashion.

First, Syman Gaming shocked the world as they comfortably took out world #2 Team Vitality in the curtain-raiser of the StarLadder Berlin Major.

The Frenchmen's odd decision to let Dust 2 through bit them as the CIS side scored a momentous upset in the opening game of the tournament. ZywOo predicably topped the charts for his side even with a measly +1 K/D as he scored a 1.24 rating per HLTV. On the other side of the equation, Maksim 't0rick' Zaikin finished the series +17, carrying his side with incredible individual performances.

It was a tale of two halves and just a little bit more as DreamEaters almost failed to capitalize on a strong start against NRG, failing to close out a 15-6 lead in regulation against the North American side but making up for it in overtime.

The StarLadder Major began with two upsets as NRG and Vitality both failed to deal with what seemed like softball opposition at first sight, but it's NRG who might be kicking themselves even more about the way it all went down. They clawed their way back from a situation where they were nine match points down, only to drop the ball in overtime to DreamEaters.

kennyS dominated the scoreboard with JaCkz as the Frenchmen posted a comfortable victory against Tyloo on Overpass in their opening game of the Berlin major with a score of 16-10.

Unlike in Katowice, where G2 looked very shaky in the opening rounds of the tournament, they’ve done very well here with an uncharacteristically slow approach coupled with strong individual performances. Both kennyS and JaCkz performed very well in a game where the Frenchmen’s victory never really looked in doubt after they’ve managed to post nine rounds on the T side of Overpass – especially not with monster frags like these:

There were no breaks on the hype train as Kjaerbye and co. completely dismantled INTZ with a 16-5 scoreline, putting themselves in excellent position at the opening stage of the Berlin Major.

The game between the two teams that missed each other in the play-in qualifiers turned out to be a huge mismatch in the end: North completely shut out INTZ on the CT side with a 14-1 half, and though the Brazilians managed to claw back a few rounds in the second half, it was over before you could even say “comeback”. The Danes picked up their sixteenth round off the back of a partial buy, recording a comprehensive victory.

Inferno didn’t bode well so far for the underdogs in Berlin as both FURIA and Hellraisers recorded comfortable 16-6 victories over their rivals in the first round.

For a team with promising individuals but limited teamplay, it’s a bad sign that both oskar and loWel failed to show up in Hellraisers’ opening match. Meanwhile, every FURIA player showed up but it was still KSCERATO who had the biggest highlight moment in their one-sided game at the end of the first half:

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of mousesports’ dominant victory was how they picked up five rounds out of seven on the T side as they were closing out the game against forZe. The #10 ranked team in the world bounced back from a shaky CT side start and never looked back from there.

AVANGAR’s buster and qikert shine as they take down Complexity

A closely fought series between two lower-ranked sides saw yet another CIS victory in the opening round as neither of the high-profile newcomers set the world alight: AdreN ended the series 15-21 with an 0.74 rating on the winners’ side as youngster oBo also finished fourth on his team with a K/D of 18-20.

CR4ZY shuts down Grayhound’s Nuke T side to secure victory

It was the huNter- and LETN1 show as CR4ZY made a successful comeback against the Austrians in the second half on Nuke, only losing the pistol round and one gun round along the way.