IEM Summer Day 1 was held today with the opening Bo1 round for both groups followed by the second-round games of Group A. With the new map in the pool, Ancient showing up 3 times in one day, the day proved to be a good start to the most refreshing event of the online event.
Group A Opening Games:
Group A kicked off the show with the Best of One round that has become a rare sight in the modern Bo3 World. The first games of the day were the world No.1 Gambit taking on the German squad of Sprout and Vitality taking on the Juggernaut Complexity. Both games took us to the skyscraper of Vertigo. For Gambit the game was as easy as could be and Sprout stood no chance at a win. faveN tried his best and put up good numbers but when Gambit’s support player interz top frags you know that they faced no opposition. The game ended with a dominant 16-6 scoreline with only one 1v3 clutch by faveN being a noteworthy play.
Over on the other game, Vitality took on the Juggernaut. The game started with a JKS 1v4 in the pistol round that set the stage for a close half to follow. Rounds were traded back and forth with no team getting over 3 rounds in a row. The half ended with an 8-7 as Vitality barely edged a lead off the back of a strong performance from Kyojin and ZywOo that included an insane 1v2 clutch. The second half was a much different story as Vitality dominated with IGL apEX leading from the front, the only round Complexity was able to win was a 1v4 Clutch by RUSH where he managed to isolate 4 1v1 duels that led to his win in that round. The strong performance from RUSH was not enough to save Complexity as they lost the map 16-8.
Astralis took on FunPlus Phoenix as we got our first game on Ancient. From the get-go, FPX looked dominant as they took the first round without giving a single kill to Astralis. Gla1ve had a heartbreaking round as he got a Deagle ace but failed to win the round as he was just shy of the defuse by a few milliseconds. The half ended with a 10-5 scoreline heavily favouring FPX as they moved over to their CT side. In the second half, FPX’s dominance continued as they closed out the game quickly at a 16-7 scoreline.
The final game of group A saw G2 face-off against recent NA returns Extra Salt, where G2 absolutely decimated the opposition. NiKo had a strong performance as usual but the X factor was AmaNEK who matched NiKo’s performance with a stellar game of his own. The duo carried the game as Extra Salt only managed to win 1 round in the whole game, starting their Europe run on a sour note.
Group B Opening Games:
Group B started off with another Ancient game, this time between Heroic and Imperial. Heroic was the stronger team throughout but the game got a lot closer than it should have as the first half ended with a 9-6 scoreline off the back of a strong performance from SHOOWTiME. The Number 2 team in the world regained control in the second half and closed out the game 16-8 with cadiaN and TeSeS having a strong map.
This game was followed by the biggest upset of the Bo1 round. EG took on Team Spirit on Overpass, The NA team have had a poor run in 2021 and have continued their freefall down the rankings. Overpass being the battleground gave EG a puncher’s chance and the Geniuses make good use of the opportunity. The new additions to the roster oBo and MICHU performed as usual but what changed the fortunes of the NA squad was CeRq’s rejuvenated form as he got crucial kills and beat Spirit’s star degster in the AWP presence and EG won the map 16-9. This marks a huge uptick in performance for Stanislaw’s troops and if they can continue this form they have a chance to start making a comeback to the top though I wouldn’t hold out hope just yet.
NIP and OG took to the virtual stage next as they chose Mirage to be the location of their battle. NIP has had good performances on the map recently but it has also been a historically good map for Aleksib’s troops. The map showed a good performance from mantuu as the British awper put up good numbers and helped OG over the Swedish Ninjas. hampus tried his best to win keep NIP in the game but OG took the win 16-9, sending threat’s troops down to the lower bracket.
The final Best of One was the game between Virtus.Pro and fnatic. The legendary fnatic have been in terrible shape in 2021, only staying in the HLTV top 30 due to being an ESL partner team. Even the most hardcore fnatic fans didn’t expect much and the first half looked like the game would be a blowout as a YEKINDAR powered VP took the half 13-2. Jackinho’s performance pulled fnatic back into a respectable scoreline in the second half as they managed to secure 8 more rounds. VP still managed to close out the map with a 16-10 score moving on to the upper bracket. JW and Golden continue to put up subpar numbers and with no sign of peppez0r being subbed in fnatic’s future looks bleak.
Group A Upper Bracket Semi-Finals
The biggest upset in the event so far took place in the first Upper Semi game between Vitality and Gambit. The best team in the world was antistratted and out fragged by the French side. The first map was kept close as Both teams played a close game. The first half ended with an 8-7 scoreline as Vitality edged out a small lead. The second half continued to be close but ZywOo and misutaaa’s performances took down Gambit 16-13. The second map was Overpass, the fort of Gambit’s dominance, but Vitality managed to breach through the fort and defeat the king. ZywOo misutaaa continued their strong performance and apEX joined them to secure playoffs with a 16-8 scoreline as they gave Gambit no path back into the game.
The games continued on the other side of the bracket as FPX took on G2, starting off with another appearance of Ancient. The map was a firework show from Maden as he had his career-best map performance dropping 42 kills in regulation and a 2.15 rating. He almost single-handedly carried the team to victory as FPX secured the map 16-12. Next up was G2’s pick of Dust2 and the game continued the trend of the event so far with a close as can be the first half. The second half started off with traded sets of rounds before G2 managed to pull away and win the map 16-13 off the back of a strong huNter- performance. The final frontier was Inferno and FPX hoped for a win to make a surprise playoffs run but G2 was the better team. The Franco-Serbian roster dominated the first half taking 11 rounds on their T side. This was followed up by a pistol-round win which all but secured their playoffs berth. After trading sets of 3 rounds, G2 closed the series down and joined Vitality in the playoffs.
Group A Lower Bracket Round 1
The lower bracket went through nice and quick with both games going 2-0 for the favorite. Complexity found themselves in a rematch of the 9th to 12th bracket match vs Sprout from Flashpoint 3. The veto followed the same pattern as Sprout picked Dust2 and coL picked Mirage but where the previous match was a comfortable win for coL on both maps as they gave Sprout 11 rounds in 2 maps, but this time it was a totally different story. Dust2 gave the lead in the first half to blameF’s troops with a 10-5 scoreline but Sprout answered back with a strong CT side of their own taking the map to overtime as veterans denis and Spiidi put up strong numbers to keep the game close. In overtime Complexity barely edged out a win with a 19-17 scoreline. The next map was Mirage where the game continued to be close as blameF, JKS, Konfig put up solid kills but opposition from faveN and kressy kept the game close and coL ended the series with a 16-14 score.
Astralis had an easier time as they ended the tournament for JT’s troops in Extra Salt. The teams played on Vertigo and Nuke. Astralis’ individuals had great clutch rounds and with Xyp9x and Magisk finding good form they helped their team win the map despite a close first half. The second map went by even easier for Astralis as they secured 10 rounds on the T side which is basically game over on a map like Nuke. Overall Magisk’s return to form shows good progress for Astralis after device left.
The first day of IEM Summer has brought some interesting results and Ancient has joined the played maps already. Right now Ancient seems similar to Cache in some aspects but is played a main pug style map with teams relying on individual fragging as can be seen in the FPX-G2 game. The group stage will continue tomorrow at 13:30 CEST and you can catch these games live on ESL’s Twitch Channel.
