13th August brings with it the ZOWIE eXTREMESLAND 2018 India Direct Invite Qualifier: Day-1. This is the first time that the Indian Region is getting a DIQ as part of the eXTREMESLAND 2018 Regional Qualifiers.
The teams invited for the qualifier are:
-
2ez Gaming
-
OpTic India
-
Brutality
-
MAG PUNEF1VE
-
Invictus
-
Team Malhar
-
Entity Gaming
-
ATE Gaming
The day was packed with high octane entertainment as we witness a load of interesting matches between some of the best teams in India.
DIQ will be following a BO3, double elimination format with the top 2 teams making it through to the LAN Finals of the Qualifier which is scheduled to take place from 8th-9th September.
Here is a quick recap of the day, if you happened to miss out on any or all of the matches.
Invictus v/s Team Malhar
The first match was played on Train with Invictus playing from T-side. Invictus got off to a great start winning the first 3 rounds but Malhar was quick to react by focusing on stopping their opponents' rushes, successfully claiming the next 4 rounds.
After exchanging a few rounds both the teams were drawn on ‘8-8’, from here on out it was all Invictus, dropping just 2 games in-between to claim victory by a score of ‘16-10’.
The second match took place on Overpass with Invictus playing CT-side. The first half saw a dominant performance from Invictus as they started off brilliantly with an 11-round streak. Malhar fought back by taking the last 4 rounds of the half but it wasn’t enough to stop Invictus as they reached map point by going on a 4-round spree of their own.
Invictus was held back from tasting victory for quite some time as Malhar attempted a comeback only to falter in the 25th round as Invictus won with the score reading ‘16-9’.
Invictus won the BO3 series against Malhar quite convincingly taking the series ‘2-0’ with a ‘16-10’ win on Train followed by a ‘16-9’ victory on Overpass.
2ez Gaming v/s OpTic India
The first match took off on Train with OpTic playing from CT-side. Starting with a wobble, OpTic was down ‘1-4’ initially but came back with a 5 round streak to go ahead ‘6-4’. 2EZ played by the book to win 4 consecutive rounds taking back their lead.
Down by a difference of 3, OpTic executed some amazing plays to quickly take 6 in a row. From here on they went onto win the match, ‘16-13’ facing little resistance from their opponents.
The second match started with 2EZ winning the pistol round on Dust 2 playing from CT-side. Post the pistol round 2EZ never showed commitment to any of their executions, giving away the first half ‘4-11’. Again, after winning the second pistol round the team faltered, throwing the game away to OpTic who won by a score of ‘16-5’.
OpTic India won the BO3 series against 2ez Gaming, taking the series ‘2-0’ with a ‘16-13’ win on Train followed by a ‘16-5’ win on Dust 2.
Brutality v/s MAG PUNEF1VE
The first match between the two team was forfeited by MAG due to internet connectivity issues.
The second match occurred on Overpass with Brutality playing from the CT-side. The first half of the match was taken by Brutality in an overwhelming manner with the score reading ‘11-4’. After the half, MAG tried to mount a comeback by taking 3 consecutive rounds but couldn’t manage to go on as Brutality struck hard with a match-winning 5-round streak, taking the match ‘16-7’.
Brutality won the BO3 series against MAG PUNEF1VE, taking the series ‘2-0’ with a ‘16-0’ default win followed by a ‘16-7’ win on Overpass.
Entity Gaming v/s ATE Gaming
The first match saw the two teams clash on Dust 2 with Entity playing from CT-side. Entity took a huge lead upfront tearing through ATE, dropping just 2 out of the initial 10 rounds. The next few rounds saw ATE slowly picking up the pace as they reached a difference of just 1 round between the two.
Urgency struck Entity as they shifted gears to take the match away from ATE, winning 6 consecutive rounds to stand victorious by a score of ‘16-9’.
The second bout saw the 2 fight it out on Inferno with Entity playing from CT-side. This time the initial to mid rounds were well fought with the score reading ‘7-7’ after 14 rounds. The half went the way of Entity though, who then went on an insane 7-round streak to reach map point, finally finishing with a ‘16-8’ win.
Entity Gaming won the BO3 series against ATE Gaming, taking the series ‘2-0’ with a ‘16-9’ win on Dust 2 followed by a ‘16-8’ win on Inferno.
Invictus v/s OpTic India
The first clash between the two took place on Nuke with OpTic playing T-sided. The match kicked off with some tight initial rounds being exchanged by the two sides until OpTic broke free in the 8th round, going on a 10-round streak to post a massive lead of ‘14-3’.
The win came later than expected for OpTic as Invictus fought back in the dying moments of the game taking the final score to ‘16-8’.
The second match was played on Inferno with OpTic playing from the CT-side. OpTic started strong winning 4 games in a row, although Invictus tried to halt them by taking 2 rounds in the middle OpTic were just unstoppable with their aggressive playstyle and went on to win 5 consecutive rounds to post a score of ‘11-2’.
Invictus started building momentum giving away just a single round while taking 4 for themselves. But OpTic recovered just in time to deliver the finishing blow, taking 4 consecutive rounds and winning the second game ‘16-6’.
OpTic India won the BO3 series against Invictus, taking the series ‘2-0’ with a ‘16-8’ win on Nuke followed by a ‘16-6’ win on Inferno.
Brutality v/s Entity
The first match took place on Dust 2 with Entity starting from T-side. Entity started of strong piling up 5 games in their favour which were followed by a 3-round streak by Brutality before slipping the next 3 to Entity again.
Brutality struck back strong by winning 5 consecutive rounds to bring the score to a ‘9-9’ standstill. From here on the rounds were exchanged equally between the two sides until the 25th round where Entity broke free and won the next 4 rounds to win the first game ‘16-12’.
The second game was played on Mirage with Entity playing from CT-side. Starting strong Entity went on a 7-round streak, although Brutality managed to stop them on the 8th round, they faltered again to 4 consecutive wins by Entity.
Brutality quickly managed to win 3 consecutive rounds which were drawn out by 3 rounds from Entity, to lead the score at ‘14-4’. The next 4 rounds were evenly divided and Entity took the win in the second game with a score of ‘16-6’.
Entity Gaming won the BO3 series against Brutality, taking the series ‘2-0’ with a ‘16-12’ win on Dust 2 followed by a ‘16-6’ win on Mirage.
Team Malhar v/s 2ez Gaming
The first game between the two teams took place on Cache with Malhar taking an early game lead by winning 6 rounds in a row which was chased down by 2ez winning 7 consecutive rounds. Although Malhar reached the map point in the 26th round, they were denied victory due to a brilliant 8 round run from 2ez, who won the match in overtime by a score of ‘19-15’.
The two teams clashed on Inferno for the second match where 2ez played from T-side. 2ez continued to show dominance by winning the first 6 rounds and kept a comfortable lead of 7 rounds by halftime. Malhar tried to take back the lead by winning 4 rounds in a row but 2ez quickly shut them down by running away with a 5-round streak and winning the second match with a score of ‘16-8’.
2ez Gaming won the BO3 series against Team Malhar, taking the series ‘2-0’ with a ‘19-15’ win on Cache followed by a ‘16-8’ win on Inferno.
MAG PUNEF1VE v/s ATE Gaming
The first match took place on Inferno with MAG playing from T-side. MAG started on a good note winning the first 3 rounds and kept constant pressure by maintaining a steady momentum bringing the score to ‘9-6’ at halftime.
The other half opened with MAG shifting gears and taking 6 consecutive rounds to reach map point but ATE showed resistance by winning the next 5 rounds, finally giving up on the 27th round to lose the first match ‘11-16’ to MAG PUNEF1VE.
The second bout was fought on Mirage with ATE starting from CT-side. ATE won the first 2 rounds following up shortly with another 9-round streak to take a massive lead of ‘11-1’. MAG fought back taking 4 successive rounds and continued forward by winning 6 more rounds bringing the score to ‘14-11’ but ATE stepped up their game to take the 2 required rounds and claimed victory in the second match with a score of ‘16-11’.
The final match of the series was played on Dust 2 with ATE playing on T-side. ATE kicked off with a trio of wins, giving away one round in the middle only to come back and claim 4 more rounds. MAG finally stopped them short of running away with the game by winning 5 in a row. The halftime score was ‘9-6’ in favour of ATE.
ATE extended their lead winning 5 consecutive rounds in the second half, they dropped a game after in the 21st round but took the next 2 rounds to win the third match with a score of ‘16-7’.
ATE Gaming won the BO3 series against MAG PUNE1VE, taking the series ‘2-1’ with a ‘16-11’ win on Mirage followed by a ‘16-7’ win on Dust 2.
The First day of the DIQ ended with 'OpTiC India' and 'Entity Gaming' making it all the way to the semi-finals, whereas we also witnessed 'Team Malhar' along with 'MAG PUNEF1VE' get knocked out of the qualifier. The Second day of the DIQ will witness 2 teams making it through to the 'India LAN FInals', so stay tuned to find out who makes it out of this cut-throat competition.