The first day of the ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018 has already witnessed a massive upset caused by Ghost, who have successfully eliminated the heavily favoured OpTic Gaming in the second quarter-finals of the day.
The two teams clashed in Hong Kong today at the Esports & Music Festival playing a BO3 series in a Single Elimination Bracket, this is how it all went down.
Game-1
The series kicked off on OpTic's preferred map - Nuke. The pistol round was closely won by OpTic playing T-side. Ghost struck back in the following round to equalize the score, the next few rounds were exchanged evenly between the two until Ghost found the lead with the score reading ‘4-2’.
Spectacular AWP plays from Ghost gave them a sizable '12-3' lead at half-time. The second pistol round went the way of Ghost but OpTic quickly took the following round only to see Ghost reach the map point in the next two rounds.
3v1 at the @ZotacCup and @WARDELLCSGO clutches up with the triple. #GhostGang keeps grinding. pic.twitter.com/xb690djlH1
— Ghost (@GhostGaming) 24 August 2018
The last push by OpTic delayed the inevitable by 4 rounds as Ghost won the match in the 24th round with the score reading ‘16-8’.
Game-2
The second match witnessed a strong start from Ghost, winning the opening two rounds on Overpass playing as CT. OpTic stepped up to the challenge bringing the score to an even ‘4-4’. From this point onwards it was all OpTic for the next 6 rounds with an only single round along the way dropped by them.
OpTic continued strong post the halftime taking 3 more rounds, although Ghost tried to break their momentum by snatching 2 rounds in a row, it turned out to be a small bump on OpTic’s way to victory as they went on a hat-trick to win the match in a convincing manner with the final score of ‘16-7’.
Game-3
The do-or-die match took place on Inferno where the T-sided Ghost took-off to a flying start by stringing together 4 rounds in succession. OpTic got an opportunity to put themselves on the board in the fifth round but was instantly shut down as Ghost went berserk with a 9-round run.
OpTic managed to break free of the building pressure just before halftime but that was the last round that went their way as Ghost downed the 3 remaining rounds to take the match ‘16-2’ in a very heavily one-sided game three.
By winning the BO3 series ‘2-1’, Ghost has knocked OpTic out of the ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018 to shock everyone and advance to the semi-finals to face Kinguin.
You can't sleep on #GhostGang. #GhostCSGO takes down Optic with a convincing 2-1 win in the first round of the @ZotacCup. We'll face @teamkinguin in the semis tomorrow. GG @OpTicGaming pic.twitter.com/5t4oIMtiS8
— Ghost (@GhostGaming) 24 August 2018
Let’s hope that the underdogs manage to go all the way through and that the previous performance wasn’t just their blue moon moment. Stay tuned as we keep you updated on the ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018.