This article is part of our CS:GO Recap series.
The Esports Championship Series Season 2 Finals got underway on Friday afternoon, and there were plenty of surprises to be had. Astralis and Team EnVyUs were the big winners of the day after the teams advanced to the semifinals with wins over FaZe Clan and Team Dignitas, respectively. To the surprise of many, Cloud9, OpTic Gaming, SK Gaming and Immortals all fell along the way in one of the most unpredictable days in recent Counter-Strike memory.
Astralis gets its revenge
The action kicked off right where the last big tournament ended, with Astralis taking on OpTic Gaming in a rematch of the ELEAGUE Season 2 grand final. While OpTic took the first meeting last weekend, the loss clearly lit a fire under Astralis. During the Media Day of the event on Thursday, Astralis said it would certainly be taking OpTic seriously, and it showed. OpTic got out to a 3-0 lead early, but then Astralis kicked it into high gear and took the map by a fairly breezy score of 16-7. Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz and his AWP did the most damage on Astralis with a 22/13 KD (kills/deaths) and 94.7 ADR (average damage per round).
This set up a meeting between Astralis and FaZe Clan (who took down Cloud9 16-6 in its first match) in the winner's finals of Group A, and it proved to be one of the most one-sided matches of the day. Astralis got out to an incredible 11-1 lead before continuing to push on to a 16-3 win in what was a complete rout. This time it was Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth who stepped up to lead the way with a 25/5 KD and an off-the-charts 148.5 ADR. Astralis will now get a day off as it waits to see how the rest of the group stages are going to shake out.
Team EnVyUs brings the shock and awe
Team EnVyUs haven't been in the thick of things in the Counter-Strike world for some time now, but it certainly made its presence known early on in the ECS Finals. Going up against Immortals, it had its work cut out for them, since the Brazilian squad, who gets in regular practice with the beasts of SK Gaming, is no slouch. Immortals got the first punch in with a 9-1 lead early on, but EnVyUs weren't going to go quietly into the night. It stormed all the way back and ended up forcing the only overtime match of the day. EnVyUs finally prevailed in the second overtime by a score of 22-19, with Kenny "kennyS" Schrub leading the way with a 31/27 KD.
With Team Dignitas also pulling off an upset with a win over SK earlier in the day, EnVyUs and Dignitas were left to duke it out for the top spot of Group B. As was the case in the winners match of Group A, EnVyUs decimated Dignitas in a 16-3 match. EnVyUs held a relatively close 6-3 lead over its opponent before exploding with 10 straight rounds to take the map. This time it was Christophe "SIXER" Xia who went off with a 21/4 KD and 99.7 ADR. EnVyUs will now take the day off while Dignitas will be left to play one last match in the loser's finals to decide the final team to leave Group B.
Now that Dignitas and Astralis will be able to sit back and relax on Saturday, the other teams will be battling for the final two spots in the semifinals. The action will kick off Saturday afternoon at 2:15pm EST with OpTic Gaming facing Cloud9, which will be followed by SK Gaming and Dignitas squaring off. Only two of the six teams left competing will leave the group stages, and if the first day is any indication, there is likely to be plenty of excitement and upsets.
