Three North American teams surprised the competition in day one of the ESL Pro League Finals.
OpTic Gaming, Misfits, and NRG Esports are in a three-way tie for first in Group B, but Misfits and NRG are the two names that stand out the most after today’s matches. They lead SK Gaming (1-1), Ninjas in Pyjamas (1-1), and North (0-3) in the six-team standings with their 2-1 win-loss records so far.
Related: HellRaisers and Fnatic lead Group A after day one at the EPL Season Six Finals
Misfits may have defeated NRG Esports 16-11 in their first match of the day, but that didn’t stop NRG from upsetting Ninjas in Pyjamas and North. A late round 30 win gave the North American squad a 16-14 victory over NiP on Overpass, and shortly after they continued their momentum going into Mirage against North. After being successful in both pistol rounds and winning a majority of their buy rounds, NRG closed out their day with a 16-9 scoreline, with Cvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov top fragging the server at 30 kills and a 111.9 average damage per round.
But NRG wasn’t the only North American team to pull off a few upsets, as Misfits also upset North on Cobblestone. Although the score was tight throughout the first half, NRG took the second pistol round and a few more buy rounds to finish off the struggling Danish defense. Hunter “SicK” also found himself atop of the server with a 29-13 kill-death ratio and a 104.7 ADR in his team’s win over North.
Matches in Group B will resume tomorrow at 10:15am ET, and its conclusion will decide which three teams will be headed home and which three will go on to compete for a larger chunk of the $750,000 prize pool and for championship glory in the playoffs from Dec. 8 to 10.
