The debut for Counter Logic Gaming’s new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster could hardly have gone better.
The American team produced a shocking upset during the first day of play at Major League Gaming’s inaugural Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event at X-Games Aspen, defeating French side LDLC.
The win could hardly have been bigger for the squad. A series of great domestic results led to their signing with the Counter Logic Gaming organization just a week ago, but the team remained unproven against international competition, including the world’s best teams in Europe.
Meanwhile, LDLC came into the event still on the high of winning the final major of 2014 at DreamHack Winter, where they prevailed over Ninjas in Pyjamas in the final.
A lot of observers reasonably cast doubt on the chances of the North American teams attending X-Games, especially after the event opened with Sweden’s Fnatic punishing the newly sponsored Team Liquid by a blowout score of 16-3.
But Counter Logic Gaming were never intimidated by their opponents, even after losing a number of close rounds early in the match and at one point trailing 5-0.
Strong play in the remainder of the first half gave Counter Logic an 8-7 first half advantage. The team was able to win the second half pistol round to push the advantage further and force LDLC to save money, but a smart eco round from the French side led to their getting back on top with a 10-9 lead.
LDLC would lead again at 12-10, but six of the next eight rounds would go to Counter Logic Gaming to give the Americans a 16-14 upset on the final round of regulation.
Vincent “Happy” Cervoni turned in a strong performance for LDLC, as has become the norm, and Richard “Shox” Papillon produced some dynamic rounds. But Counter Logic stood strong as a team and executed with expert precision, starting with a number of stellar AWP shots from the team’s sniper Peter “ptr” Gurney.
Gurney’s 32 frags led all players in the match, and he was the main catalyst for the result.
Exciting as the game was, neither team is done for the day. Counter Logic must now contend with a more familiar opponent in Team Liquid, while LDLC will likely be putting their tournament lives on the line against archrival Fnatic.
