Four teams went a perfect 3-0 to kick off the group stage on Friday at the Call of Duty World League Dallas Open. OpTic Gaming, eUnited, and FaZe Clan all proved why they deserved the first seed in their group, while the European powerhouse Splyce debuted a new roster that went undefeated on the first day of their inaugural LAN event as a team-of-four.
Top-seeded Rise Nation provided the surprise of the day, as they went winless in Group D, leaving Splyce to dominate after bringing Trei “Zer0” Morris over from Red Reserve.
After playing so well for the first time together on LAN, Zer0 had high praise for his new teammates.
“I’m feeling pretty good with this team,” Zer0 said. “The three players on this team are the best players in Europe, and possibly the world. Being on this team and on Splyce feels great.”
Enigma6 came out of the gates firing on all cylinders, sweeping Pnda and Rise in its first two matches of the day. But, Splyce was too much to handle, as the kings of Europe swept E6, who sit in second place at 2-1.
The CWL Vegas champions, Rise Nation, almost recovered from its first two losses, but the team unfortunately blew a 2-1 lead, which allowed Pnda to earn its only pool play victory 3-2. Rise Nation cannot advance out of pool play after this rough start, so this squad will have to string together an impressive losers bracket run in order to get back to the top.
OpTic Gaming is usually known for its slow starts on the first day of events, but that was not the case on Friday, as the Green Wall went 9-0 in map count en route to a 3-0 record in Group A. Matthew “Formal” Piper, the in-game leader for OpTic, was extremely happy with his team’s performance to begin this tournament.
“Today went well,” Formal said. “Usually we start off pretty slow and that can hurt our chances of winning in the long term, so when we start out hot, it’s definitely a good sign. Once we beat EnVyUs, I think we’re just looking forward to the rest of the weekend with high expectations.”
EnVyUs also got off to a hot start, winning its first two matches against Red Reserve and Tainted Minds, but the Green Wall was just too strong as the boys in blue were swept away. In the battle for third place, the Europeans swept the Aussies to give Red Reserve its first win of the tournament. Tainted Minds now has an even more difficult road ahead of them, as the Australians will need to make a massive losers bracket run in order to overthrow Mindfreak as the top team in the APAC region.
The CWL Atlanta champions, eUnited, bounced back from their top 16 showing in Paris to go undefeated in Group B. After winning his third match of the day, Justin “SiLLY” Fargo-Palmer, the captain of eUnited, was already looking forward to more Call of Duty action on Saturday.
“We started off really slow, but as the day progressed, we started doing better in our respawns,” SiLLY said. “Hopefully we can carry that into tomorrow.”
eUnited’s hot start can be attributed to its Hardpoint gameplay, as the team only lost this game mode once on the first day at CWL Dallas.
On the other hand, Cloud9 was able to rebound after disappointing finishes at the past two LAN events by going 2-1 on Friday. Patrick “ACHES” Price led Cloud9 to a huge win over Mindfreak to start the day, but following a 3-1 loss against eUnited, C9 responded with an impressive 3-0 sweep over Millenium.
Millenium, the French organization that officially acquired Team Infused early Friday morning, played a lot of tough matches, but was only able to take down the Aussies on Mindfreak. Even though Mindfreak currently doesn’t have a win in pool play, the team’s spot at the top of the APAC region looks to be intact as Tainted Minds also went winless on Friday.
FaZe put on a show in Group C, with dominating performances over the European sides of Elevate and Fnatic, as well as an impressive comeback win against Luminosity Gaming. With Luminosity up 2-1 in the final series of the night, FaZe answered back with a 250-216 win on Breakout Hardpoint, followed by a commanding 6-2 victory on game five Crusher Search and Destroy.
This loss pushed Luminosity’s record down to 1-2, as the team was upset in its first match of the day against Fnatic, who sits in second place in this group at 2-1. Despite winning one map in every series played, Elevate is the sole team without a win in Group C.
Group A Standings:
- OpTic Gaming: 3-0
- Team EnVyUs: 2-1
- Red Reserve: 1-2
- Tainted Minds: 0-3
Team EnVyUs 3-2 Red Reserve
OpTic Gaming 3-0 Tainted Minds
OpTic Gaming 3-0 Red Reserve
Team EnVyUs 3-1 Tainted Minds
OpTic Gaming 3-0 Team EnVyUs
Red Reserve 3-0 Tainted Minds
Group B Standings:
- eUnited: 3-0
- Cloud9: 2-1
- Millenium: 1-2
- Mindfreak: 0-3
eUnited 3-2 Millenium
Cloud9 3-2 Mindfreak
eUnited 3-1 Cloud9
Millenium 3-2 Mindfreak
eUnited 3-1 Mindfreak
Cloud9 3-0 Millenium
Group C Standings:
- FaZe Clan: 3-0
- Fnatic: 2-1
- Luminosity Gaming: 1-2
- Elevate: 0-3
FaZe Clan 3-1 Elevate
Fnatic 3-1 Luminosity Gaming
FaZe Clan 3-1 Fnatic
Luminosity Gaming 3-1 Elevate
FaZe Clan 3-2 Luminosity Gaming
Fnatic 3-1 Elevate
Group D Standings:
- Splyce: 3-0
- Enigma6: 2-1
- Pnda Gaming: 1-2
- Rise Nation: 0-3
Splyce 3-2 Rise Nation
Enigma6 3-0 Pnda Gaming
Enigma6 3-0 Rise Nation
Splyce 3-1 Pnda Gaming
Splyce 3-0 Enigma6
Pnda Gaming 3-2 Rise Nation
Published: Mar 18, 2017 09:26 am