The outcome of the first day of the IEM Sydney 2023 tournament brought us the first two participants of the playoff finals, MOUZ and BetBoom, who started the tournament with two tied victories each in group A.
We have already described the matches that led to the surprise of the day in the form of Vitality's relegation in this text, and while FaZe and Vitality were fighting for survival, in the upper part of the draw, the battle for passage to the playoffs flared up.
In a clash of underdogs, BetBoom easily got the better of GamerLegion. The first map was much more uncertain thanks to the good play of GamerLegion on the T side, so only in the last round of the regular part of the Mirage map did we get a winner. BetBoom was more effective on Nuke, even though it was the choice of their opponents, and they turn an 8-4 advantage developed on the CT side seven rounds later into a 13-6 victory and thus reach their ticket to the end of the tournament.
Their rival for direct passage to the semi-finals and first place in Group A will be MOUZ, which, like Na'Vi, is also playing with a change in the tournament.
Unlike Na'Vi, who plays with a coach, MOUZ was able to bring a player from his academy to the tournament, Bram "Nexius" Campana, who replaces Jimi "jimpphat" Salo, who, like Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev, did not manage to get his visa in time . The difference in substitutions was evident throughout the entire match, but despite that, Na'Vi managed to celebrate on Inferno and make MOUSE work hard in order to win.
MOUSE took an early lead on Mirage, but thanks to a great defense, Na'Vi managed to win extra time, but they didn't have the strength for a complete turnaround and MOUSE wins 16-13. He responded to Na'Vi with a convincing 13-4 victory on Inferno, but MOUZ is playing much better on the decisive map Ancient where they celebrate 13-6 to advance.
In the lower part of the draw of Group A, Apex defeated VERTEX ESC 2-0 and thereby marked the end of the home team's participation. Tomorrow they fight for survival against GamerLegion, and the winner of that match will play for the playoffs against the better of the Na'Vi - FaZe duel.
There were no major surprises in the first matches of Group B. ENCE defeated Lynn Vision 13-6 on Anubis, Fnatic 13-10 Cloud9 on Inferno, and Complexity - Monte 13-9 on Anubis. In the last, and for our fans, the most important match of Group B, G2 Esports defeated Grayhounds 13-11 on Nuke, although Joshua "INS" Potter almost missed a 1 on 4 clutch in the last round and won overtime for his team, but he Nemanja "Hunter" Kovač prevented him from planting a bomb at the last moment and thereby brought victory to his team.
G2 Esports will battle Complexity tonight from 04:30 for a place in the playoffs, while ENCE will have to defeat Fnatic if they want to secure a place in the top 6 as soon as possible.
