LA Major Day 1 Highlights

After weeks of waiting, the Winter Major has finally arrived, and started with a bang. On day 1, history was made for a new region, dark horses rose to the occasion, and one of the world’s best faltered on the big stage. Here are our highlights from each group of the first day of the group stage:

Group A: V1 On Top, DeToNator Make History

Group A contained 8 LAN debutants, who started their international career to varying levels of success.

For DeToNator, it was a sense of elation and relief. After being blitzed by the European champions Queso, DeToNator found their rhythm in the following matchup with FaZe. Burn’s offensive pressure fueled the kings of APAC early in the series, as they dropped game 1 in a tight overtime before making history in the second with APAC’s first international game win. Although it wasn’t sustained, with the more experienced FaZe Bra7i1ing them in game 4, it at least shows that the region is slowly becoming more competitive.

In the case of FaZe, it was truly a day to forget. Even with Firstkiller shining on offence for the majority of the day, the team that once held claim to being North America’s super team were embarrassed. They were completely burnt for pace by a less experienced V1, and dropped a game to a team considered by far the worst at LAN, and looked like almost dropping the series. Fortunately for FaZe, there’s still time for redemption, but today’s signs exhibited a lack of cohesion within the team.

But the team that truly rose to the occasion, was V1 and Beastmode, who has proved himself as a beast on LAN. After sweeping FaZe in dominant, impressive fashion, with Torment's unbelievable defensive work leading V1 to victory, North America's rising dark horse then found themselves in a battle with Queso for 1st in the group. With the pressure of the world watching, it appeared early to be rise who would be the difference maker, getting a hat trick in game 1 to try and lift his team of prodigies. But V1 were instead the ones to rise under the pressure. Beastmode was dominant from the get go, with an unreal double tap in game 1 starting the flow of goals to take the 4-3 win, Torment was an absolute rock in defence and had perfect offensive positioning, and Comm's impact was bigger than just on the field.

Not only was he relentless on offence, both on and off the ball, but his presence on the stage was truly felt, demoralising Queso with the constant stream of trash talk being spit out. And with the series hanging in the balance, down 1-0 late in game 4, Beastmode rose once more, finding another double tap read, before slipping past the whole defence to find the overtime finish.

V1 are now essentially locked in as Group A's 1st place team, with their game 1 performance highlighting themselves as a genuine contender for the title in LA.

Group B: NA Champions Rattled

On the main stream, a solid battle unfolded as Endpoint got their revenge over the Renegades for their round 1 loss in Stockholm. Seikoo was the stand out player for the series, with some mechanically brutal finishes, with his Australian counterpart, Fever, also putting up a strong performance to keep Renegades alive. Yet it wouldn't prove enough as Endpoint were just too speedy for the kings of OCE, taking a strong 3-1 victory.

But the real fight took place on the secondary stream, between NRG and Furia. We were promised mayhem and flair out of the kings of SAM, and they certainly didn't disappoint, with 9 goals between the two teams in game 1 alone setting us up for a huge series. Yet after NRG took game 1 in overtime, the whole series flipped on its head. For the remainder of the series, Furia's pressure was relentless, and completely suffocated NRG on defence. Normally a team so upbeat in their play and comms, NRG seemed utterly defeated, with Jstn looking like he didn't even want to be there.

The leader behind this domination: yanxnz. Labelled by many as a top 20 player in the world, yanxnz has an incredibly high bar to reach, and his performance definitely lived up to the hype. NA's best just weren't capable of reading his solo plays, at times having multiple members sitting in net, with a game 4 hat trick leading Furia to the 3-1 win, and capping off a spectacular series.

Group C: Lines Drawn In The Sand

Heading into the Major, the majority of people expected Group C to have a clear distinction between the top half of the group and the bottom. Following day 1, that gap has been formed, but not quite in the way we all expected.

After BDS methodically picked Team Secret to pieces in a 3-0 sweep, with the French offensive duo suffocating the #1 SAM seed, whilst Atomic was able to find just enough to help G2 to pick apart the wall that is EG.

So after G2 lead 2-0 against Team Secret, with Atomic unstoppable with 5 goals to start the series off strong, and finding the double demo to set up the game 1 sealer, the SAM young guns seemed outpaced and completely out of their depth. But they weren't done yet. Their defensive lockdown showed experience beyond their years, with a math flick helping to get the game 3 win, and a bottom left missile helped to tie game 4, before an insane passing play brought the series to 2-2 . With North American's already traumatised by SAM, after Furia beat NRG from behind, history seemed to be repeating itself.

Unfortunately for Secret, it just wasn't to be as the veteran JKnaps led G2 to a hot start on Champions Field, with North America's 2nd seed able to hold off Secret's offensive efforts to secure the series in 5, putting them 2-0 for the day.

And whilst this match was going on, history was being written on the main stream. In a defensive centred series, EG found themselves at the mercy of the Fall Major champions early in the series. M0nkey M00n was tough to stop on offence, and the lack of fire power to respond put them down 2-1. But in game 4, not even the titanic could get past EG in net who produced the greatest defensive performance in RLCS history, notching 14 saves in an unreal effort, to take an incredible game. The game was won by EG at the 10:15 mark of overtime, an RLCS record, with ivn securing his thou for the game with the winning goal to send the series to game 5.

But game 5 was nothing but heart break for EG. They were unable to find a goal past the wall of BDS, and with Rizex's own goal, although quickly redeemed, paired with a perfect finish from M0nkey M00n, BDS were able to find the win to take the series 3-2.

Tomorrow now shapes up as a huge day for group C, with G2 and BDS fighting for the upper bracket placement, whilst Team Secret and EG fight to keep their chances alive after a heart wrenching day 1.

Group D: SSG Fight Back From Death's Door

What appeared to be a tame way to finish off a hectic day of action, turned out to be the polar opposite. Early on in the sole group D series for the day, Dignitas seemed to have the clear upper hand over the out of form SSG, who failed to net a single goal in the first two games as Joreuz’s shooting and the team’s iron wall in defence helped Dig to sail out to a 2-0 series lead.

But in game 3, everything changed, as a beautiful passing play between Retals and Arsenal set up their first goal of the matchup. And after a technical timeout, it was Arsenal who found their second with a flip reset top corner finish, and despite a defensive error from the rookie, Daniel, a beautiful angle from Jack, and a misplay on back from Arsenal gifting the lead back, the flood gates had been opened, and it SSG quickly climbed back on top. Daniel found a goal out of chaos and Arsenal found another solo play finish to rip the lead back from the Europeans, which would prove enough for the game 3 win.

Once SSG had been given a sniff of success, there was no stopping their momentum for the rest of the series. Arsenal was a huge offensive presence for the following two games, showing why he's a LAN specialist, and Retals was the glue that really held the team together in the big moments. Arsenal's energy, both with the trash talk to Dignitas and in hyping up his out of form phenom team mate, Daniel, who struggled in finding his feet, was huge throughout the series, and paired with Retals' iciness in the face of pressure, helped SSG to find the 3-2 reverse sweep.

An incredible win, SSG are now just a series away from guaranteeing a top 6 finish, and although certainly not a clean win, will hopefully give them the confidence to come back strong in two days' time.