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DarkZero Esports and w7m esports have advanced to the next round of the upper bracket after defeating Soniqs and Team BDS, respectively.
In the North American derby, both DarkZero Esports and Soniqs met for the first time in a BO3 series since the NAL 2021 Finals. Back then, Soniqs would rise as regional champions. However, the series would have a different result this time.
The first map of the series, Kafe, was decided on overtime. Troy "Canadian" Jaroslawski saved his team in the last round of the map, where the Canadian clutched a 1v1 situation against the current world champion Emilio "Geometrics" Léynez.
Next, Border was just very one-sided for the Soniqs, with Shaun "Gunnar" Pottorff and Pablo "Gryxr" Rebeil leading the Americans. Finally, one clutch from Gunnar on round 10 and another one from Richie "Gryxr" Coronado helped Soniqs to push DarkZero to overtime.
The final three rounds of the match were full of excitement. After Alexander "Skys" Magor's clutch in the first round of overtime, the purple squad got the early advantage. Although Soniqs would momentarily tie the series, a brilliant play from the debutant Gaven "Gaveni" Black gave DZ the win in what was one of the closest series of the Six Invitational 2023.
Next for DarkZero Esports will be KOI, while Soniqs will face Astralis tomorrow to remain alive in the competition.
Meanwhile, in the remaining match of the upper bracket first round, Team BDS were beaten by the Brazilian squad of w7m esports. Diego "Kheyze" Zanello, who was far from his best form during the group stage, absolutely demolished the Frenchmen with a SiegeGG rating of 1.42.
Team BDS suffered a lot in the early stages of the rounds, as w7m esports were incredibly strong at getting entry kills. Both Stéphane "Shaiiko" Lebleu and Théo "LikEfac" Mariano, who averaged a combined entry balance of 56-26 (+30) during the group stage, finished their clash against the Brazilians with a combined entry balance of 6-13 (-7) as they were run over by Kheyze, Gabriel "HerdsZ" Herdina, and Gabriel "volpz" Fernandes.
On Clubhouse, w7m esports forced the overtime after being 2-6 behind. Eventually, the Brazilians would win with a score of 8-6. A 2-7 loss on Kafe was followed by another 8-6 win for the bulls, who pushed Team BDS to the lower bracket.
Later today, w7m esports will face M80 for a chance to advance to the upper bracket semi-finals. Meanwhile, the Frenchmen will play against Team Liquid in what will be a replay of the Six Jönköping Major grand-final.