Here's everything that happened on the first day of action this week in the Europe League 2024 Stage 2!
WYLDE 7-1 Team Secret
The first match of the day saw WYLDE taking down Team Secret on Lair in what was the team's second consecutive 7-1 victory of the stage.
Led by Antonio "CroqSon" Vázquez, who got five kills in the first two rounds of the game, WYLDE kicked off the clash with a 2-0 lead. After the team's bright start, Layton "Layton" Goldring clutched a 1v1 situation to create a three-round lead.
Shortly after, Team Secret's Marc "jume" Steinmann shortened the difference between them and WYLDE with a 4K. Unfortunately, despite the German's play, Team Secret couldn't build momentum and WYLDE ran over the BLAST R6 Major Manchester quarterfinalists with four consecutive successful rounds.
WYLDE's Layton "Layton" Goldring and Antonio "CroqSon" Vázquez were the best players of the game with SiegeGG ratings of 1.76 and 1.40, respectively. Meanwhile, none in Team Secret could produce positive ratings, with Adrian "Adrian" Tryka's 0.85 being the team's highest score.
G2 Esports 7-0 Virtus.pro
G2 Esports ran over Virtus.pro in what was Europe's first flawless victory of the stage. After completing a perfect defensive half on Chalet, the samurai only needed one attacking round to close out the game.
Surprisingly, this is only G2 Esports' second victory on Chalet against a top-flight team this season. Previous attempts included defeats against Into the Breach (5-7), Team BDS (2-7), and Wolves Esports (7-2).
Unexpectedly, one of the team's most recent signings stole the show as Alexandre "BlaZ" Thomas finished the game with a K-D of 13-2 (+11), a perfect KOST, and a SiegeGG rating of 2.19.
Meanwhile, Virtus.pro's best player was Danil "JoyStiCK" Gabov, whose 1.28 was the Russians' only positive rating.
Team BDS 7-5 Wolves Esports
Team BDS won the French derby after defeating Wolves Esports on Bank by a score of 7-5.
Despite the final result, Wolves Esports had a great start to the clash as they won the initial two rounds. However, Josh "Yuzus" Pritchard's six kills during the upcoming three rounds, including a 1v1 clutch on round five, saw the Esports World Cup champions turning the tables.
Although eventually Team BDS obtained a narrow victory against the wolves, the main reason why the pack made it to the twelfth round was Rahian "Asa" Ramos, who clutched one 1v1 and 1v2 situations.
With a SiegeGG rating of 1.53, Josh "Yuzus" Pritchard was the best player of the match, closely followed by Stéphane "Shaiiko" Lebleu's 1.26.
Fnatic 8-6 ENCE
Fnatic closed out the fourth day of action in the Europe League 2024 Stage 2 with an overtime victory over ENCE on Consulate.
Although Fnatic won the game, the orange roster missed the chance of grabbing a regulation victory after the French-majority squad clutched three back-to-back rounds. Inevitably, the team's struggles at closing out rounds awoke a déja vu that brought fans back to Fnatic's overtime defeat against Wolves Esports after being 6-2 up.
Despite Fnatic's difficulties, the team's first win of the stage is proof that the squad is going in the right direction.
After an underwhelming first week in Europe's top flight, Fnatic's rookie Leonardo "Sarks" Sarchi was the best player of the match with a SiegeGG rating of 1.26. Combining this with his performance against Wolves, the Italian player has produced 31 kills in his last two games in the Europe League 2024.