With the conclusion of the first playday of the Europe League 2024 Stage 2, here's a look at the first four games of the split:
Wolves Esports 7-5 Into the Breach
Woles Esports’ rookies Rahian “Asa” Ramos and Vivien “Lasmooo” Berthelot made their Europe League debut for the French-majority squad with a 7-5 victory against the BLAST R6 Major Manchester-bound squad of Into the Breach.
In what was a very close game, Wolves Esports’ start paid off as they secured a two round lead after the initial two rounds. However, Into the Breach’s reaction was imminent and managed to draw the scoreboard before swapping sides.
Eventually, the debutant Lasmooo stole the show as his clutch on round ten made the difference. Although Oscar “Oscr” Deacon’s clutch saw both teams going to the twelfth round, Wolves Esports stopped Into the Breach’s comeback attempt and secured the three points.
Team Secret 7-4 ENCE
Team Secret’s second split started greatly with a regulation victory against the French-majority squad of ENCE. Despite the final result, Théo “AzoXx” Eudine stole the show as he finished the match with 15 kills and a SiegeGG rating of 1.55.
All of the eyes were set on Jake “Virtue” Grannan, who made his debut for Team Secret in the Europe League. The Australian was the best player for his team with a SiegeGG rating of 1.31, one clutch, and four plants.
With this result, Team Secret have started the second split showing that, despite tweaks made to the squad, the roster must be seen as one of the favorites in Europe to qualify for Montreal.
G2 Esports 7-2 Fnatic
G2 Esports defeated Fnatic on Consulate in the first official match for Juhani “Kantoraketti” Toivonen and Leonardo “Sarks” Sarchi alongside their new teammates. It was also Roberto “Loira” Camargo and Alexandre “BlaZ” Thomas debut for the samurai squad in Europe’s top-flight.
The Berlin-based organization quickly took control of the match after winning the initial four rounds on defense. Despite Fnatic’s reaction, both rosters swapped sides with the Six Invitational 2023 champions with a 5-1 lead. Eventually, the samurai clinched the win and skyrocketed to first place after grabbing the best round difference of the day.
Overall, nobody stood out for G2 Esports, with all of the players producing SiegeGG ratings between 1.36 to 1.24. However, Jack “Doki” Robertson (1.36) was the best player of the match, followed by the Brazilian duo Roberto “Loira” Camargo (1.31) and Karl “Alem4o” Zarth (1.30).
Meanwhile, Tom “Deapek” Pieksma (1.06) was Fnatic’s best player as he collected the team’s only positive rating in the roster. Meanwhile, the Italian debutant Sarks started on the wrong foot with a SiegeGG rating of 0.53, while the Six Invitational 2019 champion Kantoraketti obtained a rating of 0.83.
Team BDS 8-7 WYLDE
Surprisingly, the only match that went to overtime was the game between WYLDE and Team BDS. Although everyone expected the Esports World Cup champions and BLAST R6 Major Manchester grand finalists to dominate the game against WYLDE, Usain Bolt’s team put the French-majority squad between a rock and a hard place.
Including three Europe League debutants in Antonio “CroqSon” Vázquez, Davey “Freq” Hendriks, and Layton “Layton” Goldring, WYLDE’s roster reached match point against all of the odds. However, the French-majority squad forced the overtime as they reacted just in time to win the match after reaching maximum overtime.
Although the result ended up being what many had expected, WYLDE’s performance today is a clear statement of the squad’s potential: nobody should ignore them despite the roster’s clear lack of experience, not even international champions.