Banner image: Ubisoft / @capturedbycyga
As the first day of the playoffs is now over, it's time to have a look at everything that happened!
For more information on the first four matches of the day, check out our roundups:
Heroic vs Oxygen, Wolves vs G2 Esports: Oxygen and Wolves advance to upper bracket quarter-finals, Heroic and G2 Esports drop to lower bracket
Soniqs vs DarkZero Esports, Team BDS vs w7m esports: DarkZero Esports and w7m esports send Soniqs and Team BDS to lower bracket
Overtime madness
The first day of the playoffs began with a quick victory from Oxygen Esports against Heroic, where the Americans defeated their opponents by 7-5, 7-2 scores.
However, this match aside, we saw 11 overtimes out of a possible 17. This clearly shows how tight all of the series were.
Julio is back at the Place Bell
Julio "JULIO" Giacomelli last time at the Place Bell didn't have a happy ending, as he lost the Six Invitational 2020 grand-final against Spacestation Gaming. Three years later, the Brazilian will be back in the venue.
Curiously enough, Julio was the best player in their series against M80. The bulls lost the first map of the series after going to maximum overtime on Border. From there, the team got full control of the match, winning on Oregon and on Clubhouse by 3-7 and 4-7 scores respectively.
In total, Julio got a SiegeGG Rating of 1.24 and an impressive KOST of 89. He also went flawless on entries, getting a balance of 3-0 (+3), as the Brazilians showed, once again, how easy it is for them to dominate their opponents on entry-fragging tasks.
Spoit goes crazy against DZ
Following DarkZero Esports' victory against Soniqs, the North American squad played against the Six Berlin Major champions.
William "Spoit" Löfstedt was the player of the match as he was the best player on both maps of the series. With 19 kills on Theme Park and 17 on Skyscraper, the Swede's final SiegeGG Rating was an eye-popping 1.63.
KOI securing an 8-7 win in DarkZero Esports' pick gave the Europeans a clear advantage, as the roster felt comfortable on Skyscraper. After winning the second map of the series with a 7-5 result, the team advanced to the upper bracket semi-finals, where they will face w7m esports.
LOS oNe and MNM Gaming lose unbeaten streaks
LOS oNe and MNM Gaming topped their groups with four wins each, a streak that didn't last for long: both teams have now fallen to the lower bracket.
MNM Gaming lost to Oxygen Esports after going to maximum overtime in both maps. Nathan "Nafe" Sharp's performance was quite poor, as he only got 10 kills for his team in 30 rounds played. Meanwhile, Fatih "Solotov" Türker did what we are used to seeing from him, as he got 10 entries during the series.
Franklyn "VertcL" Andrés was the best player on Oxygen Esports with a SiegeGG Rating of 1.11. It made up for Jacob "Sweater" Bravico's performance, who went 1-8 (-7) on the entry.
In the meantime, Wolves Esports defeated LOS oNe by 2-0, with Dahmani "Mowwwgli" Yanis and Bastien "BiBooAF" Dulac leading the French-majority squad to the Place Bell. Mowwwgli was yet again a key player for Wolves with his entries and his fragging power, as they dominated the Brazilians in that area of the game.