Six Invitational 2023 Day 1 Key Takeaways: CAG take down Major champions, CTZN debuts for Soniqs in style

_{Banner image: Ubisoft / @ericananmalay}

The Six Invitational 2023 kicked off yesterday with a bang. Here's a look at how things went on the first day:

Six Invitational return for G2 ends in victory

G2 Esports kicked things off today with a 2-1 victory against KOI, winning their first BO3 match on LAN in exactly three years. The previous time they had won a LAN BO3 had been on Feb. 8, 2020, against Team BDS at the Six Invitational 2020.

Jack "Doki" Robertson went berserk on Villa as he got 22 kills, 12 of them coming on the first three rounds of the map. Despite KOI's comeback attempts, G2 closed out the first map after almost choking a five-round advantage.

It was not all smooth sailing for G2, though, as they were trailing 0-6 at one point before finally losing 4-7. Nevertheless, they ended up winning the series to mark a successful Benjamin "Benjamaster" Dereli's debut after a comfortable win on Theme Park that followed another 5-1 half.

Meanwhile, w7m esports defeated Elevate after 7-4, 7-4 scores on Kafe and Clubhouse. Gustavo "HerdsZ" Herdina led the bulls to the team's first win this tournament with a SiegeGG Rating of 1.38 and an ace in the final round of Kafe.

Soniqs evaporate Team Liquid in CTZN's debut

In Group B, Soniqs defeated Team Liquid in what was the most anticipated match of the day, as both teams had finished among the top four at the Six Jönköping Major.

While it was Ben "CTZN" McMillan's debut for Soniqs, being in the spotlight didn't seem to add any pressure onto the Brit, who finished with a 5-0 (+5) entry kill balance.

Liquid's performance was far from what had been seen three months prior, with none of the players getting SiegeGG Ratings over 1.00. Both Luccas "Paluh" Molina and André "NESKWGA" Oliveira were poor, with the latter only getting eight kills across 22 rounds.

MNM Gaming's victory against Wolves Esports was equally surprising, with the marshmallows defeating the pack by 7-3, 7-2 scorelines. Fatih "Solotov" Türker and Josh "Tyrant" Pritchard were two of the best players of the day with SiegeGG Ratings of 1.46 and 1.44, respectively.

This is the fourth BO3 match Wolves Esports lost this season, as the French-speaking roster also lost to XSET at the Berlin Major, to Team BDS at the Jönköping Major, and to MNM Gaming at the European League Finals.

CAG stun Jönköping Major champions Team BDS

CYCLOPS athlete gaming, who headed into the Six Invitational 2023 after making their first roster change in more than three years, shocked all with a 2-1 victory against Jönköping Major champions Team BDS.

Despite CAG's win, though, it was Stéphane "Shaiiko" Lebleu who stole the show with 38 kills and a SiegeGG Rating of 1.45. Takashi "Arcully" Ono's debut for the Japanese roster finished with a Rating of 0.96 as he was largely playing Pulse and Ash.

The second game of Group C ended with an Oxygen Esports victory after losing the first map of the series against Astralis. Ethan "Nuers" James was incredibly important for Oxygen, as he was imperious with a SiegeGG Rating of 1.46.

M80 defeat FaZe Clan in organization's Siege debut

Following a brief stay in Brazil to prepare for the Six Invitational 2023, M80 won their first Six Invitational 2023 match against FaZe Clan.

Two very one-sided victories for M80 on Oregon (7-2) and Theme Park (7-3) were mixed with a FaZe Clan maximum overtime victory on Chalet, the second map on the series.

Lucas "DiasLucas" Dias was the best player in the game, with Lucas "soulz1" Schinke standing out on FaZe Clan with a SiegeGG Rating of 1.31.

M80 dominated in the entry kill department, with the NAL squad firmly in the lead thanks to Arthur "GMZ" Oliveira and Zachary "SpiriTz" Dionne's performances. On the other hand, Leonardo "Astro" Luis finished with an entry balance of 2-10 (-8) for FaZe.

All eyes were also put on Victor "VITAKING" Augusto, who was making his professional debut.  The Brazilian played for most of the season for the tier two side escolinha do bubu, whose core competed in Série B under the name of Magic Squad.

Looking back at history, FaZe had come into the M80 match with an unenviable record: since the Six Invitational 2019, where they defeated NiP 2-0, the Brazilians had started every edition of the Six Invitational with a loss.

2020 -  FaZe Clan 1-2 DarkZero Esports 
2021 -  FaZe Clan 3-7 Team Liquid 
2022 -  FaZe Clan 1-2 Spacestation Gaming 

Now, a fourth team has been added to the list as FaZe Clan lost to M80. As such, they will seek redemption against DarkZero Esports today in a bid to continue a streak of strong SI performances.