EPL Finals: Liquid overwhelm, Cloud9 and NRG alive in lower bracket
The first day at the ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals in Dallas has concluded, and has seen all the North American teams live to tell the tell — though with some in better positions than others.
Cloud9 started things off on a decidedly wrong foot, getting crushed by FaZe 16-3. NRG were similarly (and surprisingly) manhandled by Heroic. Not until Liquid got on their PCs did North America notch a decisive victory, with Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski leading his team over Grayhound.
Losses by SK (close) and Renegades (not so close) wrapped up the opening round of play for teams featuring American players.
The opening defeats of Cloud9 and NRG saw them cast down to the lower bracket of Group A, where they were matched up against the Brazilians of Sharks and Koreans of MVP PK, respectively. Both international sides acquitted themselves quite well, taking the opening maps of each series for themselves, before succumbing to the North Americans in relatively lopsided fashion.
Tomorrow will kick-off at 11:00 EDT with the all-Aussie affair of Grayhound against Renegades, followed by Cloud9 taking on Heroic in an elimination match and Liquid playing the Buğra "Calyx" Arkın-less Space Soldiers. The day will close out with the double-header of NRG versus mousesports and SK up against Astralis.
