Liquid topple NRG, Fnatic eliminated at ESL One New York
The first day of ESL One New York has come to an end, with all opening matches plus one elimination match playing out in New York.
The day kicked off with a CIS derby between Natus Vincere and Gambit, with the series starting on Nuke. In spite of Na`Vi starting on the CT-side, Gambit crushed Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko's squad 13-2 in the first half. Na`Vi improved little in the second half, with Gambit closing the map 16-4 in an unexpected fashion.
Gambit continued to overwhelm Na`Vi, taking a 7-0 lead on Inferno. Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev's team finally came to their senses, contesting the scoreline to close the gap to 9-6. The gap was closed even more in the second half, with Na`Vi ultimately closing the map 16-11.
Despite the strong performance from the Ukrainians on Inferno, Na`Vi fell again in the first half of Overpass as Gambit found a 10-5 lead at halftime. Unlike the previous map, Na`Vi were unable to kickstart a comeback, ultimately falling to Gambit 16-10, with Gambit taking the series 2-1.
Natus VincereGambit| Natus Vincere |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev |
57 - 49 | +8 | 81.7 | 74.0% | 1.16 |
 Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov |
49 - 49 | +0 | 72.6 | 72.6% | 1.02 |
| Ioann 'Edward' Sukhariev |
52 - 49 | +3 | 78.5 | 69.9% | 1.02 |
| Egor 'flamie' Vasilyev |
47 - 52 | -5 | 66.4 | 69.9% | 0.94 |
| Danylo 'Zeus' Teslenko |
41 - 59 | -18 | 77.7 | 67.1% | 0.83 |
| Gambit |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mihail 'Dosia' Stolyarov |
53 - 54 | -1 | 90.3 | 76.7% | 1.22 |
 Dauren 'AdreN' Kystaubayev |
50 - 49 | +1 | 75.3 | 78.1% | 1.13 |
| Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov |
52 - 56 | -4 | 82.7 | 67.1% | 1.09 |
| Nikolay 'mir' Bityukov |
52 - 41 | +11 | 65.9 | 71.2% | 1.09 |
| Rustem 'mou' Telepov |
49 - 46 | +3 | 69.2 | 74.0% | 1.08 |
Fielding Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom, Fnatic seemed to be in good shape going up against mousesports, as they were able to remain competitive on Inferno, with the score just barely going in mousesports' favor 8-7. Fnatic displayed their prowess in the second half, usurping the lead and eventually closing the map 16-10.
Riding off their momentum, Fnatic stopped off on Train and continued to display their strength, taking the first half 10-5. mousesports retaliated with a 10-5 half as well, pushing the game into overtime. mousesports handily took overtime 4-1, taking the map 19-16 and tying the series 1-1.
While Fnatic had previously displayed a certain level of competitiveness in previous maps, mousesports quickly overcame Fnatic on Mirage, dominating the team and taking the third map 16-3.
fnaticMOUZ| fnatic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson |
58 - 62 | -4 | 79.6 | 63.4% | 1.01 |
 Adil 'ScreaM' Benrlitom |
61 - 60 | +1 | 76.6 | 67.1% | 1.00 |
| Jesper 'JW' Wecksell |
49 - 55 | -6 | 64.5 | 64.6% | 0.95 |
| Richard 'Xizt' Landström |
39 - 59 | -20 | 54.5 | 62.2% | 0.79 |
| William 'draken' Sundin |
44 - 58 | -14 | 54.4 | 59.8% | 0.76 |
| MOUZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Tomáš 'oskar' Šťastný |
75 - 54 | +21 | 95.2 | 76.8% | 1.35 |
 Miikka 'suNny' Kemppi |
68 - 56 | +12 | 91.1 | 72.0% | 1.21 |
 Chris 'chrisJ' de Jong |
59 - 51 | +8 | 75.9 | 67.1% | 1.14 |
 Robin 'ropz' Kool |
41 - 41 | +0 | 58.7 | 78.0% | 1.03 |
 Janusz 'Snax' Pogorzelski |
51 - 49 | +2 | 69.2 | 73.2% | 0.99 |
Currently ranked #5 in the world by HLTV, FaZe have been struggling to find their form recently, going out in the quarterfinals of the recent FACEIT Major as well as DreamHack Stockholm. FaZe's performance didn't impress in New York either, as the European mix lost Inferno to G2 16-13, with Kenny "kennyS" Schrub headlining the scoreboard.
FaZe retaliated with a dominant 16-5 scoreline on Mirage, tying the score 1-1 and giving the European team a mix to bring it back. Cache did not seem to go in FaZe's favor however as G2 took the early lead in the first half 10-5. Finn "karrigan" Andersen and co. attempted to bring the scoreline back in their favor, but fell one round short, as mousesports took the third map 16-14, closing the series 2-1 and knocking FaZe immediately down into the lower bracket.
FaZeG2| FaZe |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač |
73 - 50 | +23 | 96.3 | 77.5% | 1.43 |
| Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer |
62 - 49 | +13 | 78.2 | 72.5% | 1.21 |
 Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács |
63 - 48 | +15 | 73.8 | 76.2% | 1.19 |
 Håvard 'rain' Nygaard |
54 - 57 | -3 | 82.5 | 76.2% | 1.14 |
 Finn 'karrigan' Andersen |
30 - 51 | -21 | 50.2 | 68.8% | 0.77 |
| G2 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub |
63 - 52 | +11 | 88.8 | 77.5% | 1.25 |
| Kévin 'Ex6TenZ' Droolans |
56 - 55 | +1 | 73.5 | 65.0% | 1.02 |
| Alexandre 'bodyy' Pianaro |
54 - 57 | -3 | 68.7 | 62.5% | 0.96 |
| Edouard 'SmithZz' Dubourdeaux |
42 - 63 | -21 | 65.4 | 73.8% | 0.86 |
| Richard 'shox' Papillon |
40 - 55 | -15 | 60.4 | 67.5% | 0.84 |
With the European opening matches out of the way, the real stars of the show came out to play each other: Liquid and NRG. Coming off a lackluster performance in Stockholm, NRG sought redemption against Liquid in New York. Overpass seemed to fit that motive, with both teams trading rounds, eventually pushing the first map into overtime. Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte pulled out a miracle performance for NRG, securing his team the first American game of the day.
Liquid found their form on Dust2, where Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski led his team through a decent first half, taking a sliver of a lead at 8-7. Liquid ramped up the heat in the second half, as Liquid pummeled NRG, tying the series 1-1 and moving the series onto the decider map.
Liquid's dominance continued onto Mirage, as NRG were unable to string together any rounds. With a 12-3 scoreline at halftime, Twistzz and Keith "NAF" Markovic quickly closed out the map 16-4, with Liquid taking the series 2-1 as a result. NRG have been consequentially knocked down to the lower bracket.
NRGLiquid| NRG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
69 - 59 | +10 | 89.7 | 65.9% | 1.21 |
| Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold |
54 - 59 | -5 | 76.4 | 73.2% | 0.97 |
 Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov |
39 - 60 | -21 | 64.4 | 68.3% | 0.84 |
| Jacob 'FugLy' Medina |
51 - 61 | -10 | 64.7 | 67.1% | 0.84 |
 Damian 'daps' Steele |
33 - 64 | -31 | 52.2 | 61.0% | 0.65 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
73 - 48 | +25 | 86.0 | 79.3% | 1.39 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
57 - 44 | +13 | 79.7 | 79.3% | 1.24 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
61 - 54 | +7 | 78.5 | 72.0% | 1.19 |
 Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
55 - 50 | +5 | 71.5 | 75.6% | 1.14 |
| Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
57 - 52 | +5 | 74.6 | 80.5% | 1.12 |
With all the opener matches dealt with, the last series of the day featured Natus Vincere and Fnatic duking it out for a spot in the consolation finals. Natus Vincere handily took the first map from the Swedish team, with a 16-7 scoreline securing the Ukrainian team a 1-0 score in the series.
Train played out in a similar fashion, with Zeus oddly leading the scoreboard this time around. Taking yet another 10-5 head start in the first half, Na`Vi eventually took down the Swedish team 16-8, taking the series 2-0 and eliminating Fnatic.
Natus Vincerefnatic| Natus Vincere |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Danylo 'Zeus' Teslenko |
45 - 29 | +16 | 103.2 | 87.2% | 1.51 |
| Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev |
40 - 25 | +15 | 91.4 | 80.9% | 1.41 |
| Ioann 'Edward' Sukhariev |
40 - 29 | +11 | 89.1 | 87.2% | 1.39 |
| Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov |
33 - 30 | +3 | 74.7 | 66.0% | 1.07 |
| Egor 'flamie' Vasilyev |
27 - 32 | -5 | 67.5 | 72.3% | 1.05 |
| fnatic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| William 'draken' Sundin |
37 - 36 | +1 | 94.7 | 59.6% | 1.15 |
| Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson |
34 - 34 | +0 | 82.0 | 76.6% | 1.04 |
| Adil 'ScreaM' Benrlitom |
32 - 40 | -8 | 73.7 | 72.3% | 0.89 |
| Richard 'Xizt' Landström |
24 - 36 | -12 | 51.9 | 63.8% | 0.68 |
| Jesper 'JW' Wecksell |
18 - 40 | -22 | 55.3 | 51.1% | 0.54 |
Tomorrow will see Liquid take on G2 in the Group B Winners' Match, while NRG will fight tooth-and-nail to fend off against FaZe and to stay alive in New York. The matchups and schedule for tomorrow can be seen below:
| Thursday, September 27th | ||
| 11:00 AM |  FaZe vs. NRG |
BO3 |
| ~2:30 PM | Gambit vs. mousesports |
BO3 |
| ~6:00 PM | G2 vs.  Liquid |
BO3 |
