ECS Season 7 Week 1 - Rogue shock Liquid
The first day of ECS Season 7 Week 1 has concluded, bringing about the end of the quarterfinal round of matches. The day saw Luminosity, NRG, compLexity, and Rogue advance to the semifinals, with Rogue securing a shocking upset over Liquid early on in the day.
The first set of quarterfinals each saw three maps play out, with Liquid facing off against Rogue in the first match of the day. Despite falling to ENCE in the IEM Katowice Major quarterfinals, Liquid entered the series as a heavy favorite as they remain the uncontested #1 team in North America.
Jake "Stewie2K" Yip was quick to prove why that was as, after initially trading rounds at the start, Stewie2K powered Liquid to a 6-1 lead on the T side of Nuke. Rogue put two rounds of their own on the board before Liquid further extend their lead with an additional trio of rounds, with Rogue managing to edge out three at the end of the half for a 9-6 scoreline.
Another early trade of rounds at the start of the half saw the two teams scramble for control, but this time it was Rogue who emerged on top as the economy swung in their favor. This allowed for Daniel "vice" Kim to capitalize on the opening in Liquid's defenses, helping his team gain the lead for the first time in the map at 13-11. Liquid managed one final round before Rogue won a final trio to take the first map for themselves 16-12, moving the series on to Liquid's pick of Dust2.
Rogue seemed set to continue in their winning ways with a pistol round victory at the start of the second map, but a force-buy from Liquid allowed for Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken's side to immediately reply back and go on an eight-round winning spree. Rogue kept a foothold in the map by grabbing three more rounds for themselves, but Liquid ended the half with a commanding 11-4 lead as they swapped to their T side.
Twistzz and co. swiftly extended that lead by an additional three rounds at the start of the second half, granting Rogue just two more rounds of their own before closing out the map 16-6.
The deciding map of Overpass saw a little more contention in the first half, with Liquid once again prevailing in an early-game economical battle to go up 4-1. It was Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen who ended up stepping up for Rogue, allowing his team to win six of the ensuing seven rounds to rapidly close the gap and gain the lead 7-5. Liquid managed two more rounds towards the end of the half, but it was Rogue who edged out the final round to pull ahead 8-7 as they swapped to their CT side.
A pistol round victory allowed for Liquid to immediately tie up the match, but Rogue answered back in the following round to halt Liquid in their tracks. From here it was smooth sailing for Rogue as Liquid were unable to gain a numbers advantage in the majority of rounds, allowing for MSL to lead his team to a 16-8 victory and steal away the series 2-1.
LiquidRogue| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
56 - 47 | +9 | 84.1 | 74.3% | 1.18 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
54 - 44 | +10 | 79.7 | 77.0% | 1.15 |
 Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
46 - 46 | +0 | 72.3 | 77.0% | 1.04 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
50 - 51 | -1 | 69.1 | 68.9% | 1.02 |
| Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip |
39 - 50 | -11 | 68.9 | 68.9% | 0.90 |
| Rogue |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daniel 'vice' Kim |
49 - 48 | +1 | 70.1 | 79.7% | 1.10 |
 Nikolaj 'niko' Kristensen |
51 - 50 | +1 | 74.1 | 64.9% | 1.08 |
| Mathias 'MSL' Lauridsen |
46 - 55 | -9 | 79.8 | 62.2% | 1.00 |
| Hunter 'SicK' Mims |
50 - 50 | +0 | 66.3 | 70.3% | 1.00 |
| Spencer 'Hiko' Martin |
41 - 42 | -1 | 53.4 | 77.0% | 0.99 |
The only two Brazilian teams participating in the first week clashed in their own quarterfinal matchup, with Luminosity prevailing over INTZ 2-1. Although Luminosity started Dust2 with a 4-0 lead, INTZ were the first to draw blood in the series as they granted their opponents just three more rounds over the course of the map for a 16-7 victory.
Vito "kNgV-" Giuseppe's side maintained momentum at the start of the second map, locking out Luminosity's offense to take a 10-2 lead on Cache. Luminosity battled back for the final three rounds of the half, and used a pistol round win in the second half to muster a comeback as they crushed the INTZ economy on three separate occasions to narrowly edge out the map 16-13.
The final map, Train, was the closest of all, with Luminosity initially grabbing six unanswered rounds. Once INTZ put their first on the board, Luminosity were quick to reply, grabbing an additional two rounds before INTZ began to claw back. kNgV- powered his side to win eleven rounds in a row, winning the first five rounds of the second half before Luminosity finally put a halt to their streak. A trade of rounds towards the end of the half saw Luminosity claim match point first, but INTZ managed to propel the map into overtime in the 30th round.
kNgV- continued to step up for his side, allowing for them to remain in the map as it went to a second overtime. Despite managing 41 kills over the course of the map, kNgV- was unable to pull his team all the way over the line, with Luminosity coming out on top over their countrymen to take the map win 22-20.
LuminosityINTZ| Luminosity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Henrique 'HEN1' Teles |
70 - 63 | +7 | 76.8 | 69.1% | 1.18 |
| Gabriel 'NEKIZ' Schenato |
65 - 75 | -10 | 79.1 | 68.1% | 1.01 |
| Lucas 'LUCAS1' Teles |
56 - 67 | -11 | 71.8 | 68.1% | 0.95 |
| Lucas 'steel' Lopes |
66 - 68 | -2 | 59.2 | 64.9% | 0.87 |
| Ricardo 'boltz' Prass |
50 - 69 | -19 | 73.0 | 59.6% | 0.84 |
| INTZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vito 'kNgV-' Giuseppe |
82 - 60 | +22 | 90.2 | 72.3% | 1.32 |
| Gustavo 'yel' Knittel |
72 - 59 | +13 | 83.4 | 75.5% | 1.19 |
| Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedes |
68 - 63 | +5 | 81.0 | 71.3% | 1.13 |
| Alexandre 'xand' Zizi |
60 - 63 | -3 | 71.0 | 79.8% | 1.03 |
| Lucas 'destiny' Bullo |
60 - 62 | -2 | 68.5 | 67.0% | 0.99 |
The second set of matches were divided in results, with NRG dismantling Spacestation 2-0 on Mirage and Dust2 while compLexity took eUnited to all three maps before edging out a 2-1 series win.
The NRG trio of Ethan "Ethan" Arnold, Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte, and new addition Tarik "tarik" Celik made short work of Spacestation in their series. Although Spacestation intially seemed to be in control with a 5-2 lead, NRG blasted them out of the atmosphere by winning fourteen rounds straight to take Mirage 16-5.
It was a similar story on the second map, Dust2, with Spacestation managing to win the first three rounds of the map before NRG got on the board. From there, NRG were in cruise control as Spacestation mustered just one round over the remainder of the map, with NRG putting an end to Spacestation's mission in week one with a 16-4 victory in the second map.
NRGSpacestation| NRG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold |
38 - 18 | +20 | 99.9 | 87.8% | 1.65 |
| Tarik 'tarik' Celik |
39 - 23 | +16 | 100.7 | 90.2% | 1.62 |
| Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
38 - 20 | +18 | 89.2 | 78.0% | 1.55 |
 Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov |
30 - 16 | +14 | 78.2 | 90.2% | 1.41 |
| Damian 'daps' Steele |
29 - 19 | +10 | 71.4 | 80.5% | 1.19 |
| Spacestation |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anthony 'gMd' Guimond |
27 - 33 | -6 | 75.5 | 63.4% | 0.82 |
| David 'DAVEY' Stafford |
20 - 33 | -13 | 57.8 | 56.1% | 0.73 |
| Ryan 'Snakes' Amann |
20 - 35 | -15 | 51.1 | 53.7% | 0.58 |
| Chad 'Oderus' Miller |
16 - 38 | -22 | 49.6 | 48.8% | 0.53 |
| Michael 'Grim' Wince |
13 - 36 | -23 | 46.8 | 39.0% | 0.41 |
The final series of the day was a three-map thriller between compLexity and eUnited, with compLexity completing a reverse sweep to snatch away a 2-1 victory.
eUnited seemed to start the series in firm control, with Victor "food" Wong helping his team to a 5-0 start on the T side of Nuke. compLexity managed a trio of rounds before eUnited snatched away another two of their own, but it was with Ricardo "Rickeh" Mulholland who allowed for compLexity to close out the half with a narrow 8-7 lead thanks to a four-kill round with the AUG.
compLexity further extended that scoreline to 11-7 off the back of a second half pistol round victory, but crumbled once eUnited had rifles on the board. Unable to consistently crack through the eUnited defense, compLexity's lead dwindled away as eUnited stacked up a nine-round streak to close out their own map pick 16-11.
A back-and-forth brawl marked the start of Inferno, with compLexity eventually managing two in a row seven rounds into the map. This allowed for compLexity to move up to a 6-4 scoreline before eUnited finally stabilized by taking the final five rounds of the half for their own, grabbing a 9-6 lead as they swapped to their T side.
compLexity immediately closed that gap as a five-round spree saw them steal away the lead at the start of the second half, with eUnited replying in kind with five rounds of their own. Although they sat at a 14-11 lead, eUnited were unable to managed another round as compLexity rallied back to win another five rounds straight, edging out a 16-14 map win for themselves and taking the series to a third map.
Hot off their comeback victory in the previous map, compLexity grabbed themselves a five round lead to start off Overpass. eUnited equalized by winning five rounds of their own, but from then on the map firmly belonged to Rickeh and Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan as they combined to propel compLexity through a nine-round streak for a 14-5 lead. eUnited finally mustered one round in response, but were immediately reset as Rickeh and Rory "dephh" Jackson pulled off a 2vs4 to allow compLexity two final rounds for a 16-6 map win.
ComplexityeUnited| Complexity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ricardo 'Rickeh' Mulholland |
70 - 47 | +23 | 98.5 | 81.0% | 1.43 |
| Shahzeb 'ShahZaM' Khan |
70 - 54 | +16 | 82.7 | 69.6% | 1.21 |
 Rory 'dephh' Jackson |
59 - 55 | +4 | 82.7 | 68.4% | 1.13 |
| Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz |
46 - 57 | -11 | 64.6 | 68.4% | 0.89 |
| Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbert |
44 - 56 | -12 | 62.7 | 69.6% | 0.84 |
| eUnited |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Victor 'food' Wong |
63 - 54 | +9 | 85.7 | 74.7% | 1.26 |
 Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
51 - 59 | -8 | 82.9 | 73.4% | 1.07 |
| Kaleb 'moose' Jayne |
60 - 56 | +4 | 78.1 | 72.2% | 1.04 |
| Anthony 'vanity' Malaspina |
53 - 62 | -9 | 69.1 | 72.2% | 0.96 |
| Austin 'Cooper' Abadir |
42 - 58 | -16 | 54.0 | 70.9% | 0.82 |
With the quarterfinal matches completed, the two semifinal matchups look as follows:
| Week 1 Semifinals, March 12th & 13th | |
|---|---|
| Rogue -vs- Luminosity |
6:00 PM |
 compLexity -vs- NRG |
6:00 PM |
The semifinals will play out over the next two days, with each semifinal beginning at 6 PM EDT. Rogue is set to take on Luminosity tomorrow, while compLexity will face off against NRG on Wednesday.
