Rogue top ECS Season 7 Week 1 over compLexity; qualify for LAN finals
Rogue have booked themselves a spot at the ECS Season 7 Finals after defeating compLexity in the grand finals of the first week of play 2-1 (11-16 Nuke, 16-13 Overpass, 22-20 Inferno). They are joined by Astralis, who won the first week of the European division with a dominant 2-0 win of their own against NiP at the start of the day.
The grand final matchup began on Nuke, with Rory "dephh" Jackson powering his team to a 3-0 start on the T side. Rogue evened the score with three rounds of their own, but quickly found themselves shutout for much of the half as compLexity took seven rounds straight for a 10-3 lead. The final two rounds of the half went the way of Rogue, allowing them to close the deficit to 10-5 as they swapped to their own T side.
Things looked immediately grim for Rogue as compLexity firmly took the second pistol of the map, but three AK kills from Hunter "SicK" Mims in the ensuing round allowed for Rogue to reply back and take control for two additional round wins. A four-kill round from Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert allowed for compLexity to break the streak and move up to a 14-8 scoreline. SicK helped Rogue to recover a 3vs5, moving his side up to 11 rounds before compLexity closed out the first map 16-11, taking the series to Overpass.
Rogue got off to a better start on the second map, with a three-kill pistol round from SicK allowing for his side to grab a 3-0 lead, with SicK adding another two kills to reset compLexity following their first round win. n0thing picked up three kills to keep compLexity in the running, allowing for his team to move up to a 7-4 scoreline before Rogue took the remaining four rounds for a narrow 8-7 lead at the half.
compLexity managed to steal away that lead following a second half pistol round win, with Rogue mirroring what happened in the first half to compLexity as SicK's side found themselves immediately reset following their first round win. The likeness to the first half didn't end there however, with Rogue fighting back with a force-buy to regain control, granting themselves four additional rounds for a 14-11 lead. Despite compLexity's best efforts, Rogue managed to win a back-and-forth to close out their own map pick, narrowly edging out Overpass 16-13.
Rogue remained the frontrunners at the start of Inferno, grabbing a 3-0 lead before resetting compLexity to move up to a 6-1 scoreline. compLexity put a second round on the board, but were once again reset as Rogue added another two for an 8-2 lead. compLexity finally broke the streak, grabbing a set of four rounds before Rogue won the final one of the half to pull ahead 9-6.
Daniel "vice" Kim grabbed three kills on Rogue's CT pistol to extend his team's lead, but compLexity cracked open a bombsite with force-buy before recovering a 2vs4 in the ensuing round to close the gap.. With economy firmly in their control, compLexity won eight rounds straight to move up to a 14-8 lead, but found themselves struggling to close out the series as Rogue battled back for five of the remaining six rounds of the half to take the map to overtime.
Rogue held on to their momentum as they won the first two rounds of overtime, with compLexity fighting back in a 2vs4 to put one on the board themselves. Although Rogue immediately grabbed match point after the side swap, compLexity replied in kind with two of their own rounds to push the map into a second overtime. Another 2-1 split saw Rogue once again take the lead, and this time they were able to close out the match as SicK clutched a 1vs2 in the final round to edge out the map 22-20.
RogueComplexity| Rogue |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Hunter 'SicK' Mims |
78 - 65 | +13 | 79.7 | 72.4% | 1.16 |
 Mathias 'MSL' Lauridsen |
67 - 74 | -7 | 78.7 | 71.4% | 1.08 |
| Daniel 'vice' Kim |
67 - 65 | +2 | 75.0 | 73.5% | 1.06 |
| Nikolaj 'niko' Kristensen |
72 - 76 | -4 | 80.6 | 73.5% | 1.03 |
| Spencer 'Hiko' Martin |
47 - 68 | -21 | 54.1 | 66.3% | 0.76 |
| Complexity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shahzeb 'ShahZaM' Khan |
69 - 61 | +8 | 76.6 | 72.4% | 1.14 |
 Rory 'dephh' Jackson |
68 - 70 | -2 | 81.2 | 76.5% | 1.14 |
 Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz |
72 - 67 | +5 | 75.8 | 74.5% | 1.13 |
| Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbert |
74 - 66 | +8 | 77.3 | 75.5% | 1.12 |
 Ricardo 'Rickeh' Mulholland |
64 - 67 | -3 | 74.6 | 75.5% | 1.06 |
The first week of ECS Season 7 has concluded, with two of the teams for the finals now being determined. Four additional spots, two from Europe and two from North America, will go to the grand final winners of the second and third weeks, while the final two spots will go to the highest earning team from each region at the end of the online season.
The bracket for Week 2 was also revealed at the end of the stream, and looks as follows:
| March 18th | |
|---|---|
 Cloud9 -vs- Spacestation |
6:00 PM |
 INTZ -vs- FURIA |
6:00 PM |
 compLexity -vs- eUnited |
9:00 PM |
| Luminosity -vs- NRG |
9:00 PM |
Singularity, one of the top two seeds from the Pinnacle Cup, and MIBR, who have a priority spot as they remain in the league from Season 6, are notably absent, given that they are still in China for WESG 2018.
