Rise Nation come back against Tempo Storm SE to win Group A opener
The opening match of Group A kicked off on Mirage, with Rise Nation starting off on the counter-terrorist side. A quadruple kill from Nicolai "glace" Jensen allowed the Swedish side to secure the pistol round. Tempo Storm SE won the following two anti-ecos to start off with a 3-0 lead. The North American side was unable to respond as the Swedes managed to pick up the gun round and the following save round.
Rise Nation won the second gun round of the game and responded with two rounds of their own. The two sides continued to trade rounds until a successful 1v3 clutch from Tobias "shadow" Flodström weakened the CT economy, allowing them to easily win the two rounds that followed. Rise Nation responded with two of their own, but Tempo Storm SE won the final round of the half to lead the map 10-5.
The terrorist side would prove to be completely different as the North American team won the pistol and the two rounds to follow. Rise Nation started to build momentum as they won two more rounds. A quick 3-kill opening from Jonathan "Jonji" Carey allowed Rise Nation to have an open plant, and he found the fourth kill to close the round.
The North American side continued to string together round after round until Tempo Storm SE finally stopped their 9-round streak. They would be unable to win the following round which allowed Rise Nation to easily close out the map 16-11.
Rise NationTempo Storm| Rise Nation |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Kaleb 'moose' Jayne |
29 - 15 | +14 | 109.3 | 81.5% | 1.64 |
| Jonathan 'Jonji' Carey |
27 - 18 | +9 | 103.5 | 77.8% | 1.62 |
 Will 'dazzLe' Loafman |
22 - 18 | +4 | 81.7 | 70.4% | 1.19 |
| Brandon 'Ace' Winn |
11 - 12 | -1 | 44.7 | 66.7% | 0.88 |
| Andy 'vSa' Xu |
10 - 17 | -7 | 60.4 | 66.7% | 0.75 |
| Tempo Storm |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Tobias 'shadow' Flodström |
21 - 18 | +3 | 77.1 | 66.7% | 1.14 |
| Jakob 'Barken' Bark |
17 - 19 | -2 | 74.2 | 70.4% | 0.96 |
| Fredrik 'elo' Annerström |
15 - 21 | -6 | 72.6 | 59.3% | 0.88 |
 Nicolai 'glace' Jensen |
14 - 19 | -5 | 62.7 | 55.6% | 0.78 |
| Linus 'Limpone' Wecksell |
13 - 22 | -9 | 52.9 | 48.1% | 0.76 |
Rise Nation now face the winner of the match between GX and ex-Naventic to determine which team will be the first to advance to the playoffs.
