PW Shanghai Major Day One Recap: COL implode, Liquid triumph, Wildcard impress

The Perfect World Shanghai Major Opening Stage kicked off last night, seeing the first two rounds of the Swiss bracket played out with a flurry of best of ones matches in front of an eager Chinese crowd. As can be expected with best of ones, the day was filled with exciting upsets as NA's three teams in the Major aim to navigate the packed field and qualify to the Elimination Stage, which currently exclusively consists of European squads.

With that, day one of the Major was something of a mixed bag for NA's teams, with Liquid posting a 2-0 record via wins over Wildcard and Cloud9, Wildcard doing well in their first Major with a win over Fnatic, and Complexity already facing elimination after two shock losses to FlyQuest and Passion UA.

Complexity 0-2

As previously mentioned, Complexity's performance during day one of the Opening Stage was an unmitigated disaster, with COL on the edge of elimination in the second day of the Major after losses to FlyQuest and Passion UA.

Their opener against FlyQuest was a trainwreck, with COL starting Anubis down 1-11 before conceding the map 13-6 while Joshua "INS" Potter and Alistair "aliStair" Johnston dominated on the server.

Complexity's second match did not inspire confidence either despite it being more competitive, with COL falling to the Major rookies of Passion UA. That Bo1 was also played in Anubis, with Complexity quite distressingly playing catchup the entire map, losing their CT-side 5-7 before dropping the map 13-9.

With Complexity now having a 0-2 record, they will need to win three Bo3 in a row to survive in Shanghai, a tall task based on what we have seen thus far. Their next match will see COL take on Imperial at 03:00AM tomorrow.

Liquid 2-0

While Complexity's run in Shanghai has been a mess, Liquid have triumphed in two close wins over Cloud9 and Wildcard and are now one win away from the Elimination Stage.

Liquid's opener against Cloud9 on Ancient saw TL trail for the entirety of their T-side, conceding the half 3-9 to the Russian squad. After switching sides, Liquid would find their way to a win, playing a strong CT-side of their own, going 10-1 to take Ancient 13-10.

With Wildcard taking down Fnatic earlier in the day, Liquid 1-0 match ended up being against fellow NA squad Wildcard. Despite Liquid being fairly dominant in their brief rivalry, Wildcard were surprisingly quite competitive on Inferno, holding Liquid to a small 7-5 lead at halftime. After switching sides, Liquid secured double digits after winning their T-side pistol and the following two rounds before four rounds from Wildcard closed the deficit to a single round. Ultimately, this close match would give way to Liquid winning three of the next four rounds to take Inferno 13-10, however it was definitely a result Wildcard can feel confident in to end the day.

Liquid will play for a spot in the Elimination Stage tomorrow at 12:00AM.

Wildcard 1-1

We already briefly touched on Wildcard's run via their showdown with Liquid, with the rookies having a lot to be proud of after ending the day with a 1-1 record.

The team's run began on Mirage thanks to a gamble by Wildcard to choose their permaban while also forcing Fnatic to play their worst map. This gamble led to quite the scrappy showdown on Mirage as both teams were neck and neck throughout the entire map. The first half narrowly went the way of Fnatic with a 7-5 lead on their CT-side. This lead would hold for the next seven rounds as Fnatic climbed up to an 11-8 lead as Benjamin "blameF" Bremer led the charge for his new team.

With Wildcard's backs against the wall in their first Major match ever, the team rallied in an incredible way as Josh "JBa" Barutt and Aran "Sonic" Groesbeek led the charge to win the final five rounds of regulation time in a row to take Mirage 13-11 and make Fnatic eat humble pie for allowing the match to go to Mirage.

Check out our discussion of the Liquid v. Wildcard match above to see how Wildcard ended their day, but it goes without saying that this was a great debut for Wildcard in their first Major although both matches were nail biters for sure. Wildcard will look to continue their underdog run when they take on FURIA today at 11:00PM.

Standings

Here are the overall standings for the Opening Stage after day one:

• Liquid (2-0)

• GamerLegion (2-0)

• The MongolZ (2-0)

• FlyQuest (2-0)

• BIG (1-1)

• MIBR (1-1)

• FURIA (1-1)

• paiN (1-1)

• Cloud9 (1-1)

• Wildcard (1-1)

• Virtus.pro (1-1)

• Passion UA (2-0)

• Complexity (0-2)

• Rare Atom (0-2)

• Fnatic (0-2)

• Imperial (0-2)

Without a doubt, the biggest story of day one was The MongolZ and FlyQuest both securing 2-0 records. Both teams making the Elimination Stage would be an absolute coup for the APAC region in their first Major.

It is also worth pointing out the relatively strong start for Brazil, as the region has three teams in the 1-1 group, with Imperial being the outlier after two losses to Brazilian teams.

The Perfect World Shanghai Major Elimination Stage is set to continue tonight at 10:00PM.