Mad City: Chicago Day 1 complete
The first day of Mad City has finished in the Pheasant Run Resort, but we've only just begun. St. Charles, Illinois still has a lot of Counter Strike fire to keep stoked, as two more groups have yet to play before the Round of 16. The first six groups entered the venue at 9am CST and the final game was finished slightly before 1am CST.
Taking a look at Group 1, it was PUGLIFE who stole the show. On the back of Derek "dVeeN" Vander Veen's AWP, combined with the final 1v3 clutch ace from Keanu "DaneJoris" Reyes to secure their win over Power Buff Boys, PUGLIFE were able to breeze through their group 3-0. Breaking through to the Ro16 because of round differential, Power Buff Boys flexed out of the group stage with a 1-1-1 scoreline. Tragedy struck the group for team Tendi. Only garnering a single round in 3 maps, Tendi exit their group 0-3 with a -47 round differential.
 PUGLIFE |
Power Buff Boys |
|---|---|
| Derek "dVeeN" Vander Veen |
Austin "Frask" Frasky |
| Keanu "DaneJoris" Reyes |
Allen "Allen" Rochowiak |
| Kevin "Kaptivate" Markley |
Patrick "Apex" Nelson |
| Tony "w0w" Zachory |
Spencer "Skinney" Kenney |
 Manousos "fows" Kouidis |
Jeff "JR" Liem |
Group 2 experienced similar results as Group 1. Team Alex Jones 2020 secured their 3-0 after blasting through their competition quickly. The group came down to the wire of who would be the 2nd seed. In the end, Kaleb's Cash Crew won out by a difference of 10 rounds.
| Alex Jones 2020 |
Kaleb's Cash Crew |
|---|---|
| Justin "kiizuro" Yee |
Kaleb "kaleb" Sakaras |
| Gregory "REDKILLER" Zanis |
 Theodor "in0x" Bjornsson |
| Brett "hyper" Rhein |
Austin "RenZ" Dickman |
| Ethan "dieh4rdz" Zarco |
John "minori" Apel |
| Karl "detox" Dabarvolskis |
Carlton "CheS-Ki" McKay |
Cyclone stormed over Group 3 with a swift 3-0. With Nate "madcow" Retterath at the helm, Cyclone never gave up more than 5 rounds a game. Being the first group to not require a round differential situation, the Late Arrivals were able to surprise with a 2-1 finish. Late Arrivals are competing to be the loudest team at Mad City at the moment.
| Cyclone |
Late Arrivals |
|---|---|
| Thomas "Axed" Ryan |
Tony "Baldacci" Baldacci |
| Nate "madcow" Rettarath |
Allan "JustBob" Huynh |
| Mike "Swisher" Schmid |
William "Stx" Trampel |
| Matthew "nero" Seymour |
Issey "Nisei" Grimaldi |
| Bishop "BishUP" Dawson |
Emilio "Predator" Waller |
As expected of Group 4, Mask Off and eRa were able to make quick work of their group. In fact, not a single round went to double digits for both sides. What was believed to be the match of the day had Mask Off win over eRa 16-9 in an intense Inferno game.
| Mask Off |
eRa Eternity |
|---|---|
 Marian "tyfoon" Lesnic |
Jake "SIDOF" Currie |
| Cameron "hydrex" Kern |
Jakob "SPERMY" Younen |
| Anthony "Vanity" Malaspina |
Ali "phantomm" Sachs |
| Kaleb "moose" Jayne |
Austin "Crashies" Roberts |
| Ryan "Snakes" Amann |
Adam "juice" Sar |
With the power of Ian "motm" Hardy's yells, Etherian was able to roll through the first stage of the event. Etherian seemed to be firing on all cylinders and were even seen playing Nuke, to which the organization's own Twitter account was surprised.
Finishing out of the 5th Group with Etherian is a team of very high status individuals, ESEA Clout Tokens. With a comeback victory over Fam143 to start the group, eyes quickly shifted to Clout Tokens who seemed like they could make a jump for Round of 16. Etherian said no. A 16-3 loss stopped Clout Tokens briefly before they went on to beat Whatever It Takes to secure the 2nd seed.
| Etherian |
ESEA Clout Tokens |
|---|---|
| Ian "motm" Hardy |
Austin "SaucetiN" Hirons |
| Josh "oSee" Ohm |
Logan "JAQe" Morris |
| Blake "Strings" Stringer |
Joseph "sQuiiShyy" Eschen |
| Ben "ben1337" Smith |
Carter "mirari" Brooks |
| Gage "Infinite" Green |
Richard "Richie" Seymour |
The sixth and final group of the day was a nail biter. A team forged by Shawn "witmer" Taylor and Jasper "sfX" Ko was bound to put a small amount of fear in opponents. Illini was the first to experience the pain of losing to the duo. After a 16-6 loss, Illini proceeded to advance out of the group in 2nd with two close matches. In a gut wrenching Cache match that saw The X1 Mob down 15-12 against conqueR, they were on the verge of experiencing the fear of losing. The very thing they imposed themselves. With a 3 round comeback, X1 finished 2-0-1 to top the group, and conqueR was sent packing.
| The X1 Mob |
Illini |
|---|---|
| Shawn "witmer" Taylor |
Eric "Pie" Lee |
| Jasper "sfX" Ko |
"Bokumpop" |
| Donovan "zNf" Froid |
Joe "ZaStriker" Duschene |
| Jacob "L0NER" Webster |
A "alec" L |
| Alexander "retrQ" Kadan |
Sean "Blaze" M |
Groups 7 and 8 commence Saturday morning at 9am CST featuring RivaL and Drip or Drown. The first wave of Round of 16 will start at 2pm CST. All live coverage can be found here.
