iBUYPOWER Invitational Day 1: compLexity get Torqued
The Spring 2018 edition of the iBUYPOWER Invitational kicked off yesterday, with $15,000 up for grabs. The proceedings started with Rogue handily taking down the Brazilians of Luminosity, continuing their recent uptick in form.
Next up was North America #3 side NRG against Splyce, who recently parted ways with Daniel "roca" Gustaferri, and were playing with BlackOut's Alex "aproto" Protopapas. Even taking into account the stand-in issues, it was a rough set for Splyce, as Ethan "nahtE" Arnold, Jacob "FugLy" Medina and Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte ran wild and secured the swift 2-0.
Liquid versus EPL upstarts Dignitas was likewise a quick 2-0 affair, with Dignitas also fielding a stand-in in the form of former Ghost member Connor "CONNOR93" Glover. Unsurprisingly, it was youngster Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken topping the scoreboard for Dust2.us's currently #1 ranked NA squad.
The final match of the day was between Torqued and compLexity, and it delivered the most intriguing result. A monster game from Braxton "swag" Pierce on Nuke gave Torqued a map advantage, which after a close scrape on Train turned into a 2-0 over their rivals.
As Torqued await the start of ESEA MDL playoffs, the result will certainly be encouraging and points to the team's ability to punch upwards against opponents at the lower end of the EPL spectrum.
The action will resume today at 2:30PM EDT, with NRG taking a seemingly rejuvenated Rogue and Liquid surprisingly facing Torqued. The latter will be a rematch from cs_summit2, where Liquid took down Josh "steel" Nissan's side 2-0.
NRGRogue| NRG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
76 - 50 | +26 | 91.3 | 82.1% | 1.40 |
| Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold |
66 - 50 | +16 | 89.1 | 76.2% | 1.28 |
 Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov |
66 - 49 | +17 | 79.9 | 77.4% | 1.25 |
| Jacob 'FugLy' Medina |
56 - 49 | +7 | 78.7 | 73.8% | 1.13 |
 Damian 'daps' Steele |
38 - 42 | -4 | 53.8 | 72.6% | 0.95 |
| Rogue |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hunter 'SicK' Mims |
58 - 61 | -3 | 86.1 | 72.6% | 1.04 |
| Daniel 'vice' Kim |
49 - 58 | -9 | 67.4 | 67.9% | 0.94 |
| Spencer 'Hiko' Martin |
50 - 53 | -3 | 66.5 | 65.5% | 0.93 |
| Anthony 'gMd' Guimond |
44 - 62 | -18 | 59.8 | 67.9% | 0.82 |
 Casper 'cadiaN' Møller |
36 - 68 | -32 | 52.2 | 48.8% | 0.63 |
LiquidTorqued| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
51 - 32 | +19 | 97.5 | 86.8% | 1.61 |
 Lucas 'steel' Lopes |
42 - 29 | +13 | 78.3 | 81.1% | 1.26 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
41 - 30 | +11 | 83.9 | 77.4% | 1.25 |
| Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
40 - 32 | +8 | 91.3 | 75.5% | 1.24 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
42 - 33 | +9 | 77.5 | 79.2% | 1.22 |
| Torqued |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matt 'Pollo' Wilson |
35 - 43 | -8 | 78.9 | 66.0% | 1.01 |
| Joshua 'steel' Nissan |
36 - 42 | -6 | 68.4 | 52.8% | 0.92 |
| Kenneth 'koosta' Suen |
35 - 43 | -8 | 67.4 | 60.4% | 0.87 |
| Braxton 'swag' Pierce |
28 - 42 | -14 | 57.8 | 56.6% | 0.73 |
| Keven 'AZK' Lariviere |
22 - 46 | -24 | 52.2 | 64.2% | 0.56 |
