The first week of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive ESL Pro League Season 5 is in the books. With a $2 million prize pool on the line, 28 North American and European teams are all fighting tooth-and-nail to take home first place at the finals in Dallas, Texas. Here's how Week 1 went down for the North American region.
All eyes were on OpTic Gaming during Day 1 as they took on underdog Selfless Gaming. A shroud of uncertainty surrounded OpTic, which recently added former Team Liquid in-game leader Spencer "HiKo" Martin to their roster after Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz left the team for Liquid. OpTic quickly showed that even with a new lineup that hasn't had time to gel, they were still leagues above Selfless Gaming. OpTic won both games against Selfless, beating them 16-12 on Dust 2 before breezing to a 16-8 win on Train, where new addition HiKo led the team in frags.
Viewers were treated to two all-Brazilian affairs in Week 1. The first matchup between the vaunted SK Gaming and the more obscure Immortals went as expected. Although Immortals recently acquired former major champion from Lincoln "fnx" Lau from SK, the squad was handily swept both Cache and Cobblestone. Fernando "fer" Alvarenga amassing a monstrous 55/28 KD (kills/deaths).
The second Brazil-Brazil set between the more evenly-matched Immortals and Luminosity Gaming was far more entertaining. The first map, played on Dust 2, went Immortals' way in overtime 22-19, with Lucas "lucas" Teles showing incredible aim on the USP-S pistol en route to a 38/28 KD. On the other side, Lucas "destiny" Bullo and talented AWPer Gustavo "yeL" Knittel scrapped together miracle plays to keep Luminosity alive down the stretch. The series moved to Overpass where Immortals settled into a groove and won 16-11.
As events wrapped up Thursday, Team Liquid went out to show that, so far, the stanislaw/HiKo swap has worked out for them. Liquid's newest member had an inconsistent but ultimately explosive debut against Misfits, one of NA's low-tier squads. In stanislaw's first tournament showing in a Liquid uniform, he didn't look to be on the same page as the rest of the team and finished with a subpar 57.6 ADR (average damage per round) on Cobblestone as a result. When the series moved to Cache, stanislaw dominated with a 26/9 KD along with a devastating 126.6 ADR.
With Week 1 of the round-robin tournament in the rearview mirror, a few teams stand out from the rest. With three points awarded per win, OpTic and SK are tied at the top of the standings with 12 points apiece. Counter Logic Gaming is in second with nine points. Tied for third place are Cloud9, Immortals, Luminosity, Misfits and Team Liquid with six points.