The opening day of ESL Challenger Rotterdam has reached its conclusion following a grueling day of action, which resulted in ENCE and MOUZ advancing to the single-elimination playoff bracket while TeamOne was eliminated from contention.
The four-team GSL groups were topped by MOUZ and ENCE, respectively, the former easing their way past Nixuh and Movistar Riders in dominant fashion, and the latter taking their opening match against TeamOne with relative ease before sneaking past Outsiders in a thirty-round game.
MOUZ have already booked a spot in the playoffs
Group B was the only one to feature an elimination match on day one, in which Fluxo reverse-swept TeamOne in a close series. João “felps” Vasconcellos and company failed to close out a 10-5 lead on Mirage to lose the opening map, but came back on Dust2 and eked out a win on Ancient to keep themselves in the running in Rotterdam.
Heading into day two, Eternal Fire and Nixuh will fight for their tournament lives in the Group A elimination series, which will be followed by a rematch between Fluxo and Outsiders for the second playoff spot out of Group B. One more best-of-three will close out the day as Movistar Riders take on the winner of the Group A elimination match for the last playoff spot, setting things up for a championship brawl on Sunday.
