Frontrunners Emerge: Red Bull Home Ground #3 Day 1 Recap
Turbulent First Day
The first day of the Red Bull Home Ground #3 has concluded, and the group winners are in. To no one’s surprise, Cloud9 emerge as the frontrunner for Group A while 100 Thieves have done the same in Group B.
In Group A, Team Vitality and KRU Esports have qualified for playoffs, eliminating FOKUS. Group B sees Team Liquid and Team Heretics emerging from the group stage after eliminating FUT Esports.
Over the course of the matches, scorelines were surprisingly competitive, especially in the case of Cloud9, who’s debut tournament has shown some shaky performances thus far. Eliminated team FOKUS meanwhile, showed immense potential, taking a map off Team Vitality and a series off Cloud9.
Group A
So far, Cloud9 has lived up to expectations, topping their groups after incredible performances from star plays Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker and Nathan “leaf” Orf to seal off their final matches. Erick “Xeppaa” Bach meanwhile, has been shining as Cloud9’s greatest asset in all of yesterday’s games. Coming into Day 2, “Xeppaa” is sitting at the top of the stats list in vlr.gg rating, K:D, and second highest ACS of the tournament at 262.
An early hiccup to FOKUS, who came out swinging with well-coordinated teamplay, resulted in a lost series for Cloud9. However, the team rallied in the ensuing matches, winning both 2-0. Team Vitality has had a decent showing thus far, however their test against Cloud9 had them massively outmatched, with 13-3s on both maps. This side of the partnership group, aside from Cloud9, look woefully underprepared for Kickoff at the moment.
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Group Bfoku
Coming into the tournament, Team Liquid was one of the heralded favorites to win the entire event, with an expectant clash with fellow superteam Cloud9 as the finals. However, unexpected delays for visa has resulted in the EMEA squad playing at half strength with two subs.
100 Thieves meanwhile, have looked superb thus far in their opening debut. Freshly minted star Matthew “Cryocells” Panganiban has looked consistently good across his first official day, topping the leaderboards. He currently sits in the top five across the tournament with a blistering 1.24 vlr.gg rating, 246 ACS, and 1.45 K:D.
The toughest battle came about between Team Liquid and 100 Thieves yesterday, with the Thieves taking it home 2-1. Team Heretics looked shaky, with sparks of brilliance that never quite materialized. FUT Esports cement their legacy thus far with another early exit following their disastrous G-Loot tournament run. They exited the Red Bull Home Ground #3 tournament with an 0-3 record.
Matchups and Predictions
By topping their respective groups, Cloud9 and 100 Thieves now await the winners of the quarterfinals. Team Vitality faces off against Team Heretics and Team Liquid battle KRU Esports.
Vitality and Heretics are fairly equally matches, with the slight edge given to Vitality possibly. Liquid should smash through KRU with little delay.
Regardless of opposition, 100 Thieves is expected to reach the finals. Cloud9’s path is contingent on beating Liquid. A surge in form for Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen sees him as one of the top performers for this event and could be the key to defeating Cloud9 and reaching finals.
Image credit: Red Bull UK