North America’s hopes got crushed by their European counterparts as the opening day didn’t go well at all for them. It’s obvious to say that Europe has always been on top when it comes to the overall EU vs NA record, but it’s always exciting to see these two regions fight it out on the international stage.
In this first major event of the year, North America arrived in Antwerp with only two representatives, Complexity and Team Liquid. And although Complexity came into this even in a good form, they demonstrated during their game against Team Vitality that a winning streak won’t be enough for taking down a European team.
Complexity faced European titans Vitality in Inferno, and it couldn’t have gone worse for them. From the beginning of the game until the end, they were absolutely dominated by Vitality in almost every single round. And while Fang and Floppy were able to pick up a few kills for Complexity, the match ultimately finished in a commanding 16-1 record in favor of Vitality.
Emil “Magisk” Reif was the player of the match as he scored a +12 kill differential and a whopping 130.2 ADR. This cemented the first EU vs NA win of the event in a very convincing manner. The second EU vs NA match occurred right after this one, where G2 Esports would meet Team Liquid, and the game would unfold, once again, in Inferno.
We could say this match was a bit “closer”, but it really wasn’t close, at all. G2 started on the CT side and we saw Europe once again mount up an impenetrable defense against their North American counterpart. Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov had a pristine performance as he managed to neutralize every Team Liquid attempt to take a site during the first half of the game.
Unlike Complexity Gaming, Team Liquid managed to win more than 1 round. During the second half, Team Liquid showed a better face as they managed to pick up their 3rd round slowing down G2’s T-side. EliGe scored a few more kills in TL’s favor but it still wasn’t enough to make a comeback into the game as NiKo’s aim overpowered the NA squad.
The G2 Esports vs Team Liquid game finished on a 16-6 score in favor of Europe’s representatives and this marked the end of day 1 for North America. While European fans might be really happy about this, it’s safe to say that this shattered almost all the hopes North American fans had of seeing their representatives go deep into the tournament.
But these were just the first encounters of the event and there are still plenty more to go. We still have to see NA representatives play against the rest of Europe’s teams, like Astralis, and Ence. Although things might not look too good for NA, it’s good to see these two regions face each other at the international events after such a long time.
