ELEAGUE Major Main Qualifier: Day 2

The battle for spots to compete in this year's most important tournament continues. And the pressure to qualify is steadily rising.

The CIS Region's Last Hope

It's not looking good for most CIS teams - Flipsid3 and AVANGAR being on the edge of being eliminated and NaVi going out with a massive loss (16-2) against the European team mousesports.

What I watched

Here, I am going to write about the matches that I watched. My goal here is to share my opinion but also teach people about the game. Also, I want to give an overview over the highlights of yesterday's matches.

mousesports vs. Natus Vincere

This game was not very exciting for me to watch, even though I was cheering for mousesports. A very one-sided game all the way through.

That being said, there were some crazy shots by NaVi Player S1mple. S1mple is known for being an undisciplined player with a great amount of mechanical skill. Nontheless, even though S1mple performed very well throughout the match, the grand share of rounds went to mousesports. According to analysts, S1mple lacks freedom in the current state of NaVi.

Some of the highlights include ropz pulling off an exceptional 1 versus 4 clutch to win the round.

AVANGAR vs. Space Soldiers

Space Soldiers started very strong on Mirage. Nice clutches from some of Space Soldiers' players in their first half made AVANGAR feel uncomfortable in the early half. Holding off a B execute attempt, AVANGAR found themself in a very winnable situation. After a very close clutch from buster AVANGAR manage to get their first round.

The momentum started to slip a bit as AVANGAR could take some rounds and recover to finish the half with 7 rounds on the board.

In the second half, however, Space Soldiers dictated the pace of the game with their aggressive plays towards mid and their ability to play according to the situation. AVANGAR only managed to take 2 rounds off Space Soldiers. Final score: 16-9, and AVANGAR cannot lose another game, or they will be eliminated.

FaZe Clan vs. Vega Squadron

It is the highlighted game for me today: Vega Squadron with a huge victory over Faze. Vega dictating the pace of the game for the whole duration of the match, only dropping 6 rounds while they do.

I cannot explain how FaZe, a team of five world class all-stars, misperformed like this, the only explaination I can think of is that FaZe is saving strategies for the playoffs. Risky move, if you ask me, because everything can happen in CS.

FaZe AWPer Guardian mentioned in an interview that Vega Squadron beat them in numerous scrims (scrimmage) which might have been the case today as well. In best-of-1 games, luck plays a bigger role because one little slip-up can be tremendous to the outcome of the match.

Now I ask YOU!

What was your highlight of today's matches? Do you think Vega Squadron are going 3-0 in the swiss format? Who do you think will go home after tomorrow? Let's discuss in the comments!

See you tomorrow for more Counter Strike action,