Elite League Swiss Stage Day 1: Upsets Right Off The Bat

The first day of the Elite League Swiss Stage has ended, providing fans with unexpected results. On the following day, the 1-0 teams will play against other 1-0 teams, while 0-1 teams will play other 0-1 teams.

The first match of the tournament already featured an upset, with Team Secret winning 2-0 against Virtus.pro. In the first map, Puppey and the crew were down 30,000 net worth, but showed resilience, taking a great fight and pulling off an incredible comeback. Despite Kiritych~'s best efforts on his Morphling in the second map, Team Secret could win the map after 39 minutes, completing the 2-0.

Next on the list was Talon Esports facing off against rest farmers. The Southeast Asian team’s carry player, Akashi, is facing travel issues, which is why V-Tune was called to stand in for Talon Esports. The Ukrainian could not get the groove of the team in the first game, where the rest farmers could easily win in 38 minutes. However, Talon Esports showed they were the superior team, taking the second and third game in quite convincing fashion. 

The 9Pandas team was set to make their new roster debut against Entity Gaming, replacing Antares with ex-Team Secret player Ekki. Entity Gaming gave watson his trusty Meepo pick, which turned out great for the first map. The Rank 1 player managed to get an early rampage to stomp the game in only 22 minutes. 9Pandas looked much better in the second game, building a 15,000 net worth lead. However, after a string of mistakes, Entity Gaming quickly punished the inexperienced 9Pandas roster and came back, winning the series 2-0.

The match between Heroic and Tundra Esports became the main highlight of the day, as two teams with chaotic play styles were set to clash. Heroic took matters into their own hands, building up decent control over the first map. However, a disastrous fight where K1 got picked off for free gave Tundra Esports a way back, and it was only a matter of time until Pure and the gang started snowballing their advantage to win the first map. 

In the second game, Pure was picked Meepo, and Topson played his Omniknight mid. However, Davai Lama pulled out an Elder Titan off lane to counter Pure. Tundra’s cheesy lineup did not go according to plan, and Heroic could tie the series to force a third. The decisive map was extremely scrappy from both sides. The two teams took turns taking the lead and throwing it not long after. Ultimately, the game was dragged to the late game, which favored K1’s Phantom Lancer which ended up carrying the game for his team and pulling off the upset.

The next match featured yet another surprising result, with Nigma Galaxy stomping Aurora with ease. The MENA squad won all three lanes in the first map and converted a quick 22 minute win. In the second map, Nigma looked to close the series 2-0 with a SumaiL Arc Warden, building a 22,000 net worth lead at 36 minutes. However, 23savage managed to find massive impact on his Faceless Void to complete the comeback, putting the series 1-1. Still, Aurora's recovery was all for naught, as Nigma could stomp the third game in only 27 minutes, humiliating Aurora today. 

BOOM Esports had eliminated PSG Quest from the Games of the Future 2024 tournament, and the MENA organization looked to take their revenge by taking a quick Game 1 victory in only 25 minutes. The second game was extremely tight between both teams, but Pakazs showed why he is considered a world-class carry player, going 13/2/10 on his Weaver to bring the series to a third map. In the third map, SLATEM$, who was receiving lots of criticism, finally showed up to carry BOOM Esports to a series victory against PSG Quest.

kev, a Chinese team that pulled off an upset in their regional qualifier, was quickly shut down by Nouns with the quickest 2-0 victory of the tournament so far. 

In the final series of the day, Ceb and OG faced Blacklist International, a team that has seen lots of improvement since the implementation of its new roster. In the first map, OG’s star player Bzm could not get anything going on his Razor, ending the map 2/11/2 to give Blacklist International a convincing first map victory. The Bulgarian mid player knew his performance in the previous game was a fluke, and quickly made up for it by going 14/1/11 on Pangolier to go to map three. In the end, OG won all their lanes in the decider and won the map in 26 minutes, taking the series 2-1.

The Elite League tournament runs from March 31 to April 14. We are currently in the first stage of the tournament, where eight teams will advance, and the remaining eight eliminated.