ESL One Kuala Lumpur Day 1: Group A Is Up In The Air, While Tundra And Falcons Dominate Group B
The first day of ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 has ended, and the day gave us a decent understanding of how the new rosters are doing. Multiple teams debuted their roster; some surprised us, and some disappointed us. After 24 games, the leaders and outsiders were determined, so far at least.
Group A
The balance of power in Group A looked more even than Group B, with all the points being somewhat spread out among the teams. All teams still have a chance of making it to the playoffs and Upper Bracket, and anyone can still get eliminated.
The first set of matches resulted in:
- Blacklist International 2-0 Wawitas Sagazes
- Team Secret 0-2 Azure Ray
- Gaimin Gladiators 1-1 BetBoom Team
After the first set of matches, people thought Wawitas Sagazes and Team Secret would be the two teams packing their bags after an underwhelming performance. Meanwhile, the Gladiators drew their match against the BetBoom Team, which has happened numerous times in Group Stage matches this year.
However, the group got interesting after the second set of matches happened:
- Team Secret 1-1 Gaimin Gladiators
- Azure Ray 1-1 Blacklist International
- Wawitas Sagazes 1-1 BetBoom Team
Team Secret and Wawitas Sagazes could pull off crucial wins against what seemed like the two strongest teams in the group. Though the two teams are sitting at the bottom of the board, they have secured a chance at survival but will need to prove themselves further the next day.
These results put Gaimin Gladiators and BetBoom Team in the middle of the board, while Azure Ray and Blacklist International managed to sit in first and second place. Still, the Group Stage is just beginning; anything can happen on the second day.
Group B
Unlike Group A, the outcomes and rankings of Group B seemed much more apparent and were much easier to predict. Out of six Best of 2 matches, there wasn't a single draw. Most games were stomps in 20-30 minutes, allowing clear favorites to show up in the group.
The first round of matches ended up with these results:
Team Liquid easily defeated 9 Pandas in their series. LGD Gaming made their new roster debut against the Falcons, which didn't go too well. Surprisingly, ex-TSM roster Tundra Esports convincingly won their match against the new "Chinese superteam", G2.IG.
In the second round, we had China vs. China and Europe vs. Europe:
9 Pandas continue to struggle, with Afroninje dying 43 times in four maps. Tundra Esports continues their dominance and finds themselves at the top of the group. G2.IG was the better Chinese team today, as they easily took down LGD Gaming in two 30-minute games. Team Falconsproved stronger than Team Liquid, but we must remember that Liquid is playing with the absence of 33, who SabeRLiGhT replaces.
People did expect 9 Pandas to be the weaker team in the group, but an unexpected one was LGD Gaming, who had a horrendous roster debut. Still, we can't count out that xiao8 is behind their backs, and he might come back with something new for the team on Day 2.
ESL One Kuala Lumpur will run from December 11 to 17 and feature a prize pool of $1,000,000. For more frequent updates, visit our Telegram channel!