Day 1 of the SLTV StarSeries LAN finals have concluded, with Team LDLC taking first seed in the grand finals.
The $27,000 tournament started with a battle between two French teams, Titan vs Epsilon eSports. This was the first time Christophe "SIXER" Xia played with the Epsilon lineup, after replacing former player Joey "fxy0" Schlosser earlier this week. In addition, Engin "MAJ3R" Kupeli stood-in for Gordon "Sf" Giry, who was unable to attend the event.
The first map was the classic de_dust2, where Titan started on the slightly less favored CT side of the map, but still managed the win the half in a close 8-7 scoreline. This was largely thanks to a very successful double AWP play by Kenny "kennyS" Schrub and Hovik "KQLY" Tovmassian. All was lost when Titan took the second pistol round, and eventually won the map 16-10.
The second map, de_cache started with Titan on the more favored CT side of the map. Titan came into an early lead with a 10-2 scoreline, but eventually lost three rounds in a row ending the first half 10-5. Epsilon eSports managed to take the second pistol round, but eventually fell short, losing the map and match 16-13. They will now have to fight through the lower bracket in order to secure a spot at the grand finals.
Team LDLC started the second match of the tournament on the more favored CT side of de_overpass and were able to win six rounds in a row before Na'Vi finally won two, making the score 6-2. However, LDLC were able to quickly recover by winning their eco round and were able to add four more rounds to the scoreboard, making it 10-2. Na'Vi were able to win two rounds in a row and was also able to force a force buy on the last round of the half by LDLC, but the French team was still able to overcome, with Vincent "Happy" Cervoni getting an impressive 3k, ending the half 11-4. Na'Vi was able to win the pistol round as well as four rounds afterwards, but LDLC eventually took the win in a 16-8 scoreline.
Team LDLC again started on the more favored CT side of de_inferno, where they were able to win the pistol round but only one round afterwards before Na'Vi forced a buy and won, making the score 2-1. However, that was the only victory Na'Vi would be able to get, as LDLC won the rest of the 12 rounds of the half in a row, ending the first half 14-1. Although Na'Vi were able to win the pistol round, the comeback was not real as team LDLC won the map and match 16-7. Na'Vi will now face Epsilon eSports in the lower bracket and will have to win two rounds in a row in order to secure a spot in the grand finals.
The upper bracket finals started with Team LDLC yet again on the more favored CT side of de_season, and started the map by winning the pistol round, where Nathan "NBK" Schmitt got an impressive 3k on the pistol round and a 4k on the anti-eco round. The team was then able to win four more rounds in a row before Titan got one, making the score 5-1. The victory was short lived as LDLC proceeded to take four more rounds, making the score 9-1 and eventually 12-3 for the half in favor of LDLC. LDLC proceeded to win the second pistol round making the score 14-3, and eventually the map 16-4.
The second map started with Titan winning the pistol round on the less favored T side of de_cache, but was only able to win one more anti-eco before losing to a force on the third round. LDLC then won four rounds in a row before Titan was able to win an eco buy, as well as four more rounds in their favor, making the score 4-6. However, this was the end of Titan's lead as LDLC again won a shocking 12 rounds in a row, ending the map and match 16-6. Team LDLC has now secured a spot in the grand finals while Titan will have to win one match in the lower bracket in order to advance to the finals.
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