First day of EPICENTER: Moscow has concluded with three of four matches ending as draws.
The $500.000 tournament kicked off with its group stage. The winner of the day was without doubt Virtus.pro as they beat SK Gaming 2-0 on the opening match. All other best-of-two series split 1-1, proving how the attending teams are close to each other in terms of strength. EPICENTER: Moscow group stage action will continue for two more days using best-of-two round-robin format.
Virtus.pro vs. 
SK Gaming 13:2, 3:7 (16:9); 11:4, 5:8 (16:12)
Result: Virtus.pro victory (2:0)
Maps: de_Mirage, de_Cobblestone
MVP: Marcelo "coldzera" David
First match of EPICENTER: Moscow saw Polish dominance over SK Gaming but despite losing the match, one particular player from the Brazilian side, Marcelo "coldzera" David has put in a brilliant performance. David stood against Virtus.pro on his own almost the entire series but his efforts were too little against a full, on form squad of elite players.
Virtus.pro had the chance to pick the first map and they went with Mirage where the Poles grabbed the pistol round and built on the economic advantage to secure an early 5-0 lead. As the CT side, Virtus.pro had a solid mid control through the half and as a result of that they've let SK grab just two rounds before half time.
David grabbed four kills at the second pistol round but couldn't defuse the bomb on time. SK Gaming decided to force-buy the next round in order to prevent VP from reaching the map point and that worked. They've even managed to grab six more rounds to make it 14-9 and revived their hopes for a comeback. VP didn't let that dream come true and secured two rounds to close the map out 16-9.
Cobblestone, as the second map, started similarly to the prior. VP grabbed the pistol round and built a strong 8-0. Jaros?aw "pashaBiceps" Jarz?bkowski and Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski's 1v2 clutches on 7th and 8th round were crucial in this process. SK finally got on board by winning the 9th round but 11-4 score line at the halftime wasn't a good sign for them. The Brazilians managed to win the second pistol round but their own mistakes prevented them from a potential comeback. Taking advantage of their opponent's mistakes, Virtus.pro prevailed on Cobblestone with a 16-12 score and became the first -and the last, at least on the first day- team with two maps on board.
Natus Vincere vs. 
Dignitas 3:12, 3:4 (6:16); 9:6, 7:3 (16:9)
Result: Draw (1:1)
Maps: de_Mirage, de_Nuke
MVP: Emil "Magiskb0y" Reif
Na'Vi took on Dignitas on the opening match of Group A. The veto process itself signalled that the matchup would offer some surprises as Nuke was picked by the Danes as the second map. But before Nuke, Na'Vi's pick Mirage had to be played. The CIS-based team was heavy favourites but Dignitas destroyed Na'Vi thanks to René "cajunb" Borg's crucial clutches and Emil "Magiskb0y" Reif's frags round after round. Things were looking bad at the Na'Vi camp as three of their players were unable to reach double digits in 22 rounds while Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács only had 14 kills during that period. The sole warrior for them was Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev who had 23 kills on Mirage.
Nuke was a huge question mark. But Na'Vi impressed with their T side despite losing the pistol round. Kovács' dominance with his AWP was on the yard particularly effective. Despite the high confidence that came as a result of 9 round wins as T side on Nuke, the CIS-based team lost the second pistol round. But the Danes couldn't managed to make thinks even as Na'Vi grabbed a round with just pistols and reset the Danish economy. Building on that economical advantage, Na'Vi hardly gave breathing room for Dignitas and took the map away after 25 rounds with the final score being 16-9. With these result, both Natus Vincere and Dignitas got one map in pocket in their quest for the playoff stage.
fnatic vs. 
HellRaisers 7:8, 6:8 (13:16); 11:4, 5:6 (16:10)
Result: Draw (1:1)
Maps: de_Cache, de_Overpass
MVP: Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer
The second match of Group B was between a fnatic team that is trying to perform accordingly to the organization's prestige and a HellRaisers team that has recently saw a roster change. The first map was fnatic's pick Cache. Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer and co. won the pistol round and the two rounds following it to establish a 3-0 lead but once HellRaisers had enough money for a full the match continued as a fight between two equally strong sides. It was the new signing, Bence "DeadFox" Böröcz and his AWP that kept HellRaisers alive on the first half which ended with a narrow HR lead, 8-7.
Both teams were unable to achieve a superiority over another until the 24th round where HellRaisers won a crucial eco round to reset fnatic economy. From that point to the end of the map the Ukranian-Slovak-Hungarian mix team won five consecutive rounds to come from 13-11 to win the map 16-11.
The odds were favouring an underdog victory as the teams were switching to Overpass which was HellRaisers' pick. On the other hand, fnatic had no intention to lose both maps. The Swedish dominated the first half as the CT side to lead by 7 at the half time. Unfortunately for them, their T side wasn't as brilliant as their CT side. fnatic finally breached HellRaisers defence at the 7th round of the second half when the gap was melted to just three rounds. Once the defence was breached, fnatic continued hitting the bombsites with success and won the map 16-10 to earn their first points in Moscow.
G2 Esports vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas 3:12, 8:4 (11:16); 11:4, 5:5 (16:9)
Result: Draw (1:1)
Maps: de_Cobblestone, de_Cache
MVP: Richard "shox" Papillon
The final match of the day was between StarSeries i-League Season 2 finalists G2 and NiP. The French-Belgian side picked Cobblestone to be the first map but they were shocked by NiP that won all of the first nine rounds. G2 finally grabbed one round but were reset right away. Last four rounds were shared equally between the teams, making the halftime score 12-3 in favour of NiP.
When the Swedish side won the second pistol round, Cobblestone seemed to be over but G2 managed to win the force-buy following it. After that point, G2 fought desperately to close the gap but Adam "friberg" Friberg's quad-kill in the 27th round won the map point for the Swedes.
Cache started with G2 winning the pistol round and the two anti-ecos following it as the T side before NiP defeating them in the first gun round. After a couple of back and forth the G2 squad led by Richard "shox" Papillon established a decent lead after the 10th round with a 7-3 score line. Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom joined Papillon and G2 started winning consecutive rounds to lead 11-4 at the halftime.
Switching to the CT side, G2 were five rounds away from stealing Cache away. Their comfortable lead seemed to make them a bit relaxed and as a result they gave away five rounds, equal number of rounds they had to win in order to beat their opponents and they did so thanks to consistent headshots of their star duo, Papillon and Benrlitom.
Image courtesy of Epicenter
