After the first four matches of the North American Challenger Stage of the LCS Promotion, Quantic Gaming sits primed to make it out of the group with a 2-0 score.
Server lag affected North American Promotion Challenger Stage as well as Europe, though all scheduled games were played on Day One with only a slight delay. Quantic, Cognitive, and CompLexity Gaming each played two matches, and TBD and vVv Gaming played one.
In the first game, CompLexity Gaming showed how harshly the last minute loss of Lautemortis and Pr0LLY has affected their team. The game took a decisive turn in the favor of To Be Determined, a team CompLexity consistently defeated during the NACL, early on, and their loss was swift from there.
The second game pitted tournament favorite Quantic Gaming against Cognitive Gaming. Quantic showed off why they're considered the most promising LCS hopeful from North America's Challenger crop in a game even more sweeping than the first.
Quantic returned to the rift immediately in the third game against vVv Gaming. Prime brought forth his jungle Olaf to crush the competition, and Quantic Gaming found another win. To vVv's credit, they seemed to put up more of a fight than Cognitive, and one cannot count them out.
The final game was the closest game of the night and worth the down time after the third match. Cognitive gaming took an early lead against CompLexity, which they lost half way through the game when CompLexity took an inhibitor. Cognitive, however, managed to keep their foot in the door and ultimately took the game, leaving CompLexity down two losses.
At the end of the first day, Quantic Gaming is standing strong with two victories; they require only one more to advance. CompLexity, meanwhile, after looking so strong in their climb from the end of the 2013 Spring Split and acquisition of MegaZero, has two losses under their belt. With only three losses required to eliminate them from Promotion Stage prospects, things are looking grim. They still have yet to face The Walking Zed and vVv Gaming, both strong contenders for the Promotion Stage.
Games continue at 2:00 CET tomorrow with a full plate of seven matches to complement the eight matches of EU's Promotion Tournament. The next twenty four hours may very well strip down the groups in both regions so that only the top three Challenger teams remain. Be sure to watch NA games on WellPlayed's Twitch stream.
