G2 and Cloud9 decimate underdogs in Malta

Two of the biggest tournament favorites of the European A tournament looked in great form as they swept ECSTATIC and B8 aside.

G2 and Cloud9 have picked up first round victories at IEM Road to Rio Europe RMR A without breaking much of a sweat in their matches on Ancient. Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen & co. went flawless in a 16-0 affair against ECSTATIC and Vladislav "⁠nafany⁠" Gorshkov's team beat B8 16-6.

The two favorites have now joined Bad News Eagles and Sprout in the 1-0 pool ahead of round two of the Swiss stage, while ECSTATIC and B8 are down 0-1 along with FORZE and Eternal Fire. The remainder of the first round will play out during the rest of the first play day, with the second set to start on Wednesday at 11:00 .

It was a flawless first day for G2 in Malta

It could not have been an easier day in the office for G2 to start their campaign in the Major qualifier. Starting on the T side of Ancient against a favorite firing on all cylinders is a difficult task at the best of times for a team as inexperienced as ECSTATIC, and it proved impossible in this case.

Even in close scenarios the HooXi-led side always had the upper hand, and with no one stepping up for the Danes in retakes, G2 remained flawless as ECSTATIC were left forced to come to terms with the ominous 0on their side of the scoreboard.

Playing on the same map against one of the other big favorites of the qualifier in Cloud9, B8 left a better account of themselves than their Danish counterparts but had to face the same fate nonetheless.

Starting on the CT side, the Ukrainians enjoyed a brief period of success towards the end of the first half, but once sides switched Cloud9 had things firmly under control, not letting B8 break through the defense on a single occasion.

Group Swiss 1W - 0L G2 Cloud9 Bad News Eagles Sprout 0W - 0L FaZe Spirit Ninjas in Pyjamas Aurora fnatic Astralis 1WIN GamerLegion 0W - 1L FORZE Eternal Fire B8 ECSTATIC Sprout #31 Ismail 'refrezh' AliFritz 'slaxz-' DietrichRasmus 'Zyphon' NordfossVictor 'Staehr' StaehrLaurențiu 'lauNX' Țârlea Rasmus 'HooXi' Nielsen Age: 27 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 0.86 Maps played: 824 KPR: 0.58 DPR: 0.69 ECSTATIC #38 Jonas 'Queenix' DideriksenMarcus 'maNkz' KjeldsenCasper 'Cabbi' JensenBenjamin 'brzer' JensenTobias 'kraghen' Kragh Jensen Eternal Fire #20 Engin 'MAJ3R' KüpeliIsmailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşÖzgür 'woxic' EkerAhmet 'paz' KarahocaÖmer 'imoRR' Karataş FORZE #26 Andrey 'Jerry' MekhryakovAleksandr 'zorte' ZagodyrenkoAleksandr 'shalfey' MarenovAleksandr 'KENSI' GurkinEvgeny 'Norwi' Ermolin Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov Age: 21 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 0.96 Maps played: 900 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.69 Bad News Eagles #32 Rigon 'rigoN' GashiSener 'SENER1' MahmutiFlatron 'juanflatroo' HalimiDionis 'sinnopsyy' BudeciGenc 'gxx-' Kolgeci Cloud9 #6 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovTimofey 'interz' YakushinSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovVladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov B8 #69 Arseniy 'cptkurtka023' DerevinskiyDenys 'amster' LiashenkoAlexey 'alex666' YarmoshchukMykyta 'Hkta' RevaArtem 'r1nkle' Moroz Time is adjusted to your selected timezone G2 #5 Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNemanja 'huNter-' KovačJustin 'jks' SavageRasmus 'HooXi' NielsenIlya 'm0NESY' Osipov