The Intel Extreme Masters is underway at the Qudos Bank Arena, in Sydney Olympic Park.
After the first day of matches, there have been a number of surprising results.
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The first upset of the day was TyLoo taking out SK 19-16 on mirage in overtime.
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Then there was FaZe vs Renegades which was a best of 3 maps, (train / overpass / inferno).
Renegades looked like they were in trouble in the first half of train, where they were down 2-10, until some big plays by JKS with the awp, pulled them back into the game to finish the first half 10-5, they then went on to win the match 16-12.
The next match was on overpass which Renegades are known not to play very much, and FaZe are renowned to be one of the best teams on the map.
The map was really close with Renegades getting an early lead having won the pistol round finishing the first half 9-6.
Some classic awp plays by GuardiaN pulled FaZe back into the lead to win the game 16-13.
The final map being inferno, had Renegades again take the early lead by winning the pistol round for the 5th time over the series.
The game went back and forth with both teams playing some really close rounds, until Renegades had the lead and an opportunity to finish the game early.
Then FaZe did a half buy rush to the B site, where they overpowered Renegades to push the game back until it was overtime.
The game went into two more overtimes with some very close clutch rounds from both FaZe and Renegades.
After getting ahead by two rounds, JKS from Renegades was left in a 2 vs 1 clutch where he closed out the match for Renegades to win 25-22.
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The next upset of the day was SK's best of three match vs the other Australian team, Grayhound.
This match was the group A lower bracket, and the losing team would be eliminated from the event.
The best of three maps were (mirage / cache / overpass).
SK won the first half of mirage 9-6, but then Grayhound brought it back in the second half to win their map pick 16-13.
SK had a decent lead on the first half of cache at 10-5, and managed to finish the map off in the second half to win 16-11.
The last map on overpass was a tight first half at 7-8 to SK, but after some really strong CT side defense from Grayhound, they were able to close out the map to win 16-11, which knocked out SK the champions from IEM Sydney 2017.
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This last upset for the event from day one, might not really be an upset but as the Chinese team has not played as much versus the top tier one teams as their opponent, many did not expect them to get the result they did.
The match was between TyLoo and Cloud9on (inferno / overpass / mirage).
The Chinese team had a really strong start, leading the first half 11-4.
Cloud9 came back in the second half, but it was already too late, TyLoo took out the first map 16-10 with some solid play by BnTeT.
The second map on overpass was a close first half at 8-7 to Cloud9, but after some strong awp frags by xccurate TyLoo closed out the match 16-14.
That about does it for the first day of matches from IEM Sydney.
I am really proud of how well the Australian teams have done so far, especially since I have an old teammate USTILO in Renegades.
I can't wait to see how they go on the big stage in the playoffs with the Australian crowd cheering them on.
Have any of you guys been following the event so far?
What are your predictions for the upcoming matches?
These are my predictions for the next lot of best of three matches:
B.O.O.T-d[S] vs NRG NRG > B.O.O.T-d[S] 2-0
Chiefs vs MVP.PK Chiefs > MVP.PK 2-1
mousesports vs Astralis mousesports > Astralis 2-1
ORDER vs Cloud9 Cloud9 > ORDER 2-1
fnatic vs G2 fnatic > G2 2-0
FaZe vs Grayhound FaZe > Grayhound 2-0
For more coverage on the event and sources check out www.HLTV.org