Day one of the Halo World Championship is underway, with eight teams battling it out for the final spots in tomorrow’s pool play matches against the rosters who automatically qualified from the Orlando Major last month.
Four spots are up for grabs, but it was FNATIC and European champions Acend that dominated the competition to secure the first two tickets to pools from the winner’s bracket.
Both teams were looking for a redemption story today after lackluster performances during HCS Orlando prevented them from placing top 12 and qualifying directly for Worlds.
Acend was the biggest surprise of all, finishing top 16 compared to the dominant top eight placement at HCS Kansas City in April. While their performance in today’s play-in bracket won’t have been as smooth sailing as they hoped for, they can breathe a sigh of relief that they didn’t succumb to a resurgent Complexity roster and made it to the winner’s final.
It was very nearly an all-American final though, Acend’s best-of-five series against Complexity going all the way to the fifth and final map.
Complexity’s CyKul won’t be looking back fondly on that last game, where he sat with zero kills to his name by the time that Acend had reached 30 in the Slayer on Aquarius.
That total only improved to three by the time the curtains rolled on Complexity’s winner’s bracket run with a 50-48 win for Acend, one that potentially could have been Complexity’s if CyKul had been able to get on the board.
FNATIC’s adventures through the play-in bracket were far less stressful, with a near-flawless series against Australia’s Divine Mind roster and a 3-1 victory against JLINGZ esports.
It was clear FNATIC came to play in Seattle when they kicked off the day with a 5-0 Capture The Flag victory against Divine Mind, a performance only matched by the 250-0 Strongholds win they then took against the Australian side to cap off the series.
The battle against JLINGZ had far more narrow margins, but a 21-kill game for newly signed Suppressed on map four allowed FNATIC to clinch a 250-223 Strongholds and series win before momentum could swing in JLINGZ favor.
Only two spots remain in pools for the play-in teams left in the elimination bracket. Divine Mind and Altar Esports have already been eliminated, leaving Complexity, JLINGZ, The Chiefs, and Spacestation Gaming left in the battle.
