by Team Liquid began the BLAST Premier World Final with the first upset of the event in Group A, defeating Outsiders 2-1 on Wednesday, while OG upset Heroic 2-1 in their opening-round series in Group B.
Liquid went into their series with the IEM Rio Major champions as +120 roughies, and it looked as though the bookies were right after Outsiders went up with a 16-10 win on Liquid’s map pick, Inferno.
However, Outsiders threw up a curveball when they selected the newest addition to the competitive map pool, Anubis, and it proved to be a costly decision.
Liquid turned the tables to win 16-8 before going onto win the series on the final map, Mirage, with another 16-8 scoreline.
Meanwhile, OG entered their series as +200 outsiders with esports betting sites.
Both teams won their map picks — OG on Inferno, Heroic on Mirage — meaning they had to settle the series on Anubis.
The teams couldn’t be split after 30 rounds as the deciding map went to double overtime, where OG eventually emerged 22-19 victors to claim the series 2-1.
In the other two games that took place on day one, FaZe Clan met G2 Esports and Team Vitality clashed with Natus Vincere.
FaZe defeated G2 2-1, while Vitality despatched of NAVI 2-0 as the latter side’s new six-man roster got off to a rough start.
Day two’s matchups will see the winners of Group A (Team Liquid vs FaZe Clan) and Group B (OG vs Team Vitality) clash, with the winners of those two series taking the number one seed for their respective groups.
The losers from day one will also clash, with two of Natus Vincere, G2, Outsiders and Heroic going home if they are to lose again.
The list of day two games is below, with odds courtesy of BetOnline.
- Outsiders (-151.52) vs G2 Esports (+110) @ 10:00 GST
- Team Liquid (+125) vs FaZe Clan (-175.44) @ 13:00 GST
- Heroic (+100) vs Natus Vincere (-138.89) @ 16:00 GST
- OG (+175) vs Team Vitality (-250) @ 19:00 GST
