Most favorites are through to playoffs in the massive EWC open qualifier, including Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev's BC.Game.
The squad suffered defeat to BASEMENT BOYS on Nuke in their first series, but won 2-1 and then found life easier agaisnt the recently-signed 1win squad.
The qualifier, featuring 64 teams on LAN in Paris, got underway an hour late after technical issues but has run smoothly since. Another round of best-of-threes, featuring the likes of 100 Thieves and Liquid, kick off shortly in Groups 9-16.
Four spots are on offer at the $2m main event, with an extra $100,000 split between teams who place 5-16th in the qualifier.
The biggest upset of the day came when Iberian Soul — back under that banner after their release from Gentle Mates — fell to 6666 in the first round. They will have a chance for revenge on Saturday in the group's decider match after fnatic topped the group.
Elsewhere, favorites ruled the roost with the following eight teams booked into the 32-team playoff bracket.
Group 1-8 winners
- Inner Circle
- BIG
- DENDELE
- HOTU
- Betclic
BC.Game
- HEROIC
- fnatic
- Liquid
Keith 'NAF' Markovic
Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski
Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa
Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou
Georgi 'Jorko' Mitev
Viktor 'flashie' Tamás Bea
HEROIC
Ludvig 'Brollan' Brolin
Linus 'nilo' Bergman
Tim 'susp' Ångström
Antonio 'MartinezSa' Martinez
Christoffer 'Chr1zN' Storgaard
Joonas 'doto' Forss
BIG
Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz
Jon 'JDC' de Castro
Josef 'faveN' Baumann
Benjamin 'blameF' Bremer
Gleb 'gr1ks' Gazin
Sebastian 'xenn' Hoch
1win
Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov
Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov
Andrey 'BELCHONOKK' Yasinskiy
Petr 'fame' Bolyshev
Artem 'ArtFr0st' Kharitonov
Konstantin 'groove' Pikiner
6666
Vadim 'skcH' Dedushkevich
Denys 'amster' Liashenko
Yurii 'rendysky' Halyshyn
Oleksandr 'kL1o' Zakharchuk
Denis 'dENZY' Osipov
Betclic
Patryk 'Demho' Tomaszewski
Wojciech 'Prism' Zięba
Mateusz 'ex1st' Witman
Konrad 'Qlocuu' Klocek
Grzegorz 'SZPERO' Dziamałek
BASEMENT BOYS
Bohdan 'kr1vda' Kryvda
Mykhailo 'OWNER' Lymar
Egor 'Tr0ublE' Bulavin
Denis 'maggent' Kapinus
Danylo 'fakerealityy' Rud
fnatic
Rodion 'fEAR' Smyk
Dmytro 'jambo' Semera
Nikita 'jackasmo' Skyba
Artem 'cairne' Mushynskyi
Volodymyr 'mazay' Iorhachov
Miks 'Independent' Siliņš
Gentle Mates
100 Thieves
Nicolai 'device' Reedtz
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
Jack 'Gizmy' von Spreckelsen
William 'sirah' Kjærsgaard
Alex 'poiii' Nyholm Sundgren
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander
HOTU
David 'n0rb3r7' Danielyan
Aidos 'kade0' Khairzhan
Dmitry 'mizu' Kondratev
Aleksandr 'dwushka' Pakhnevich
Kim 'frontales' Argunov
Rustem 'mou' Telepov
Inner Circle
Arseniy 'cptkurtka023' Derevinskiy
Daniil 'headtr1ck' Valitov
Eduard 'zeRRoFIX' Petrovskyi
Viktor 'onic' Babii
David 'Dawy' Bibik
Dmytro 'jR' Chervak
DENDELE
Victor 'gafolo' Andrade
João 'koala' Pfeffer
Máximo 'maxxkor' Cortina
Daniel 'rdnzao' Monteiro
Danilo 'doc' Barros
Hélder 'coachi' Sancho
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev
Iberian Soul
Alejandro 'alex' Masanet
Alejandro 'mopoz' Fernández-Quejo Cano
Pere 'sausol' Solsona Saumell
David 'dav1g' Granado Bermudo
BC.Game
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev
Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov
Emil 'Magisk' Reif
Azbayar 'Senzu' Munkhbold
Ayush 'mzinho' Batbold
Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas