After struggling with server issues for the better part of the morning, the IEM World Championships got underway in the afternoon and into the evening. The controversy seemed to leave the air after the matches were being played successfully, but for mTw it must be stuck in their minds. Some would argue that the lag issues cost them this tournament, and rightfully so. Questionable admin decisions and constant lag even led Oliver 'minet' Ari Minet to a boiling point in which he yelled his concerns after dying due to lag issues.

Heading into the first day of matches, Group A was classified as the ‘Group of Death’ with five very strong teams competing for three lonely spots. Predicting who would advance was a nightmare, as all the teams had a shot. At the end of the day Evil Geniuses shocked everyone as they played perhaps their best Counter-Strike in the past year, and defeated some of Europe’s best to take first spot in the group. Right behind them is fnatic who had some difficulties at the beginning of the tournament which we often see from them, but heated up quickly to finish the day on a four game winning streak. In third place is Mousesports who started the day off with an undefeated record, and then cooled down as they dropped into the third position. Evil Geniuses will advance to the semi-finals with fnatic and mousesports playing in the quarter-finals.

One of the biggest upsets of the day was when the French team oXmoze defeated Frag eXecutors with an impressive score line of 20-10. When it was announced that FX would be making the trip to the World Championships, many fans predicated a strong finish for the Polish squad but a disappointing day left them stuck in fourth place.

Counter-Strike action continues tomorrow as Group B matches gets underway. Watch SK Gaming compete against some of the toughest competition in the world starting at 10:00CET.

(Photograph copyright ESL)