A total of 15 games were played on the first day of the IEM World Championship between the 6 teams from Group A.

Group A:


The surprise of the day certainly was Fnatic's performance. While the team certainly wasn't 100% convincing in their last games in the LCS, it's doubtful that anyone expected them to go out of the tournament on the first day. Unfortunately for them that's exactly what happened. None of Enrique Javier 'xPeke' Cedeño Martinez's strongest picks (Kassadin, Diana, Katarina, Nidalee) seemed to work today. Christoph 'nRated' Seitz's Blitzcrank which secured first blood on Blaze wasn't enough and neither was Paul 'sOAZ' Boyer' stellar performance on Elise versus Gambit. Fnatic only managed to win against the Brazilian team paiN in their last match of the group and for the second year in a row couldn't reach the playoffs of the tournament.

The Russian powerhouse Gambit Gaming had exactly the opposite performance today. They dominated the group, including a very strong showing against Blaze, and went 5-0 remaining undefeated in their second participation in the IEM World Championship. As stated in our tournament preview 3 bans are just not enough against that team at the moment. Edward 'Ed Ward' Abgarian was yet again unstoppable on Thresh in the 2 games the champion wasn't banned and so were all of his teammates. With their first place in the group, Gambit were placed directly into the semifinals so they are just two Bo3 sets away from defending their title and it is unclear if anyone can stop them on their way there.

CJ Blaze were definitely on a mission to show that they have found their best form again and they more or less managed to prove that going 4-1. Their only defeat came yet again from the hands of Gambit. It seems like the Koreans still don't have an answer for them and unless they find one soon, they just might lose another IEM final.

The third team to go into the playoffs is Millenium with a score of 2-3. They won against Fnatic in their first game of the group using a double AD strat with Erik 'Tabzz' van Helvert on Kog'Maw in mid. Their other win was versus LG-IM in which Tabzz was on his infamous Fizz, while Aurimas 'Angush' Gedvilas was rocking the AP Tryndamere in the top lane. This win is exactly what sent Millenium to the quarterfinals as the Korean team had the same score.

LG-IM managed to snatch away wins against paiN and Fnatic (which included a pentakill by Park 'MidKing' Yong-woo's Ryze, which you can see here), while paiN themselves won against Millenium, but those weren't enough and both teams are out of the tournament.

If you want to check the group standings and all the match results, you can do it here. Don't forget to tune in tomorrow for Group B and to cheer on for SK Gaming ! Show starts at 9:30 CET.