ESL Challenger League Season 50 Asia-Pacific Cup 4: Day 1 Recap

The first day at ESL Challenger League Season 50 Asia-Pacific Cup 4, that witnessed eight games unfold, has come to an end. A total of 16 teams came fighting today in the double-elimination bracket, for a prize pool of $10k and a slot at Season 50 APAC Finals.

Here is how the games unfolded:

Last Bullet vs Just Swing

Just Swing forfeited the match

Eruption vs Change the Game

Change the Game forfeited the match.

Kaleido vs Arise

Arise met the Chinese team Kaleido, who are ranked #85 in their opening match. Their outing kicked off on Train, where Kaleido asserted early dominance to lock in an 8-4 lead on the CT-side. Arise pushed back on their defensive side, with Bhavi carrying the lot, but ultimately fell a step short, losing by an 11-13 scoreline. On the next map Inferno, which was Kaleido's map pick, Arise fail to perforate on their T-side, securing only 4 rounds to finally crumble to a 4-13 loss.

FengDa vs BORING PLAYERS

A Chinese derby unfolded in the opening round as FengDa went up against BORING PLAYERS. Starting out on Dust2, FengDa posted a respectable CT-half to secure a 7-5 lead. It turned out to be enough to clinch a 13-9 victory, as Trash went 25-12 in K-D. On their own map pick of Ancient, FengDa wreaked havoc on the T-side to post a 10-2 lead, and closed out the map comfortably in the second half with a 13-3 win.

Chinggis Warriors vs DQZS

Chinggis Warriors locked horns with DQZS, kicking off their campaign with a terrifying CT start, that helped them secure an early 11-1 lead. A comeback proved to be too tall an order for DQZS to accomplish, as they accepted an agonising 1-13 defeat. The second map Nuke, was a much tighter affair, as DQZS managed to even out the slate on their CT-side. However, their T-side let them down, as they could only manage four rounds to lose by a 10-13 margin.

The QUBE vs IHC

Matched up against their compatriots at IHC, The QUBE started off the series by taking their map pick of Inferno with the very slight margin of 13-11. IHC's map pick Nuke unfolded to be a gruelling contest for both teams, but IHC managed to take the series to a third map courtesy of a 16-13 win. Riding the momentum from their map win, IHC put up a strong CT-side to claim a 9-3 lead, that paved the way for a 13-3 win.

NomadS vs ScarX

The next match brought us to a faceoff between NomadS and ScarX. The series started off with both teams winning their map picks - ScarX emerged triumphant on Inferno with a 13-8 scoreline, and then NomadS picked Ancient with an in control 13-10 win. The decider Mirage started off with a commendable 7-5 show from StarX on the CT-side, which they followed with a dominant T-side to take home a 13-8 win.

GATERON vs Legion

Legion fell to Chinese team GATERON in the last game of the day. The series started off with a gut punch for Legion, as they lost their map pick of Dust2 by a 10-13 margin despite a strong 8-4 T-side start. While they managed to push the series to the decider after a 13-11 win on Inferno, they failed to capitalise on Mirage and ended up losing the map 9-13.