Day two at Gears New Orleans saw numerous high profile teams drop out of the running for the top placements, while others looked back to their best.
The open bracket teams entered pool play and immediately caused a storm, as they continued the theme of day one with a slew of upsets.
Despite Vegas champions Ghost Gaming’s abysmal start on Friday, they did bounce back on day two with a win over open bracket team Lucent Esports, and one head to head record narrowly managed to get a spot in the winners bracket.
They then took down Rise Nation in winners round one, but their run ended there as they faced an OpTic Gaming who looked unbeatable, in the winners semi.
OpTic had completed their group 3-0, before sweeping Echo Fox in a very quick 2-0, and did the exact same to Ghost. Ghost only managed to win a single round vs OG, and there is no doubt who the tournament favorites are.
On the other side of the winners bracket, EU’s Finest took out both eUnited and Elevate to secure top 3 and earn a match against OpTic in the winners final.
Perhaps the highlight of day two was actually a non-gameplay moment, as OpTic Gaming’s Praized sent some brutal trash talk towards Echo Fox after their match.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
Can you say that one more time, @Praized_Z?
Watch the @EsportsGears #GearsNOLA Open at https://t.co/nsz1mEbwmY pic.twitter.com/jXusTu2be3
— MLG (@MLG) July 14, 2018
It was the losers bracket were things got really interesting, as of course teams were playing for their tournament lives.
The success story of the open bracket so far is NA team ‘Nimbus’, who grinded through open to make it in to pool A, but after failing to win a pool play match dropped to losers. However they remained resilient, eliminating Fire N Ice and Vertacon to secure top 16.
They eventually fell in their next match up against eUnited, but it was a valiant run nonetheless. Echo Fox also took out European team Fable to secure top 12 themselves.
OpTic Gaming’s Mexico roster had a tough pool play, but have faired better in the losers bracket, knocking out Worlds Best APAC, Disrupt and then Rise Nation to secure top 12, where they will play eUnited.
Keep up to date with all the action on the dedicated coverage hub.
