Skyesports Grand Slam 2024: Day 1 recap
After an enthralling day’s action, the Skyesports Grand Slam 2024 delivered on all fronts. Tournament favourites Aurora Gaming showcased their class to kick things off before home team Gods Reign put on quite the show for their fans against Indonesia’s Garuda Wisnu Voyage.
Here’s a quick look at the day’s action.
Bad News Kangaroos show that Aurora bleeds
Coming into the $50,000 LAN event, Aurora were the tournament favourites by quite some margin. A clear gap in skill level compared to some of the other teams put Aurora as favourites for almost all. If there was one team who could stop Aurora it was the boys from Down Under - Bad News Kangaroos (BNK).
Even though they didn’t have their main 5, BNK started with an incredible 9-3 lead on Overpass which caught Aurora off guard. The Russians off the back of a deko masterclass eventually turned it around but BNK showed the other teams that Aurora too are beatable and in all honesty should’ve closed Overpass.
Once BNK gave Aurora the taking off ground, the Russian team made them pay dearly on Inferno and a 2-0 win puts Aurora in the Upper Bracket Final. BNK now will have to make it through the Lower Bracket to keep their hopes alive.
Gods Reign though know that BNK’s start showed that Aurora aren’t the untouchable team as some put it and can be caught off guard just as easily.
Bad News KangaroosAurora| Bad News Kangaroos |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Christian 'ADDICT' Pendleton |
36 - 30 | +6 | 93.7 | 68.3% | 1.23 |
 Toby 'BRACE' Barnes |
21 - 30 | -9 | 67.5 | 73.2% | 0.84 |
| Jared 'hazr' O'Bree |
24 - 32 | -8 | 62.8 | 56.1% | 0.81 |
| Will 'yourwombat' Allchin |
14 - 34 | -20 | 47.7 | 51.2% | 0.55 |
| Jordan 'pz' White |
12 - 32 | -20 | 35.5 | 56.1% | 0.47 |
| Aurora |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Denis 'deko' Zhukov |
48 - 19 | +29 | 105.5 | 85.4% | 1.75 |
| Andrey 'BELCHONOKK' Yasinskiy |
34 - 21 | +13 | 87.8 | 85.4% | 1.43 |
| Aleksandr 'KENSI' Gurkin |
29 - 25 | +4 | 86.3 | 82.9% | 1.36 |
| Evgeny 'Norwi' Ermolin |
23 - 20 | +3 | 65.1 | 80.5% | 1.05 |
 Viktor 'Lack1' Boldyrev |
21 - 23 | -2 | 59.1 | 73.2% | 0.98 |
Gods Reign’s super team slowly coming together
When Gods Reign acquired the Marcos Gaming core a couple of weeks ago, it was only a matter of time before this roster got things going to become the best in the country. Both f1redup and Bhavi have mentioned that they are nowhere near to their final form but the signs are ominous.
Against a relatively weaker opponent in Garuda Wisnu Voyage, the Indian team was clinical to close things out for an easy 2-0. f1redup, Ph1NNN and reV3nnnn looked warmed up and Bhavi and R2B2 also showcased their firepower showcasing a well-oiled unit on the Indian side.
Gods ReignGRDX| Gods Reign |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Rahul 'R2B2' Banerjee |
38 - 16 | +22 | 113.1 | 90.9% | 1.95 |
| Aakash 'Ph1NNN' Bose |
32 - 16 | +16 | 112.2 | 87.9% | 1.85 |
| Bhavesh 'Bhavi' Sejwani |
25 - 15 | +10 | 74.0 | 87.9% | 1.49 |
| Harsh 'f1redup' Jain |
25 - 13 | +12 | 79.1 | 84.8% | 1.45 |
| Parijat 'reV3nnnn' Banerjee |
26 - 22 | +4 | 72.9 | 87.9% | 1.19 |
| GRDX |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Muhammad 'Kobalts' Raihan Bimo |
21 - 28 | -7 | 72.4 | 60.6% | 0.91 |
| Juan 'Renatera' Sulthon Iskandarsyah |
21 - 29 | -8 | 67.4 | 54.5% | 0.67 |
| Fajar 'Shika' Ramadhan Putra Santoso |
18 - 30 | -12 | 66.3 | 57.6% | 0.65 |
| 'Obitooo' |
9 - 29 | -20 | 41.0 | 45.5% | 0.39 |
| Timothy 'Nylice' Pratama |
11 - 30 | -19 | 51.3 | 48.5% | 0.38 |
Following the opening day’s action, Gods Reign will now face Aurora Gaming in the Upper Bracket Final tomorrow while Bad News Kangaroos will fight for survival against Garuda Wisnu Voyage in their Lower Bracket matchup.
The action resumes tomorrow at 11:35 IST.
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