Carnival Gaming, Marcos Gaming pull off massive reverse sweeps

The opening round of Skyesports Masters 2024's India Closed Qualifier has concluded with Marcos Gaming, True Rippers, Gods Reign and Carnival Gaming making it to the upper-bracket semi-finals after sending Grayfox Esports, Frag Theory, Crescent and 2EZ Gaming down to the lower bracket.

Marcos Gaming vs Grayfox Esports

One of Marcos Gaming's players had a tech issue, delaying the first map and as a result, Grayfox Esports were given a bye and went into the second map with a 1-0 advantage.

Both teams traded rounds in a 6-6 first half and then ended up taking the map to overtime. After two rounds of overtime, it was Marcos Gaming who swept a 3-0 in the second overtime to emerge victorious with a 19-15 score line and pushed the series into the decider coming in with a 1-map disadvantage.

Vertigo was a whole another story with Marcos Gaming toppling Grayfox Esports to secure a dominant 13-2 win, reverse sweeping the series 2-1 and sending Grayfox Esports down to the lower bracket.

True Rippers vs Frag Theory

On Ancient, Rossi and Gh0sTTT stepped up early in the game to give True Rippers a good start but Frag Theory pulled it right back to keep the playing field level at 6-6. The second half was a Mcg1LLzZz show, restricting Frag Theory to just a single round to close out Ancient 13-6.

Overpass's first half was a rinse and repeat of Ancient but Frag Theory really took the fight to True Rippers with ElementX and PaiNNN stepping up. However, True Rippers held their ground and powered their way to a 13-9 win, closing out the series 2-0.

Gods Reign vs Crescent

After securing a solid 8-4 lead in the first half of Ancient, Gods Reign kept Crescent on the down-low and dropped just a single round in the second half to secure a 13-5 win, going 1-0 up in the series. f1redup finished Ancient with 23 frags at an ADR of 115.

The second map took us to Overpass where Gods Reign's R2B2 and f1redup stepped up to slide a massive 11-1 first half in their favor. Crescent mounted a valiant comeback, making sure the Gods Reign wouldn't get those 3 easy rounds, but fell at the last step after stringing up 10 rounds. Gods Reign closed out Anubis 13-10 and the series 2-0.

Carnival Gaming vs 2EZ Gaming

After a level 6-6 first half on Nuke, the bb1-ShinchAn duo gave 2EZ Gaming a bit of leg room but Carnival Gaming's individual stepped up with impact, taking the map to overtime. 2EZ Gaming did not drop a single round in overtime, winning Nuke 16-12. bb1 dropped 30 frags at an ADR of 106, clouding clouda's frag-fest.

On Mirage, Carnival Gaming off to great start, securing an 8-4 first half. 2EZ Gaming's retaliation was shut down early in the second half, giving Carnival Gaming a 13-6 win to level the series at 1-1. bb1 who fragged out in the first map, never turned up on Mirage.

Both sides re-entered the MR15 mindset, taking the decider Ancient to overtime after 2EZ Gaming secured a massive 9-3 first half in their favor. bb1 was back in form, dropping another 30-bomb but Carnival Gaming's coordinated approach, toppled 2EZ Gaming as SpawN's team put up a flawless overtime run, closing Ancient 16-12 and reverse sweeping the series 2-1.