Ambush Esport wins the first round of NumberOne

The first of the four rounds of NumberOne, the LouvardGame circuit dedicated to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, bowed out last night with an unprecedented final between Ambush Esport and the Russian structure GROND.

This final meeting ended several weeks of regular competition and a weekend of high-flying playoffs. The opening of the competition to European teams outside the traditional Franco-Belgian framework has made it possible to raise the overall level of play of the championship and thus offer even more spectacle.

In addition to the traditional cash prize of 5,000 €, these are the first points of the season counting for the global ranking of NumberOne that the teams came to grab during this first “Legend Stage”. The goal ? Try to be part of the eight structures invited to the big final phase of the event.

After four weeks of the classic phase where the eight teams entered had the opportunity to compete in a single pool, only the best six of them met this weekend for the playoffs of the competition.

The top 2 (Project X and GROND) had the privilege of advancing directly to the semi-finals of the tree while the following four teams (Clutch Rayn Esport, The Dice, Ambush Esport and the Bruges eClub) had to play an extra turn before joining them.

The first quarter-final of the competition pitted the eClub de Bruges against Clutch Rayn Esport. The two teams did not manage to decide between themselves during the group stage (15-15 on Vertigo) and therefore had a great opportunity to finally take their revenge. Despite an excellent start on Inferno and the winning of round 16 to 8, the Franco-Belgians from Clutch Rayn will then be overwhelmed to end up losing 1 to 2 (9-16 on Vertigo and 9-16 on Dust II).

Steven “Stev0se” Rombaut and his team-mates therefore spun in the semi-final to find the Russians from GROND. The “Blauw en Zwart” had overcome their evening opponent on the second day of competition (16-13 on Nuke) and could therefore logically feed hopes for the final.

Unfortunately, the Russian structure has grown in strength over the weeks and gave the Bruges eClub change this Saturday by inflicting a severe 2-0 defeat (16-10 on Mirage and 16-9 on Train ). GROND was therefore the first finalist of this “Legend Stage”.

The team was joined there by Ambush Esport. The Danish structure, represented by five French players, first easily defeated The Dice in their quarter-final (16-7 on Inferno and 16-6 on Dust II) before moving on almost as easily against the Project X (16-10 on Inferno and 16-12 on Nuke).

It was therefore an unprecedented final between GROND and Ambush Esport which closed this first round of the season. While everything seemed to tilt in the side of the rookie GROND (victory in the classic phase and seven points more than his opponent), and this, even more after winning the first card (16-6 on Nuke), Ambush Esport managed to foil all the predictions by making a comeback worthy of the greatest!

A 16-12 equalizer on Inferno followed by a final 16-13 success on Dust II will give Ambush Esport the first title of the season. The men of Damien “wasiNK” Dufour thus mark their name on the prize list of the competition, pocketing in the process the 2,500 € promised to the winner.

The Ukrainians of Project X complete the podium after a narrow victory (25-22 over Vertigo, 11-16 over Nuke and 16-4 over Train) against the Bruges eClub in the small final.

The structures will now have a good month’s rest before the resumption of NumberOne on April 27. The non-qualified teams will resume two weeks earlier with the start of the open qualifiers leading to the “Legend Stage”.

This first round of the season was also used by Philippe Bouillon, CEO of LouvardGame, to announce the upcoming release of a brand new website dedicated to NumberOne. This platform will put players at the forefront thanks to advanced statistics, online shops for each team, news dedicated to the competition and many other surprises …