The first day of matches at the Halo Championship Series Kickoff Major in Raleigh, North Carolina is now complete. The HCS Raleigh event has moved on to the Championship Bracket with the conclusion of pool play and the open bracket. Teams like Cloud9 and G2 Esports finished top of their group while teams like Sentinels and TEAM WAR rose from the ashes of the open bracket.
Pool 1
The first pool consisted of OpTic Gaming, Pioneers, Bing Chilling and The Chiefs. All of the team were no match for the clear favorites in OpTic Gaming, who swept the competition 3-0 without dropping a series along the way. Behind them were Pioneers who went 2-1 overall to finish second in their pool. Then came The Chiefs who finished third at 1-2 and finally Bing Chilling who failed to win a series.
Pool 2
Pool 2 consisted of three partnered teams with Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan, G2 Esports and DIVINE MIND as the sole unpartnered squad. It was a battle for the top between the three partnered teams, G2 Esports came out on top after finishing 3-0 in their pool. Behind them was FaZe Clan who finished 2-1 after a 0-3 loss to G2 Esports and then NAVI who finished 1-2 overall. Bringing up the rear was DIVINE MIND who could not close out a match against any of the teams.
Pool 3
The third pool consisted of partnered team eUnited, Quadrant, Oxygen Esports and The Boys. The first seed was claimed by eUnited, who finished 3-0 in their group overall. Behind them was Quadrant who finished 2-1 and then Oxygen Esports who came in at third. Lastly, The Boys are the fourth seed after going 0-3 in the group without winning a map.
Pool 4
Pool four was filled with another two partnered teams in Cloud9 and Spacestation Gaming. Those two were accompanied by XSET and European team Acend. Cloud9 finished strong in their group on the second day by going 3-0 overall. Spacestation gaming, XSET and Acend all finished in a three-way tie at 1-2 which was settled by tiebreaker matches. The end result was Spacestation Gaming taking second seed, XSET in third and Acend finishing fourth.
