The first day of the Americas Stage 1 lower bracket saw NRG NRG North America Rank #2 keiko Georgio Sanassy brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch skuba Logan Jenkins Ethan Ethan Arnold and 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #3 Cryocells Matthew Panganiban Asuna Peter Mazuryk vora Jordan Pulwer Timotino Timothée Lavigne Dupont bang Sean Bezerra send FURIA FURIA Brazil Rank #8 nerve Michael Yerrow artzin Arthur Araujo eeiu Daniel Vucenovic koalanoob Gianfranco Potestio alym Torogul Baidyldaev and LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #5 lukxo Lucca Travaioli Darker Sebastián Castro Cicuamia Virtyy Leandro Moreno erde Roberto Lobos cauanzin Cauan Pereira home respectively in convincing 2-0 sweeps.

FURIA and LOUD will home in the top eight as the number of teams vying for the last Masters London spot narrows down to four. NRG and 100T will both return to the stage tomorrow for the next round of the lower bracket, with NRG facing off versus KRÜ and 100 Thieves taking on MIBR.

NRG routs FURIA in 2-0 fashion

The day began with the fourth seed from Group Omega in NRG facing off against a FURIA that most recently lost to LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN North America Rank #4 spike Rodrigo Lombardi blowz Guilherme Oliviera Neon Bruno Rodríguez Sato Eduardo Kenzo Nagahama Sato kiNgg Francisco Aravena earlier this week.

NRG selected Lotus for the first map, where they continued to lean into a fairly standard Viper-Vyse composition. FURIA used the same composition in their last Lotus showing in week three, but this time opted for Raze over Viper for a more aggressive double-Duelist lineup.

The map was under NRG's control from start to finish. While FURIA managed to find a few round wins on the C site, they more often were stopped before they could even plant as NRG positioned themselves for shutdown after shutdown. Even on Vyse, brawk 's signature Odin posed a major problem for his opponents as NRG took an 8-4 lead and closed it out 13-4 after a double pistol win. brawk dominated with a 20/8/9 KDA, 208 ADR, and an outsized 1.81 rating.

On Haven, a map NRG hadn't played since Masters Santiago, both squads made compositional swaps. NRG went from Viper and Killjoy to Phoenix and Cypher, while FURIA moved koalanoob from Phoenix to Jett and alym from Neon to Phoenix.

The first half was a 6-6 deadlock. NRG initially led 4-1, but FURIA stabilized after a C hold off the back of eeiu 's Sova ultimate in round six, putting together strong floods and punishing some mistakes made by the attackers. NRG quickly pulled themselves back together in the second half, however, winning the fourth out of four pistols in the series and converting a bonus round to take a 13-8 win.

keiko topfragged the map with a 20/15/15 KDA and 1.51 rating. He was surpassed in rating only by brawk, who finished with an 18/11/11 performance for a cumulative 38/19/20 KDA and 1.68 rating over the course of the series.

The Kickoff winners in FURIA will not have the chance to return to the global stage this time. NRG continues forward and will next take on KRÜ.

100 Thieves breeze past LOUD in dominant 26-9 series

After a swift defeat at the hands of G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #1 jawgemo Alexander Mor BABYBAY Andrej Francisty trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio leaf Nathan Orf earlier this week, 100 Thieves defeated LOUD to eliminate the Group Alpha fourth seed and keep themselves alive.

The series opened on LOUD's map pick of Breeze, where they had narrowly defeated LEVIATÁN in week five. This time, however, 100T picked them apart, frequently exploiting the enemy Harbor anchoring A site on their attack side and securing rounds with strong postplants. A 2v5 from bang and Cryocells in round six added insult to injury as they ended the half up 9-3.

LOUD won the second pistol, but the follow-up anti-eco would be their last round win. 100T completely locked down the sites for the rest of the map to win out 13-5. bang had an unreal performance on Harbor with a 22/7/10 KDA, 286 ACS, and a 1.91 rating.

Split was equally one-sided. LOUD struggled to get onto the sites, often running headlong into Asuna 's Sage utility or Timotino 's Operator. The half ended 8-4 in favor of 100T despite LOUD winning the pistol.

Timotino pulled 100T along to a quick finish, first finding a 4K in the pistol and then opening up a bonus round win with an early Showstopper; the Raze racked up 12 kills in the remaining five rounds to make it a 13-4 victory for 100T. The Thieves' primary Duelist ended with an impressive 22/8/2 KDA with seven first bloods and 342 ACS.

The Americas Stage 1 playoffs return tomorrow with the following matches:

• KRÜ Esports vs. NRG (Lower Round 2)
• MIBR vs. 100 Thieves (Lower Round 2)