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All four of the favorites won their first matches at CEVO Professional Season 7 Finals, setting up clashes Virtus.pro vs. Natus Vincere and Cloud9 vs. mousesports in the second round.

The event taking place at MLG.tv Arena in Columbus, Ohio kicked off today with the first round matches of group B in late afternoon per local time.

Zeus & co. had an unexciting first day in Ohio

Natus Vincere took on Luminosity on the stage and the CIS-based team ran away with two easy victories, 16-3 on Overpass and 16-8 on Dust2.

CEVO Professional Season 7 FinalsBest of 3 Natus VincereMatchpage 2 0 24th July 2015 Luminosity 16Overpass 3 16Dust2 8

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Ioann 'Edward' SukharievEdward	43 - 19	+24	-	1.63
Ladislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsGuardiaN	42 - 16	+26	-	1.57
Danylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoZeus	37 - 24	+13	-	1.28
Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie	34 - 23	+11	-	1.26
Denis 'seized' Kostinseized	28 - 23	+5	-	1.07

Luminosity	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Peter 'ptr' Gurneyptr	28 - 35	-7	-	0.82
Jacob 'pyth' Mourujärvipyth	26 - 40	-14	-	0.80
Todd 'anger' Williamsanger	18 - 36	-18	-	0.55
Alexander 'LeX' DeilyLeX	17 - 38	-21	-	0.48
Jonatan 'Devilwalk' LundbergDevilwalk	16 - 36	-20	-	0.47

Their group rivals Virtus.pro met Tempo Storm in the secondary playing area and faced a bigger challenge than expected. On the first map, Train, they were trailing 7-8 after the T-side, but made it back to win 16-9, while the second map Cache almost went down to the wire.

Virtus.pro denied a potential Tempo Storm upset on the second map

Despite an 11-4 lead as CT, the Poles saw that advantage slip away in the second half as Tempo Storm led by 30 total kills from Shahzeb "⁠ShahZaM⁠" Khan evened it all up at 13-13 and with a six-round momentum on their side. Nevertheless, the Poles recovered and grabbed the last three rounds for a 16-13 victory and passage to the winners' match.

CEVO Professional Season 7 FinalsBest of 3 Virtus.proMatchpage 2 0 24th July 2015 Tempo Storm 16Train 9 16Cache 13

Virtus.pro	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Paweł 'byali' Bielińskibyali	43 - 32	+11	-	1.18
Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasTaZ	46 - 39	+7	-	1.14
Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskipashaBiceps	38 - 36	+2	-	0.99
Janusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiSnax	37 - 37	0	-	0.97
Filip 'NEO' KubskiNEO	37 - 38	-1	-	0.93

Tempo Storm	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Shahzeb 'ShahZaM' KhanShahZaM	44 - 42	+2	-	1.07
Ronnie 'ryx' Bylickiryx	39 - 39	0	-	0.94
Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguzstanislaw	35 - 39	-4	-	0.85
Daniel 'roca' Gustaferriroca	33 - 39	-6	-	0.85
Timothy 'autimatic' Taautimatic	31 - 42	-11	-	0.76

Group A's stage match was a replay of the ESL ESEA Season 1 semi-final, pitting Cloud9 against CLG - who are attending with a stand-in Joshua "⁠sancz⁠" Ballenger for the team's in-game leader Pujan "⁠FNS⁠" Mehta.

With Stephen "⁠reltuC⁠" Cutler at the helm temporarily CLG grabbed a first half lead 9-6 on Cobblestone, but weren't able to hold on to it as they ended up losing the map 16-10.

CLG's temporary IGL reltuC cooked up some trouble for Cloud9

Cloud9's map pick was Cache and the recent three-time finalists looked poised for a dominant victory after a near-perfect 13-2 terrorist side. However, round by round CLG reduced the deficit and even made it to map point at 15-14.

Sean "⁠seang@res⁠" Gares then consolidated his team to grab the final round of regulation time and then the four needed rounds in overtime for a 19-17 map win and a 2-0 series victory.

CEVO Professional Season 7 FinalsBest of 3 Cloud9Matchpage 2 0 25th July 2015 CLG 16Cobblestone 10 19Cache 17

Cloud9	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamSkadoodle	49 - 29	+20	-	1.37
Mike 'shroud' Grzesiekshroud	47 - 41	+6	-	1.09
Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbertn0thing	39 - 34	+5	-	1.02
Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadirfreakazoid	42 - 43	-1	-	0.96
Sean 'seang@res' Garesseang@res	35 - 44	-9	-	0.87

CLG	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Tarik 'tarik' Celiktarik	46 - 43	+3	-	1.02
Stephen 'reltuC' CutlerreltuC	42 - 41	+1	-	0.94
James 'hazed' Cobbhazed	38 - 44	-6	-	0.87
Josh 'jdm64' Marzanojdm64	34 - 41	-7	-	0.80
Joshua 'sancz' Ballengersancz	31 - 43	-12	-	0.71

The last match of the day was mousesports vs. Liquid where the German team never really seemed in danger and held on for two solid victories, 16-8 on Dust2 and 16-10 on Overpass.

CEVO Professional Season 7 FinalsBest of 3 MOUZMatchpage 2 0 25th July 2015 Liquid 16Dust2 10 16Overpass 8

The second day of CEVO Professional Season 7 Finals will commence with group B winners' and elimination matches, followed by the same in group A.

Shahzeb 'ShahZaM' Khan Age: 21 Team: Tempo Storm Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 112 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.68 Pujan 'FNS' Mehta Age: 23 Team: CLG Rating 1.0: 0.96 Maps played: 110 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.69 Stephen 'reltuC' Cutler Age: 26 Team: CLG Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 115 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.64 Sean 'seang@res' Gares Age: 27 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 0.87 Maps played: 232 KPR: 0.59 DPR: 0.67 Joshua 'sancz' Ballenger Age: 23 Team: Nihilum Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 66 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.72