A Team That Had Not Played in Two Months Beat FaZe Two-Nil on the First Day in Suzhou
Alliance are outside the top twenty and had been inactive since July, and they put the tournament favourites straight into the lower bracket.
FISSURE Playground 3 opened at the SND Cultural and Sports Centre in Suzhou on Tuesday, and Alliance beat FaZe 2-0 in the first round: Ancient 13-9, Nuke 13-11.
Alliance had not played competitively in nearly two months and sit outside the top twenty of the world ranking. Simon "twist" Eliasson rated 1.34, Jonatan "bobeksde" Persson 1.31 with 40 kills across the two maps. Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken managed 1.22 and 26 kills on Ancient and it was not close to enough.
The prize pool is one million US dollars: 300,000 to the winner, 160,000 to second, 93,000 each for the losing semi-finalists. Sixteen teams play two double-elimination groups to 10 September, then an eight-team single-elimination playoff to 13 September with a best-of-five final.
Other opening results: Astralis beat G2 2-1 after a 19-17 second map, MIBR beat The MongolZ 2-1, BetBoom beat BIG 2-0, PARIVISION beat TYLOO 2-0, 9z beat 5star 2-0, Legacy beat magic 16-14 on the decider and FURIA beat GamerLegion 2-1.
Suzhou is on the same clock as Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, so the whole event runs in regional prime time rather than the usual European graveyard slot.