The first day of the Esports World Cup's Valorant event kicked off, playing host to rookie debuts, new-look rosters, blockbuster matchups, and a handful of upsets.

In a format similar to Champions, 16 teams competed in four-team groups with one team from each representative region in a double-elimination bracket. The opening matches were played in a Best-of-1 format, and the winners of the opening matches moved on to play in a Best-of-3 later in the day to secure qualification for the playoffs.

Group A

Fresh off of lifting its first-ever international trophy at Masters Toronto, Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 PatMen Patrick Mendoza Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov competed on the EWC stage alongside another Toronto participant in Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #4 whzy Wang Haozhe (王昊哲) Levius Lu Yinzhong (卢胤中) rushia Wang Xiaojie (王晓杰) nephh Marcus Tan Knight Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔) . The game was played on Lotus, and saw both teams ride the momentum of the attack-sided map to win eight on that side. While whzy 's 31 kills led all players on the map, his efforts were not enough at the end of a triple overtime as PRX snagged a 16-14 victory.

On the other end of the Group A bracket, Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Rank #9 saadhak Matias Delipetro Avez Hazem Khaled Elite Efe Teber SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin marteen Martin Pátek faced a hampered G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #1 jawgemo Alexander Mor trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf , which was playing without leaf due to health issues. On Sunset, a vintage performance from in-game leader saadhak saw the veteran lead his team to a cruising 13-6 victory. His 22 kills were the highest on the map. G2 assistant coach shhhack played in leaf's absence, and while he put up a good effort going 11/16, the absence of leaf was hard felt.

In their Best-of-3 match to qualify for playoffs, Paper Rex dominated Karmine Corp 2-0. After initially facing some troubles on their map pick of Lotus, Paper Rex bounced back from down 10-6, snatching seven straight rounds to win 13-10. On KC's pick of Icebox, Paper Rex continued to ride that wave, ending their defender-sided first half up 10-2 to en route to a clean 13-5 victory.

Karmine Corp had no breathing room on attack, stumbling to face a 9-1 deficit after a strong PRX round.

Masters Toronto MVP f0rsakeN had a match-high rating of 1.45, while sharpshooting Duelist something led the way in kills with 39.

PRX will move on to the playoffs, while Karmine Corp awaits the winner of BiliBili Gaming and G2 Esports.

Group B

After falling agonizingly short of qualifying for international events at Kickoff and Stage 1, BBL Esports BBL Esports Europe Rank #3 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen sociablEE Volkan Yonal PROFEK Dawid Święć LewN Burak Alkan MAGNUM Martin Penkov made a dominant run in the EMEA qualifiers for EWC to reach the event. They were likely underdogs in their opening match against Americas powerhouse Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #4 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid , but turned heads. A tight game on Icebox saw both teams limited to six rounds on the attacker side, but it was a 14-12 victory for BBL. 31 kills from rookie Duelist LewN led the way for BBL.

DRX DRX Korea Rank #2 Flicker Kim Tae-hee (김태희) Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) free1ng No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) Estrella Park Gun (박건) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) , just one day after promoting Flicker to their main roster, started him in their opening match against Xi Lai Gaming Xi Lai Gaming China Rank #2 Viva Lifan Ran (冉立凡) NoMan James Man Rarga Arthur Churyumov happywei Deng Minwei (邓闵维) coconut Colin Patrick Chung (钟弘祖) . Xi Lai, who themselves were dealing with personnel complications, played with head coach hvoya in the starting roster. Flicker showed no signs of debut jitters, dominating the server with a match-leading 19 kills to help DRX to a dominant 13-6 victory on Haven.

BBL and DRX's match started out on BBL's pick of Sunset, a map that DRX has only played three times since its reintroduction to the map pool. The map was back and forth, with both teams trading rounds in quick succession. Both teams only won around half of their full buys, a sign of how much effectiveness both teams found from their half and low-buy rounds. BBL went on to win 14-12 in overtime.

DRX's pick of Ascent was a streaky one. After winning the pistol and anti-eco, BBL went on to win six straight defender-sided rounds. DRX closed the half on a high note, winning four straight of their own to make matters even at halftime. That streakiness continued as BBL began its attacking side. Seven straight rounds were won by the European squad, shutting the defending DRX out to win 13-6 and secure playoffs.

DRX had no answers for BBL's attack.

LewN had yet another impressive performance, racking up a match-high 42 kills, including 13 first bloods. His 24 kills on Ascent were unmatched by anybody else in the server, as nobody else had more than 15.

BBL will move on to the playoffs, while DRX awaits the winner of Xi Lai Gaming and Sentinels' match.

Group C

To open play in Group C, a reinvented NRG NRG North America Rank #2 s0m Sam Oh brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch skuba Logan Jenkins Ethan Ethan Arnold took on a Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #2 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius squad looking to bounce back after an 0-2 showing in Toronto. The match on Lotus was never quite close, as NRG opened dominantly on their attacker side, giving up just four rounds to Team Heretics' Sentinel-free comp. Switching over to defense, NRG rode their momentum, shutting out Team Heretics for the rest of the game to win 13-4.

In yet another matchup pitting APAC and Chinese teams, Rex Regum Qeon Rex Regum Qeon Asia-Pacific Rank #7 Monyet Cahya Nugraha xffero David Monangin Jemkin Maksim Batorov Kushy Bryan Carlos Setiawan crazyguy Ngô Công Anh dominated Titan Esports Club Titan Esports Club China Rank #12 Haodong Guo Haodong (郭浩东) lucas Yunkun Lu (路昀昆) Abo Han Bohao (韩博皓) TvirusLuke Chen Cheng-ching (陈振庆) Coco Ding Dajian (丁达建) to make both opening matches in Group C blowouts. The game was played on Sunset, and saw RRQ return to the form they hit during their trophy-lifting Pacific Stage 1 campaign. Titan, meanwhile, struggled with a new-look roster. Replacing veteran Rb with rookie lucas , the Chinese squad faltered in their first-ever appearance outside of China. Spearheaded by a combined 40 kills from Jemkin and crazyguy , RRQ won 13-6.

After winning their respective opening matches in dominant fashion, NRG and RRQ clashed heads with a playoff spot on the line. On both maps, RRQ opted for aggressive, double-Duelist team comps, with Jemkin on Yoru both maps and Monyet on Waylay and Neon.

On the opening map of Split, Monyet's Waylay disrupted NRG, tallying up team-highs with 19 kills and four first bloods. However, the stars of the show were on the other side of the stage. Veteran Ethan and newcomer skuba combined for 44 kills, including 19 of the team's 35 on the attacker side to help wrap up a 13-7 victory.

After giving up six rounds to the attacking NRG on the large, attacker-sided Pearl, RRQ will have felt good about their chances in the second half. Even with two Duelists to lead the charge, RRQ ran into troubles, whether it be s0m 's Vyse utility or mada 's Outlaw. A reinvented NRG gave up just two rounds on defense, punching their ticket to playoffs.

A flawless end to a dominant victory for NRG.

RRQ awaits the winner of the match between Titan Esports Club and Team Heretics.

Group D

Three teams with trophy-winning experience took to the stage in Group D, arguably the toughest of the four groups. FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #1 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder faced off against 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #5 zander Alexander Dituri Cryocells Matthew Panganiban eeiu Daniel Vucenovic Boostio Kelden Pupello Asuna Peter Mazuryk . At the end of a lengthy tech pause, FNATIC seemed in complete control on Icebox, taking a 9-3 halftime lead. As the EMEA Stage 1 champions moved to defense, the tides changed. 100 Thieves won six of the next seven rounds to cut the deficit to one, threatening to flip the map on its head. However, a 24-kill performance from star rookie Duelist kaajak , including nine first bloods, lifted FNATIC to a 13-11 win.

Also on Icebox, Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #1 Foxy9 Jung Jae-sung (정재성) Ash Ha Hyun-cheol (하현철) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) Suggest Seo Jae-young (서재영) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) conquered their inner demons against EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #1 ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) zjc Zhang Juncheng (张峻程) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) . It was the same map that they blew an 11-4 lead to G2 Esports to be eliminated from Toronto, but a rejuvenated Gen.G made sure it didn't happen a second time. A strong defender side to open the game gave the Koreans a 9-3 lead to enter halftime, with Sentinel player Foxy9 scoring 18 kills in the half alone. He'd finish with a game-high 24 as Gen.G captured a 13-4 win, tying the biggest margin of victory in the opening round.

In a rematch from the playoffs of Masters Toronto, Gen.G and FNATIC met in a match for the ages. Gen.G, on their pick of Ascent, claimed a 9-3 lead after a dominant defender side, but FNATIC did not back down without a fight. A dominant defender side of their own helped FNATIC mount a comeback, reaching match point at 12-11, only for Gen.G to force overtime. In overtime, the race to win an attacker round was won by FNATIC, who claimed a 15-13 victory.

Chronicle composed as always in the clutch.

The series then moved to FNATIC's Icebox, a map that both teams won in their opening matches. While FNATIC staved off a comeback attempt from 100 Thieves to win 13-11, Gen.G put up a dominant defender side to win 13-7. After winning seven rounds on attack, a dominant defender side was all that Gen.G needed to secure the victory and playoffs. However, Gen.G had no answers for FNATIC's attack. The double-Sentinel comp pairing Chronicle's Sage and Alfajer 's Killjoy made it tough for Gen.G to retake the site. FNATIC did not drop a single round in the second half, winning eight straight to claim a 13-7 victory and their spot in the playoffs.

Gen.G will await the winner of the elimination match between 100 Thieves and EDward Gaming.

Up Next

EWC will continue with elimination matches on Day 2, followed by decider matches on Day 3. Day 2's matches are as follows: