The group phase of VCT Europe Stage 1: Masters has begun with the opening matches of Group A.

Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius beat Ballista Ballista Inactive Neex Sebastian Trela MORFAN Mateusz Świętochowski qxv Jakub Sawicki Buld Michał Sokal KEREME Przemek Bogdanowicz 2-0 in the first match and Ninjas in Pyjamas Ninjas in Pyjamas Inactive dimasick Dmitriy Matvienko chiwa Egor Stepanyuk Jady Yaroslav Nikolaev rhyme Emir Muminovic defeated Acend Acend Inactive ALIVE Gilad Hakim musashi Alessio Xhaferi pyrolll Artur Minin cullumx Nikolaj Cullum Andersen chiwa Egor Stepanyuk 2-0.

David and Goliath — Team Heretics vs. Ballista (2-0)

The all-Polish Ballista squad's Cinderella run into Masters had promise to continue through Masters early in the match after jumping to a 9-3 lead by the end of Bind's first half. Heretics, however, responded with the kind of performance worthy of Europe's First Strike champions.

Heretics won the first eight rounds of the second half to tighten the score, setting them up to eventually win the first map 13-10.

They carried that momentum into the beginning of the next map, Haven, winning the first six rounds of the map. Ballista responded in turn and the map eventually went into overtime. Heretics once again proved their clutch to finish out the map 14-12 and win the series 2-0.

Ballista utilized a combo of Skye and Phoenix in both maps, a combo that Heretics admitted caused problems.

"It was hard to play against them because we never practiced against a Skye and Phoenix so it was something new for us," Heretics' Christian "lowel" García Antorán told Yinsu Collins on the broadcast's post-match interview. "It was kind of hard to counter them or to know what to do in some situations, but we managed to win and that's the important thing."

Žygimantas "nukkye" Chmieliauskas was key to Heretics' success against the composition and Ballista as a whole. He led the server in both maps with nearly identical performances — he had 349 ACS and 224 ADR on Bind and 348 ACS and 219.4 ADR on Haven.

Kamil "baddyG" Graniczka, the Phoenix in Ballista's Skye-Phoenix composition, led the way for Ballista. He had the second highest ACS in the match with 274 and was the only member of his team to finish with more kills than deaths.

The Double Comeback — Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Acend (2-0)

While Ninjas in Pyjamas were able to win both maps, the match was in no way easy for them. They won the first map, Ascent, 13-11 and won the second map, Haven, 14-12. They played from behind on both maps.

Ascent's first half ended in a 6-6 tie, but then Acend jumped out to a 10-6 lead. Similarly, Haven began tied at 6-6, but six round wins in a row from Acend put them in a 12-8 lead.

"We can play under pressure, we can come back after losing five rounds in a row," NiP's Emir "rhyme" Muminovic told Yinsu Collins on the broadcasted post-match interview. "It doesn't matter, we just played our game. I think we realized at 12-8 that if we win one round, make it 12-9, we're back in the driver's seat."

"It was just about winning that one single round, making that momentum switch again."

NiP's comeback on Ascent was fueled by a strong showing from their Russian duo of Egor "chiwa" Stepanyuk and Yaroslav "Jady" Nikolaev, finishing with similar stat lines and 23 kills a piece. rhyme was chiwawa's partner in crime on Haven after finishing with 27 kills to their name each to lead their team.

They were forced to go toe-to-toe with Acend Operator specialist Mehmet "cNed" Yağız İpek. cNed led the server in damage and first kills, and finished just short of chiwawa in ACS and total kills.

Where cNed truly shined, however, was with his trademark Operator. He got 19 kills with the OP across both maps and got five with it against three different players.

cNed OP stats: +5 Ex6TenZ, +1 CREA, +5 chiwawa, +5 Jady, +3 Rhyme Across both maps, cNed shone on the Operator.

Despite his stellar performance, it ultimately wasn't enough to hold off a well-coordinated NiP team that was able of clawing its way back in even when Acend appeared to be pulling away.

Looking Ahead

The winners of today's matches will get nearly a week-long break before their match against each other. rhyme said in his post-match broadcast interview that his team is confident going against the First Strike champions.

"Heretics is not impossible to win against just because they won First Strike," he said. "And I believe we'll play much better against a more structured team, a team like Heretics."

They'll get the opportunity to prove it on March 18.

The defeated teams, on the other hand, will play each other on Sunday. The loser of that match will be eliminated and the winner will get one last match to qualify for the playoffs.

Tomorrow, the teams in Group B will play their opening matches. The first will be between FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix Inactive SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin Zyppan Pontus Eek ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky ardiis Ardis Svarenieks and Guild Esports Guild Esports Inactive , and the second match will be Alliance Alliance Inactive and DfuseTeam DfuseTeam Inactive hoppY Dylan Aube logaN Logan Corti AKUMAAAAA Alex Lo Bello TakaS Jonathan Paupard rodeN Rodolphe Bianco .