The first day of Champions Paris threatened to be a quick one following Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 PatMen Patrick Mendoza Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov 's swift 2-0 win over 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) , but an inspired performance from the European Cinderellas against the NA powerhouses promised anything but that.

Sentinels stood tall on its map pick of Corrode 13-6, but faltered 13-4 on Sunset, a map that was once one of the strongest in their map pool. GIANTX won the decider map of Haven 13-9 to win 2-1, setting up a date with the Masters Toronto champions in the winner's match of Group A.

Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #5 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid earned their way into a fourth-straight international event as the third seed in Americas, finishing third at the end of Stage 2 but comfortably securing qualification through points. Meanwhile, GIANTX GIANTX Europe Rank #9 Cloud Kirill Nehozhin grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko westside Miłosz Duda Flickless Karel Maeckelbergh ara Hanceriuc Eduard-George was considered a team that very few expected to be in Paris. After bowing out early in EMEA Kickoff and going 1-4 in Stage 1, the org had a monstrous turnaround, going 3-2 in Stage 2 to qualify for the playoffs and capping off a lower bracket run by reaching the grand final to qualify for Paris as the region's second seed.

After banning Ascent, Sentinels picked Corrode, a map they went 3-1 on in Stage 2. After overcoming an early 3-1 GX lead, they won three straight to clinch the lead, but quickly met their match to end the attack half. While the attack half of Corrode is a side that Sentinels has had little to no issues with, the defender side is where they struggled against NRG NRG North America Rank #1 s0m Sam Oh brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch skuba Logan Jenkins Ethan Ethan Arnold in the Stage 2 lower final, winning just one round.

With the same double-Controller comp, Sentinels took heavy control of mid, using it to split, surround, and shut down any semblance of a GX attack. After ending the first half on even terms, Sentinels prevented GX from winning a single round, ending the map 13-6.

After banning Lotus, GIANTX's pick of Sunset dated the two teams to go band-for-band with each other. The map is one of Sentinels' premier maps, and one of their strongest since the map was first introduced to the game. However, GIANTX has also had success on the map as of late, going 5-2 on it in Stage 2 with both losses coming to Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #7 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak . The teams had near-mirror comps, centered around Cypher, Breach, Neon, and Omen. The only difference was the teams' Initiator players, with Cloud on Sova and N4RRATE on Fade.

After losing the pistol and converting an eco round victory, SEN threatened to wrap up the series with one of their trademark "Senset" performances, but it was anything but that. GX bounced back in a big way, winning nine of the next 10 rounds to end their defense side up 10-2. Cloud and westside went nuclear in the half, combining for 24 kills. While SEN converted the pistol and anti-eco to start their own defender side, it only delayed the inevitable as GIANTX captured a dominant 13-4 win to force a map three.

Sentinels and GIANTX banned Bind and Abyss, respectively, leaving Haven as the decider map. While GX went for comp that would require them to out-aim and out-read their opponents with Breach and Cypher, SEN opted for an info-based philosophy with Viper, Sova, and Killjoy, looking to capture as much map control as possible.

SEN hit the ground running, winning the first six rounds and threatening to make the third map a blowout just as the first two were. A timeout incited a change in GIANTX's approach, which saw them play more proactive. They forced the issue onto Sentinels with ara 's Relay Bolt setting up dueling opportunities while the Recon Bolt of Cloud pulled away opponents' crosshairs. While GX could not end the half with a lead, they entered halftime down 8-4 after facing a 6-0 deficit.

A crucial pistol round win sparked hope amongst the GIANTX faithful, but the squad did much more than just that. They won five straight to take the lead 9-8, with in-game leader Cloud stringing together numerous perfect reads to avoid the SEN players on the other side of the map. SEN managed to tie things up again, but it was not enough.

While Sentinels converted several rounds from man disadvantages in their own attack side, they gave up several on defense, too. In the latter stages of the map, SEN failed to convert in several 5vX situations, allowing GIANTX to snowball. In the end, GIANTX dropped just one map on attack en route to a 13-9 victory.

ara was the spearhead of the GIANTX fragging force; he had a map-high 22 kills on Haven, and went 10-2 in first duels. He ended the series with 43 kills, with 10 of his eventual 13 first bloods coming on Haven. zekken and johnqt tallied 46 kills each to add fire to the Sentinels effort, but Cloud's match-high 51, and his invaluable IGLing through the last two maps, were enough for the GIANTX Davids to topple an Americas Goliath.

Up next

While GIANTX will play against Paper Rex in the winner's match of Group A, Sentinels falls down to the group's elimination game, needing a win over Xi Lai Gaming to keep its Champions run alive.

Champions Paris will continue tomorrow with Group C's opening matches:

• NRG vs. EDward Gaming
• Team Liquid vs. DRX