Singularity and ATK take wins in ESL Pro League Americas stage two openers

Singularity and ATK took down DETONA and Envy, respectively, in their opening matches of the second Americas group stage of ESL Pro League Season 10.

A bout between DETONA and Singularity was first up, with the latter side debuting with Swedish stand-in Robin "⁠robiin⁠" Sjögren on Overpass. Despite the pistol round going the way of the Brazilians, a force-buy reply on the offense from Skyler "⁠Relyks⁠" Weaver and company had Singularity take three to lead 3-1.

The situation for Singularity in the first half quickly turned sour once DETONA had rifles in their hands however, leading to a smattering of rounds for DETONA on CT as the team ran up a 10-5 scoreline. That strong performance did little to aid Vinicius "⁠vsm⁠" Moreira's side following the side swap though, as a stellar showing from Will "⁠dazzLe⁠" Loafman combined with fragging from Michael "⁠dapr⁠" Gulino had Singularity concede only two rounds before taking the map 16-12.

An even split of the first six rounds of DETONA's Dust2 pick kept the two teams at even keel as the second map got underway, but it wasn't long before DETONA gained the upper hand. By taking six of the ensuing seven rounds, the Brazilians helped to put themselves ahead 9-6 at the half, a lead which they swiftly extended with a trio of rounds following a pistol win. Singularity began to claw back with three of their own, but DETONA kept up the pressure to push the series to a deciding map with a 16-10 win.

A pistol win on the offense gave Singularity a 3-0 start to Train, with five rounds in a row from DETONA seeing the two teams keep the scoreline competitive. Those close margins quickly dwindled following a 1vs3 AWP clutch by Relyks, allowing momentum to swing in the favour of Singularity as the team cruised through the remainder of the half for a 10-5 lead.

The final pistol round of the series also went the way of Singularity, helping to put them at 12-5, but a comeback effort from DETONA had the two teams battling all the way to thirty rounds, forcing overtime. Although DETONA took their first T round to kick things off, back-to-back 1vs1 bomb defuses from Relyks and Sebastian "⁠seb⁠" Bucki gave Singularity the edge, which they used to close the map 19-17.

ATK and Envy were next up, with Envy fielding a stand-in of their own in the form of coach Zachary "⁠Eley⁠" Stauffer due to visa issues for Bradley "⁠ANDROID⁠" Fodor. An all-out brawl in the first half of ATK's Overpass pick gave Envy a one-round edge as the teams swapped sides, with ATK briefly gaining the upper hand following a pistol win for a 9-8 scoreline.

A spree of five rounds put Envy in control as they pushed up to a 13-9 lead, but a solid defense, handful of opening picks, and number of man disadvantage recoveries offered ATK the opportunity to keep things even at 14-14. Having fought back to a tie, Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou seized control of the proceedings for ATK as he earned a quad kill to grant his team match point, securing three more frags in the ensuing round to narrowly edge out the victory 16-14.

Envy got back into the swing of things with four rounds on the attacking side of Nuke, but ATK didn't falter as they found four of their own to tie the match. Envy doubled their score to pull ahead 8-4, although a final trio from ATK kept the teams close at the half once again. A similar scenario to Overpass unfolded as ATK regained their footing with a pistol round and ensuing anti-eco, with Envy taking another four in a row to snatch the lead at 12-9. Again, ATK remained resilient in the latter portions of the map, consistently forcing openings in Envy's CT setups to eventually net a second 16-14 map win.

Only the top team from each of the two groups in the Americas will advance to the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals. The standings for Group A following the conclusion of the first round of matchups are as follows: