All four of the favorites won their first matches at CEVO Professional Season 7 Finals, setting up clashes Virtus.pro vs. Natus Vincere and Cloud9 vs. mousesports in the second round.
The event taking place at MLG.tv Arena in Columbus, Ohio kicked off today with the first round matches of group B in late afternoon per local time.
Zeus & co. had an unexciting first day in Ohio
Natus Vincere took on Luminosity on the stage and the CIS-based team ran away with two easy victories, 16-3 on Overpass and 16-8 on Dust2.
CEVO Professional Season 7 FinalsBest of 3 
Natus Vincere
Matchpage 2 0 24th July 2015 
Luminosity 16Overpass 3 16Dust2 8
| Natus Vincere | K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievEdward | 43 - 19 | +24 | - | 1.63 |
 Ladislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsGuardiaN | 42 - 16 | +26 | - | 1.57 |
| Danylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoZeus | 37 - 24 | +13 | - | 1.28 |
 Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie | 34 - 23 | +11 | - | 1.26 |
| Denis 'seized' Kostinseized | 28 - 23 | +5 | - | 1.07 |
| Luminosity | K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peter 'ptr' Gurneyptr | 28 - 35 | -7 | - | 0.82 |
 Jacob 'pyth' Mourujärvipyth | 26 - 40 | -14 | - | 0.80 |
| Todd 'anger' Williamsanger | 18 - 36 | -18 | - | 0.55 |
| Alexander 'LeX' DeilyLeX | 17 - 38 | -21 | - | 0.48 |
| Jonatan 'Devilwalk' LundbergDevilwalk | 16 - 36 | -20 | - | 0.47 |
Their group rivals Virtus.pro met Tempo Storm in the secondary playing area and faced a bigger challenge than expected. On the first map, Train, they were trailing 7-8 after the T-side, but made it back to win 16-9, while the second map Cache almost went down to the wire.
Virtus.pro denied a potential Tempo Storm upset on the second map
Despite an 11-4 lead as CT, the Poles saw that advantage slip away in the second half as Tempo Storm led by 30 total kills from Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan evened it all up at 13-13 and with a six-round momentum on their side. Nevertheless, the Poles recovered and grabbed the last three rounds for a 16-13 victory and passage to the winners' match.
CEVO Professional Season 7 FinalsBest of 3 
Virtus.pro
Matchpage 2 0 24th July 2015 
Tempo Storm 16Train 9 16Cache 13
| Virtus.pro | K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paweł 'byali' Bielińskibyali | 43 - 32 | +11 | - | 1.18 |
| Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasTaZ | 46 - 39 | +7 | - | 1.14 |
| Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskipashaBiceps | 38 - 36 | +2 | - | 0.99 |
| Janusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiSnax | 37 - 37 | 0 | - | 0.97 |
| Filip 'NEO' KubskiNEO | 37 - 38 | -1 | - | 0.93 |
| Tempo Storm | K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shahzeb 'ShahZaM' KhanShahZaM | 44 - 42 | +2 | - | 1.07 |
| Ronnie 'ryx' Bylickiryx | 39 - 39 | 0 | - | 0.94 |
 Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguzstanislaw | 35 - 39 | -4 | - | 0.85 |
| Daniel 'roca' Gustaferriroca | 33 - 39 | -6 | - | 0.85 |
| Timothy 'autimatic' Taautimatic | 31 - 42 | -11 | - | 0.76 |
Group A's stage match was a replay of the ESL ESEA Season 1 semi-final, pitting Cloud9 against CLG - who are attending with a stand-in Joshua "sancz" Ballenger for the team's in-game leader Pujan "FNS" Mehta.
With Stephen "reltuC" Cutler at the helm temporarily CLG grabbed a first half lead 9-6 on Cobblestone, but weren't able to hold on to it as they ended up losing the map 16-10.
CLG's temporary IGL reltuC cooked up some trouble for Cloud9
Cloud9's map pick was Cache and the recent three-time finalists looked poised for a dominant victory after a near-perfect 13-2 terrorist side. However, round by round CLG reduced the deficit and even made it to map point at 15-14.
Sean "seang@res" Gares then consolidated his team to grab the final round of regulation time and then the four needed rounds in overtime for a 19-17 map win and a 2-0 series victory.
CEVO Professional Season 7 FinalsBest of 3 
Cloud9Matchpage 2 0 25th July 2015 
CLG 16Cobblestone 10 19Cache 17
| Cloud9 | K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamSkadoodle | 49 - 29 | +20 | - | 1.37 |
| Mike 'shroud' Grzesiekshroud | 47 - 41 | +6 | - | 1.09 |
| Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbertn0thing | 39 - 34 | +5 | - | 1.02 |
| Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadirfreakazoid | 42 - 43 | -1 | - | 0.96 |
| Sean 'seang@res' Garesseang@res | 35 - 44 | -9 | - | 0.87 |
| CLG | K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tarik 'tarik' Celiktarik | 46 - 43 | +3 | - | 1.02 |
| Stephen 'reltuC' CutlerreltuC | 42 - 41 | +1 | - | 0.94 |
| James 'hazed' Cobbhazed | 38 - 44 | -6 | - | 0.87 |
| Josh 'jdm64' Marzanojdm64 | 34 - 41 | -7 | - | 0.80 |
| Joshua 'sancz' Ballengersancz | 31 - 43 | -12 | - | 0.71 |
The last match of the day was mousesports vs. Liquid where the German team never really seemed in danger and held on for two solid victories, 16-8 on Dust2 and 16-10 on Overpass.
CEVO Professional Season 7 FinalsBest of 3 
MOUZ
Matchpage 2 0 25th July 2015 
Liquid 16Dust2 10 16Overpass 8
The second day of CEVO Professional Season 7 Finals will commence with group B winners' and elimination matches, followed by the same in group A.
Shahzeb 'ShahZaM' Khan 
Age: 21 Team: Tempo Storm Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 112 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.68 Pujan 'FNS' Mehta 
Age: 23 Team: CLG Rating 1.0: 0.96 Maps played: 110 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.69 Stephen 'reltuC' Cutler 
Age: 26 Team: CLG Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 115 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.64 Sean 'seang@res' Gares 
Age: 27 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 0.87 Maps played: 232 KPR: 0.59 DPR: 0.67 
Joshua 'sancz' Ballenger 
Age: 23 Team: Nihilum Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 66 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.72