EnVyUs, Astralis, dignitas and Astralis again have won their matches in the first half of the day at ESL Barcelona Invitational, while fnatic, G2, gBots and x6tence are one life shorter.

The first match-up in Barcelona was decided via a community poll, which expectedly chucked out fnatic versus Envy, two main favourites of the tournament, for the inital battle.

The teams vetoed their way to de_train and after severe delays due to technical issues fnatic kickstarted the event with a narrow victory on the T side, switching over at 8-7.

Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer was off his usual game however as he often gave up opening kills to Fabien "⁠kioShiMa⁠" Fiey, who had a great game alongside Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire and Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt, and Envy stormed to a swift 16-10 victory with a 9-2 scoreline as Terrorists.

Envy	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Fabien 'kioShiMa' FieykioShiMa	26 - 14	+12	102.8	1.65
Dan 'apEX' MadesclaireapEX	23 - 18	+5	108.5	1.45
Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittNBK-	21 - 14	+7	85.8	1.26
Kenny 'kennyS' SchrubkennyS	19 - 15	+4	78.2	1.13
Vincent 'Happy' SchopenhauerHappy	12 - 17	-5	44.3	0.69

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Jesper 'JW' WecksellJW	19 - 19	0	65.3	1.08
Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ	17 - 22	-5	79.5	0.88
Dennis 'dennis' Edmandennis	15 - 20	-5	67.0	0.85
Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjerolofmeister	15 - 20	-5	74.9	0.85
Robin 'flusha' Rönnquistflusha	11 - 21	-10	54.9	0.63

ESL Barcelona CS:GO Invitational presented by Mobile World CongressBest of 1 EnvyMatchpage 16 10 19th February 2016 fnatic 16Train 10

Envy	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Fabien 'kioShiMa' FieykioShiMa	26 - 14	+12	102.8	1.65
Dan 'apEX' MadesclaireapEX	23 - 18	+5	108.5	1.45
Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittNBK-	21 - 14	+7	85.8	1.26
Kenny 'kennyS' SchrubkennyS	19 - 15	+4	78.2	1.13
Vincent 'Happy' SchopenhauerHappy	12 - 17	-5	44.3	0.69

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Jesper 'JW' WecksellJW	19 - 19	0	65.3	1.08
Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonKRIMZ	17 - 22	-5	79.5	0.88
Dennis 'dennis' Edmandennis	15 - 20	-5	67.0	0.85
Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjerolofmeister	15 - 20	-5	74.9	0.85
Robin 'flusha' Rönnquistflusha	11 - 21	-10	54.9	0.63

The victors then got to decide what the next match-up would be, and they put their French-Belgian comrades up against the Danes from Astralis.

The latter got off to a better start, picking up nine rounds on the offence, although losing the second pistol round meant the teams would be fair and square at 9-9.

G2 continued to pile on and traded rounds for the better from there on, as they got to 14-13, at which point Astralis had to go on a full save round. The two match points afterwards weren't enough to close out the game though, Astralis came back to take the game to overtime and came out on top at 19-17.

ESL Barcelona CS:GO Invitational presented by Mobile World CongressBest of 1 AstralisMatchpage 19 17 19th February 2016 G2 19Dust2 17

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Hints of an alliance between Danish comrades Astralis and Dignitas then started showing. tugBots were thrown into a match with Dignitas, but it didn't go quite as seemingly planned by Astralis.

Dignitas switched with a comfortable 9-6 lead as Counter-Terrorists, but everything turned around on the other side. On the back of a pistol round, gBots started to put pressure on dignitas, who couldn't overpower any of the sites multiple gunrounds in a row.

At 14-11 a nearly-full-eco play saved dignitas from having to face four match points, and everything turned back around from there on. The Danes picked up all four remaining rounds to come out swinging at 16-14, with Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye passing the 30-kill mark at the end.

ESL Barcelona CS:GO Invitational presented by Mobile World CongressBest of 1 DignitasMatchpage 16 14 19th February 2016 gBots 16Cobblestone 14

Dignitas	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Markus 'Kjaerbye' KjærbyeKjaerbye	32 - 19	+13	102.1	1.55
Kristian 'k0nfig' Wieneckek0nfig	20 - 18	+2	78.6	1.14
Mathias 'MSL' LauridsenMSL	20 - 21	-1	74.5	1.09
Ruben 'RUBINO' VillarroelRUBINO	18 - 18	0	75.9	1.07
Jesper 'TENZKI' PlougmannTENZKI	17 - 19	-2	65.1	0.91

gBots	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Christian 'loWel' Garcia AntoranloWel	22 - 22	0	99.8	1.17
David 'Kairi' de MiguelKairi	24 - 19	+5	82.9	1.14
Oscar 'mixwell' Cañellasmixwell	18 - 20	-2	64.3	0.86
Natanael 'kanarito' Ródenas Betancortkanarito	16 - 22	-6	66.0	0.79
Rubén 'TorPe' Jesús Gómez RodríguezTorPe	15 - 24	-9	50.6	0.69

The alliance became quite obvious when Dignitas passed the ball to Astralis, who were matched up to the other Spanish underdog, x6tence.

After the first seven rounds went the way of Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz and company, the Spaniards picked up two rounds in a row, which included a 1-on-2 from youngster Aaron "⁠nmt⁠" Awad.

However, that was all they could do in the first half, as well as the rest of the match, it didn't take Astralis too long to close it out at 16-2.

ESL Barcelona CS:GO Invitational presented by Mobile World CongressBest of 1 AstralisMatchpage 16 2 19th February 2016 x6tence 16Mirage 2

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Finn 'karrigan' Andersenkarrigan	20 - 6	+14	120.9	1.83
Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x	18 - 5	+13	96.7	1.81
Nicolai 'device' Reedtzdevice	16 - 7	+9	82.1	1.48
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussendupreeh	15 - 9	+6	86.4	1.42
René 'cajunb' Borgcajunb	14 - 7	+7	91.8	1.41

x6tence	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Aaron 'nmt' Awadnmt	10 - 16	-6	51.8	0.69
Rajohn 'EasTor' LinatoEasTor	7 - 17	-10	66.5	0.66
Alfredo 'enanoks' Alvarezenanoks	8 - 17	-9	66.2	0.61
Antonio 'FlipiN' Rivas del ReyFlipiN	4 - 17	-13	53.7	0.34
Miguel 'Blastinho' LlombartBlastinho	5 - 18	-13	46.1	0.32

Astralis got to choose the next match, which had to include Vexed as the only team who have not yet played, and the other team was once again dignitas.