CyberZen, Chiefs move on in Taipei

Day one of IEM Taipei has come to an end, with CyberZen and Chiefs securing spots in the last-four stage.

The Asia Minor Championship, taking place as part of the Intel Extreme Masters Championship in Taipei, Taiwan, opened with Group A, featuring CyberZen, Chiefs, MVP.Karnal and Risky.

CyberZen, who had acquitted themselves well at the StarSeries finals, in Minsk, earlier in the month, were red-hot favorites to top the group, and they managed to live up to the expectations, beating Risky 16-10 before breezing past Chiefs 16-4.

The biggest surprise of the day came in the early elimination of MVP.Karnal. The Malaysian team were at one point considered one of the strongest teams in Asia, but they finished bottom of their group following a 14-16 defeat against Chiefs and a shock 8-16 loss at the hands of Risky.

CyberZen topped Group A

The Emirati side went on to face Chiefs for the second place in the group, and, as a result, a spot in the semi-finals. The Australian team, who are attending the event with two stand-ins, Azad "⁠topguN⁠" Orami and Ryan "⁠zewsy⁠" Palmer, gave a great account of themselves and came out on top of this de_dust2 contest by a 16-9 scoreline.

The Asia Minor Championship will resume on Saturday with Group B being played, featuring Renegades, TyLoo, TheMongolz and Eat You Alive.

Azad 'topguN' Orami Age: 27 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 15 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.67 Ryan 'zewsy' Palmer Age: 18 Team: Chiefs Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 44 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.69