Aurora and Liquid pulled ahead, Results of the first day of Fissure Universe Ep.8

The first match day of the first Tier-1 tournament of the new year FISSURE Universe: Episode 8 has ended. As a result, Team Liquid, Aurora and Team Yandex advanced to the upper bracket. It is worth remembering that the match of Team Spirit vs strongboys was postponed to the next day, so we will find out the opponent for Team Liquid in the upper bracket later:

In the series between MOUZ and Team Liquid, drafts and the execution of fights played a key role: already on the first map the «Mice» chose heroes without synergy and without control, because of which even successful moves did not bring results. A telling episode was the unkillable Ace on Underlord with an early Pipe of Insight. All hopes rested on Crystallis on Shadow Fiend, who really dealt colossal damage in the late game, but without stuns could not realize his potential. Even though in terms of microcontrol and how they set up fights Team Liquid at times looked weaker, smart picks gave them a decisive advantage — with a normal draft they confidently closed out the maps. On the second map it is worth separately highlighting the play of Seleri on Snapfire with a 9/0/16 KDA. Everything was decided on the third map, where the signature Pudge from yamich did not work out; he usually brings a lot of impact to the game and creates space very well. The strategy of MOUZ crumbled, and Team Liquid managed to reach critical mass and finish the game without giving the opponent a single chance.

The series of Aurora against BetBoom Team turned out to be the most unpredictable. Recently, since they decided to implement the idea of creating an international roster, Aurora have been going through a slump. The first map was easily taken by BetBoom Team. However, Ws, who came in as a stand-in for TORONTOTOKYO, showed an incredibly effective Largo, consistently holding second place in net worth. On the third map Aurora repeated their success. By the way, this is the first tournament for BetBoom Team with Boolk returning to the position of coach. The team officially stated that with the arrival of rmN- to this position, the workload on Save- increased; he dropped off in terms of individual performance and became the main drafter. Before that, the team had already gained a reputation as a squad that does not win with Boolk in the role of coach. Nevertheless, time will tell whether BetBoom Team will be able to stay afloat after the reshuffle, and for now the guys are falling into the lower bracket.

Team Yandex cracked Power Rangers like nuts. For the champions of the last Blast Slam V the ex-Runa Team turned out to be an easy opponent. Malady, on his signature Jakiro, played the first map without deaths, and on the second showed the highest kill participation percentage — 71%.

FISSURE Universe: Episode 8 takes place online from January 29, 2026 to February 1, 2026. The prize pool is $250,000.