Phantom Stun paiN at Stake Ranked Episode 3

The first matchday of Stake Ranked Episode 3 in Counter-Strike 2 ended with an unexpected victory for Phantom over paiN. The new version of Phantom’s roster made its debut at the Barcelona tournament with Nico “nicoodoz” Tamjidi and Jan “cej0t” Dyl - and immediately managed to defeat one of the main favorites.

The series against paiN ended 2:1. Nicoodoz played a particularly important role in the win. The Danish AWPer helped the team confidently close out the deciding map, Nuke, where Phantom delivered a strong T side with a 10:2 scoreline.

For paiN, this was their second painful loss in recent days. The Brazilian team came to Stake Ranked Episode 3 as the highest-ranked participant, but had already failed to qualify for BLAST Open Porto after losing to Sharks in the South American qualifier. Now paiN have dropped to the lower bracket, where they will face 3DMAX in an elimination match.

3DMAX, meanwhile, lost 1:2 to HEROIC’s updated roster. Antonio “MartinezSa” Martinez and Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin successfully made their debut for the team, playing a key role in the wins on Inferno and Nuke.

In the other matches, Ninjas in Pyjamas defeated K27 with a 2:0 scoreline, while Gentle Mates quickly dealt with Wildcard despite playing with Joey “CRUC1AL” Steusel as a stand-in.

Stake Ranked Episode 3 Starts in Barcelona

The next Stake Ranked Episode 3 matches will take place today, July 16. The day will feature the upper-bracket semifinals and the first elimination matches in the lower bracket:

• K27 vs Wildcard

• 3DMAX vs paiN

• Ninjas in Pyjamas vs Gentle Mates

• HEROIC vs Phantom