HEROIC's new additions also made a solid account of themselves in their debut against 3DMAX.
The first day of Stake Ranked Episode 3 came to a close with the new Phantom side pulling off an upset over paiN in their debut with Nico "nicoodoz" Tamjidi and Jan "cej0t" Dyl .
The Danish AWPer in particular was key in Phantom getting the 2-1 series over the finish line, putting up 14 kills and +8.23% Round Swing in a 10-2 Terrorist side on the deciding Nuke.
It's the second tough loss for paiN in a matter of days after the Brazilian side, who came into the tournament in Barcelona as the highest-ranked team, missed out on a spot at BLAST Open Porto after a loss to Sharks in the South American qualifier.
Now, they've fallen to the lower bracket in Spain, where they will face off against 3DMAX for survival.
The French squad came on the losing side of a three-map series against the new HEROIC . The recent additions, Antonio "MartinezSa" Martinez and Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin , played key roles in convincing wins on Inferno and Nuke on either side of a loss on Cache.
In the other two matches, Roman "n0te" Hamze led the way as Ninjas in Pyjamas took down K27 in a two-map affair, and Gentle Mates made quick work of Wildcard despite playing the event with Joey "CRUC1AL" Steusel as a stand-in.
The upper bracket semi-finals and the first elimination round will be played next on Thursday: