For the first game of North America's Group B, Method and Cloud9 faced off on a series of strange maps. The map elimination process ended with Lijiang Tower, Nepal, and Eichenwalde - all maps unseen in the tournament at that point. Method started a little weak but fought back with some unbelievable individual plays to win 2-1 overall, finishing it off with pocket strategies on Eichenwalde. They knocked Cloud9 down to the Elimination Match of the group leaving the possibility open of a repeat last-place performance as seen at Gamescom.

Lijiang Tower

Cloud9 came into this fixture as the favourites and a very strong team on Control maps, but the map elimination stage showed that Method fancied themselves on Control as well.

A key difference between the two teams on Market was the Ana coming out for C9 compared to a Zenyatta from Method. Method won the initial fight and established themselves on point, holding against every Nanoboost attempt to tick themselvesto 99% before Grego switched off to Zenyatta and recapped. Once in control of the point Cloud9 couldn’t be dislodged and DeBett and Surefour popped off to give them the first round.

On Garden neither team tried Ana and once again Method’s aggression gave them the win in the even fight and they capped first to get to 61%. Despite some great play from snow it was Surefour who ran the show on Tracer, unstoppable once Cloud9 were in control of the point and he had space to manoeuvre. Cloud9 took the round and went to map point.

Control Center saw Cloud9 take the initial fight as they set up and anticipated the aggressive Method charge through choke points. A huge ultimate advantage should have let them hold the point for a huge amount of time but Reaver had a horrific Nanoboost after a failed Graviton and let Method stroll back in and recap. The hyper-aggressive defense from Method and sparing use of their ultimates kept C9 away for the full time and got them back into the map at 2-1.

The fourth stage by pure chance was Garden, the stage that Cloud9 had been the most dominant on. Surefour again went huge alongside DeBett and carried their team to an easy lead, giving them so much time for the comeback after Method capped. They got the stage win, taking Lijiang 3-1.

Nepal

Method obviously felt like they had a closer game than the score (and the spectator view) suggested, as their loser’s pick was to move to another Control map, Nepal.

Sanctum was the first stage and saw Reaver switch to Roadhog and Grego pick up the rifle on Ana. A perfect teamfight setup from Method was countered completely by a Biotic Grenade, Nanoboost, and Graviton, but this left them totally open to a repush. After losing that it became apparent that Cloud9 again felt uncomfortable on their pre-planned Ana strategy and moved back to 2-2-2. Method ticked it to 99% and tried to shove deep into Cloud9’s spawn to deny them entry to block, but overextended horribly and threw the whole round. It fell, giftwrapped, into Cloud9’s lap but was rescued in the nick of time by ultimawep’s clutch Dragonblade that caught everyone and allowed them to cap. Method up 1-0.

Temple saw a ridiculous series of teamfights, as both teams traded the point and built ultimates to clash with almost every ability available to play with. Method showed they could use the position and ults better on that occasion, and snowballed themselves after that to a fantastic 2-0 lead in the second map against Cloud9.

Cloud9 avoided being slammed on Nepal by rescuing Village. Reaver found his pace and despite a desperately close round the map was tipped over to another stage of Temple. At 2-1 to Method they decided this was the time to close it out. Their aggressive teamfight play with snow dancing around on Tracer let them take a huge lead early on and they weren’t contested til overtime. Method kept the pressure on all the time and didn’t give Cloud9 room to breathe when in control, forcing it to Eichenwalde.

Eichenwalde

Cloud9 had a huge flank to begin the map, showing they’d put preparation in. Reaver’s Pharah led Mercy and D.va on a backstab around the entire side of the castle and pincered Method to wipe the first point defense. A ridiculous ultimate came in from KyKy’s D.va as she sent her suit flying for a three-point swish, taking out half the team at the castle doors and opening it up. A failed push into last left C9 trying to get through two tiny entrances after spawning and with only 2 minutes left the map became impossible to push.Despite an excellent offense the final score for C9 was 62.24m after checkpoint 2.

Cloud9 brought out a Symmetra on the defense from KyKy, setting up the turrets to watch for a flank. Despite a McCree to counter any Pharah play as well, Reaver couldn’t stop ultimawep as he came in and stormed the point. Their setup failed and another amazing rocketjump flank from ultimawep and his Mercy did a ridiculous amount of work and set up the castle doors on a platter. He put the entirety of the team on his back with the map knowledge and crisp rockets, only getting stopped by a Deadeye from Reaver in the halls. Method had four minutes to push the cart more than 62.24m, but could only manage 20 before Surefour’s Reaper came in for a massacre and let them set up at the corridors again.

Again, once the defending team pushed up to the corridors it was a nightmare to break through. Despite having three minutes to crack the castle and some awesome engagements, it seemed impossible. Everything that Method threw in was dealt with due to the positioning and choke advantage until they finally broke through with under 30 seconds remaining. A frantic fight collapsed all over the cart just metres from the end goal and again ultimawep went absolutely crazy, slashing bodies into pieces and carrying his team to an incredible upset and a ridiculously close victory.

Method won over three intense maps and stepped significantly closer to getting out of groups. They sat waiting for the winner of Fnatic vs. Immortals.