The first evening of the MLG Americas Minor Championship has come to a close, with Enemy and Leader-1 scoring important Group B wins whereas SPLYCE sent EZG home in the Group B losers match (16-14 on de_cache).

Seven teams converged on the MLG Americas Minor Championship, the first of four regional Valve-endorsed Minors which all dole out $50,000 in prize money and a coveted invitation to the MLG Columbus Major offline qualifier taking place February 26-28.

Interestingly enough, Group A, which was already a team short due to two Brazilian teams encountering visa issues and compLexity dropping out due to a reforming roster, saw its only match of the day also become a forfeit win for Winterfox as Obey.Alliance's Terry "⁠dsr⁠" Rioux was unable to arrive at the Arena in time due to flight issues.

arya's SPLYCE struggled on the first day of the MLG Americas Minor

Group B however got to see all three of its matches play out in a full-spread and the opening match saw Michael "⁠MAiNLiNE⁠" Jaber lead his Enemy team to a 16-9 win on de_cache over the relatively newfound EZG eSports team, with hotshot Kenneth "⁠koosta⁠" Suen putting in a noteworthy performance.

MLG Americas Minor ChampionshipBest of 1 EnemyMatchpage 16 9 15th January 2016 EZG 16Cache 9

Enemy	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Michael 'MAiNLiNE' JaberMAiNLiNE	29 - 18	+11	-	1.73
Kenneth 'koosta' Suenkoosta	26 - 12	+14	-	1.69
Michael 'Uber' StapellsUber	23 - 14	+9	-	1.43
Skyler 'Relyks' WeaverRelyks	12 - 16	-4	-	0.79
Richard 'Lucky' VasconcelosLucky	11 - 18	-7	-	0.67

EZG	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Thomas 'GrumpiX' JungGrumpiX	18 - 19	-1	-	0.94
Paul 'MORViD' BeamMORViD	19 - 21	-2	-	0.88
Adrian 'recky' Golecrecky	15 - 20	-5	-	0.78
Igor 'cuse' Nikoliccuse	13 - 20	-7	-	0.69
Nick 'N4j' NormanN4j	13 - 21	-8	-	0.66

The second opening match of Group B was something of a thriller as Arya "⁠arya⁠" Hekmat's SPLYCE team paired up against Leader-1, an up-and-coming team from ESEA Premier.

After a close 8-7 first half on de_dust2, it was Leader-1 who pulled ahead to snatch the map away with a 16-14 scoreline, with Daniel "⁠virtus⁠" Carrillo putting in a massive performance that included garnering 24 AWP kills in the game.

A note of controversy emerged from this match as it was mistakenly found out that the server had been using the old 1:45/0:35 times, rather than the new 1:55/0:40 format recently enforced by Valve.

MLG Americas Minor ChampionshipBest of 1 SplyceMatchpage 14 16 16th January 2016 Leader-1 14Dust2 16

Leader-1	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Daniel 'virtus' Carrillovirtus	35 - 20	+15	-	1.58
Corey 'flashstep' Parksflashstep	22 - 23	-1	-	1.02
Josh 'joshbM' BlierjoshbM	18 - 24	-6	-	0.82
Tyler 'Char' WallaceChar	13 - 22	-9	-	0.64
Jason 'focs' Maueryfocs	12 - 26	-14	-	0.46

Splyce	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Arya 'arya' Hekmatarya	30 - 20	+10	-	1.36
David 'DAVEY' StaffordDAVEY	25 - 20	+5	-	1.24
Andrew 'Professor_Chaos' HeintzProfessor_Chaos	22 - 20	+2	-	1.08
Jason 'jasonR' RuchelskijasonR	21 - 19	+2	-	1.04
Abraham 'abE' FazliabE	17 - 21	-4	-	0.80

The final match of the day came far too close for comfort for David "⁠DAVEY⁠" Stafford & co. of SPLYCE as following a dominant 11-4 T-half on de_cache, EZG (who are a team currently competing in ESEA Intermediate) nearly managed to knock SPLYCE out of the tournament.

With 15-year-old Paul "⁠MORViD⁠" Beam of EZG wreaking havoc on the server, the match reached 14-14, however SPLYCE finally pulled away and survived to fight another day by winning 16-14.

MLG Americas Minor ChampionshipBest of 1 EZGMatchpage 14 16 16th January 2016 Splyce 14Cache 16

Splyce	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Andrew 'Professor_Chaos' HeintzProfessor_Chaos	18 - 12	+6	-	1.11
David 'DAVEY' StaffordDAVEY	26 - 22	+4	-	1.10
Jason 'jasonR' RuchelskijasonR	23 - 21	+2	-	1.08
Arya 'arya' Hekmatarya	22 - 21	+1	-	0.99
Abraham 'abE' FazliabE	18 - 24	-6	-	0.72

EZG	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 1.0
Paul 'MORViD' BeamMORViD	29 - 19	+10	-	1.34
Adrian 'recky' Golecrecky	22 - 20	+2	-	1.04
Thomas 'GrumpiX' JungGrumpiX	14 - 19	-5	-	0.75
Igor 'cuse' Nikoliccuse	20 - 26	-6	-	0.74
Nick 'N4j' NormanN4j	15 - 23	-8	-	0.69

Tomorrow's action will see the best-of-one winners matches of both groups kick off first at the event, with Enemy taking on Leader-1 and Winterfox going against OpTic who will finally enter the action at the Americas Minor.

SPLYCE and Obey.Alliance (the latter team will have dsr in attendance by tomorrow) meanwhile await the losers of these games in the best-of-three decider matches.

The action can of course be watched over at twitch.tv/mlg and MLG.tv.

stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter