SnakeBite leads the way as FaZe off to winning start at HCS Atlanta Major 2024

The HCS Atlanta Major 2024 is underway, taking Halo back state-side as teams look for bragging rights to be crowned the best team in the world. Not to mention the cool $250,000 prize pool, to boot. We’re still mid-Pool Play, with some teams off to a better start than others after day one. Here’s our take on the main storylines from the start of the HCS Atlanta Major 2024!

SnakeBite leads successful day for FaZe Clan

Hot on the heels of winning HCS London Major 2024, FaZe Clan have arrived in Atlanta ready to play. They’ve made short work of the competition on day one, completing a professional job without dropping a single map. They played some incredible Halo here, the highlight of which came during their 3:0 demolition of Complexity. They’ve laid down the marker for others to beat if they want to snatch away that Major title.

For FaZe, it was always going to be SnakeBite leading the way. There’s a reason he’s considered one of the best Halo players in history, and he continued to show why that’s the case on day one of the HCS London Major 2024. He was FaZe’s top slayer, with 94 kills and just 54 deaths. It’s a monstrous performance, and if it continues, it could certainly be Major-winning.

OpTic unconvincing despite 2:0 start

OpTic Gaming find themselves 2:0 after the first day of the HCS Atlanta Major 2024, yet even they will acknowledge they weren’t quite at their best here. Despite having some of the best Halo players in the world on their team, they were run close by Pure in a 3:2 series that easily could have gone either way. It’s a team you’d expect them to be beating, so they won’t be pleased it was ever close.

To their credit, OpTic did manage to swiftly take down Into The Breach in their second match of the day, locking in that 2:0 finish with a strong bounce-back. Here, Lucid was the main star when it came to slays, although Deadzone, the newest member of OpTic Gaming, also provided an impressive performance. Despite the wins here, OpTic Gaming will want more all round from everyone, the deeper they progress through the tournament.

Cloud9 struggle to get going

Cloud9 are unfortunate to find themselves in a tough group featuring Shopify Rebellion and Sentinels, although they’ll still be disappointed to end day one of the HCS Atlanta Major 2024 0:2. Worse still, they didn’t manage to win a single map on the day, losing across Slayer, Capture the Flag, Strongholds, and King of the Hill game modes.

It was an unfortunate case of individuals lacking for Cloud9. Tusk went 69:91 across the day, while Sceptify similarly struggled with a K/D of 74:97. They simply need to improve in the slays department, and fast. It’s easy to forget that this is still a relatively new Cloud9 roster, but even still, we expect a little more from the team.

Here are the current pool standings at the end of day one of the HCS Atlanta Major 2024, ahead of the introduction of the Open Bracket teams.

Pool A

FaZe Clan – 2:0
Complexity – 1:1
Ascending Baseline – 0:2
Open Bracket LB #2 – 0:0

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