We have hit the halfway point in the first day of play at the MLG Arena in Columbus, Ohio, where the first major on North American soil is taking place. Here are the best photos up to this moment.

Ninjas in Pyjamas and FlipSid3 kicked the major off, with Björn "⁠THREAT⁠" Pers standing in for Jacob "⁠pyth⁠" Mourujärvi. The Swedes were able to take the match 19-17 in overtime. The second match in Group A pitted Luminosity and MOUZ, with the Brazilians taking the map, de_mirage, 16-13.

The Group B matches started out with Liquid beating FaZe on de_cache, 16-11, in part thanks to an outstanding Eric "⁠adreN⁠" Hoag, and fnatic breezing past Splyce on de_train.

Check out the rest of the day's photographs in our Day 1 gallery.

MOUZ #10 Chris 'chrisJ' de JongNikola 'NiKo' KovačJohannes 'nex' MagetTimo 'Spiidi' RichterDenis 'denis' Howell Liquid #18 Spencer 'Hiko' MartinNick 'nitr0' CannellaOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEric 'adreN' Hoag Splyce #27 Arya 'arya' HekmatAbraham 'abE' FazliDavid 'DAVEY' StaffordJason 'jasonR' RuchelskiAndrew 'Professor_Chaos' Heintz FaZe #11 Ricardo 'fox' PachecoMikail 'Maikelele' BillPhilip 'aizy' AistrupHåvard 'rain' NygaardJoakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad Björn 'THREAT' Pers Age: 27 Team: Ninjas in PyjamasC Jacob 'pyth' Mourujärvi Age: 22 Team: Ninjas in Pyjamas Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 355 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.68 Luminosity #4 Lincoln 'fnx' LauGabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de Melo Ninjas in Pyjamas #9 Patrik 'f0rest' LindbergChristopher 'GeT_RiGhT' AlesundRichard 'Xizt' LandströmAdam 'friberg' FribergBjörn 'THREAT' Pers Eric 'adreN' Hoag Age: 25 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 326 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.64 fnatic #1 Olof 'olofmeister' KajbjerDennis 'dennis' EdmanRobin 'flusha' RönnquistJesper 'JW' WecksellFreddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson FlipSid3 #16 Yegor 'markeloff' MarkelovAndrey 'B1ad3' GorodenskiyOleksandr 'Shara' HordieyevVladyslav 'bondik' NechyporchukGeorgi 'WorldEdit' Yaskin