The first day of the StarLadder CIS Minor to Cologne 2016 has ended and the two teams to have secured an early advance to the playoffs are Fluffy Gangsters and Worst Players.

Taking place at the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Moscow, Russia from April 28 to May 1, the StarLadder Regional CIS Minor Championship is seeing eight teams from the region compete for $50,000 and two spots to the offline qualifier for ESL One Cologne 2016, CS:GO's next Major.

Below you can find the recap for the games that took place on the first day of the CIS Minor. To optimise the page, we have included statistics in this article for only the two best-of-three winners' matches, however you can visit any of the best-of-one games' match pages here for statistics on the other series.

The first opening match of Group A turned out to be a gigantic upset match as one of the tournament's projected favourites Empire, including the likes of Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov and Emil "⁠kUcheR⁠" Akhundov (the latter formerly of HellRaisers), lost 6-16 to the extremely unknown team Digital Wave.

The unknown player Anton "⁠Koshak⁠" Platko (HLTV.org possessed no statistics on Koshak prior to this event), was a huge part of the upset win on Mirage, getting 20 headshots in 22 kills and finishing with a 1.51 rating and a 113.8 ADR.

StarLadder Minor CIS - Cologne 2016Best of 1 EmpireMatchpage 6 16 28th April 2016 Digital Wave 6Mirage 16

The second Group A opening match was yet another upset game, although a little less so than the first match, as FLuffy Gangsters took down the favoured Arcade lineup 16-13 on Train.

With the Arcade team having recently undergone a lineup change that saw Dmitry "⁠S0tF1k⁠" Forostyanko (previously of Team YP) brought in, it was this new player and Dmitriy "⁠jR⁠" Chervak who gave their best efforts to secure a win for Arcade, but 27-year-old Anatoliy "⁠liTTle⁠" Yashin and 19-year-old Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov combined to give the new-ish Fluffy Gangsters team an opening match win, with the players getting 1.59 and 1.356 ratings respectively.

StarLadder Minor CIS - Cologne 2016Best of 1 ArcadeMatchpage 13 16 28th April 2016 FLuffy Gangsters 13Train 16

 liTTle belied his 27 years of age with MVP performances for Fluffy Gangsters

The first opening match of Group B meanwhile was a one-sided affair as ANOX (the ex-Method team) flattened the unknown Binary Dragons Gold team, who were able to attend the CIS Minor due to eXplosive's disqualification over a player with a previous VAC ban. Dmitriy "⁠facecrack⁠" Alekseyev pulled off a 1.86 rating and 111.5 ADR to give ANOX a 16-5 win on Cache.

StarLadder Minor CIS - Cologne 2016Best of 1 ANOXMatchpage 16 5 28th April 2016 Binary Dragons Gold 16Cache 5

The second opening match of Group B was an even more one-sided game as Worst Players (the ex-Team YP core) battered Vesuvius, the latter team also being a replacement team following the disqualification of TEAMSWAGYOLO and a team who also once played under the Binary Dragons name.

In this game, 21-year-old Dmitriy "⁠Dimaoneshot⁠" Bandurka led a merciless assault on Mirage that saw Worst Players win 16-3, with Dimaoneshot getting a 1.73 rating and 126.1 ADR.

StarLadder Minor CIS - Cologne 2016Best of 1 Worst PlayersMatchpage 16 3 28th April 2016 Vesuvius 16Mirage 3

The first best-of-three of the CIS Minor was therefore the Group A winners' match and featured the two teams no-one likely expected to meet over an early slot to the playoffs of the $50,000 event.

Although Digital Wave had shown earlier promise in their takedown of Empire, FLuffy Gangsters seized the opportunity of a lifetime as liTTle once again led his team in terms of output (a 1.45 rating and 98.2 ADR across two maps) to give the not-so-fluffy team a 2-0 victory—16-10 on Overpass and 16-9 on Mirage.

StarLadder Minor CIS - Cologne 2016Best of 3 Digital WaveMatchpage 0 2 28th April 2016 FLuffy Gangsters 10Overpass 16 9Mirage 16

FLuffy Gangsters	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Vladislav 'El Patron' KopitinEl Patron	46 - 30	+16	102.0	1.50
Anatoliy 'liTTle' YashinliTTle	46 - 25	+21	98.2	1.50
Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakovchopper	46 - 32	+14	77.2	1.21
Roman 'roman' Redihinroman	30 - 29	+1	72.1	1.08
Vladimir 'ROBO' NeskeyROBO	31 - 29	+2	75.4	1.07

Digital Wave	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Alexandr 'Foga' RomanenkoFoga	40 - 40	0	88.3	1.14
Anton 'Koshak' PlatkoKoshak	29 - 36	-7	72.6	0.92
Igor 'norison' Matyevnorison	29 - 42	-13	64.5	0.76
Ruslan 'spyn' Kalakovspyn	27 - 44	-17	50.7	0.69
Kiril 'PLAZ' SidorovPLAZ	20 - 38	-18	57.6	0.69

The Group B winners' match was far more predictable in terms of the two teams who would make it there, but no less explosive. Train went the way of the ex-Team YP crew (Worst Players) as a strong CT-side and an even more impressive T-side gave the map to Vadim "⁠DavCost⁠" Vasilyev & co. with a 16-10 scoreline.

Dima was in peak form for Worst Players 

Cobblestone was the next map, and if the series went to map three the world was about to see Nuke played for the first time in nearly a year, and that looked to be the case as ANOX put up a 9-6 defense on a map where T-sides are often considered crucial. However, Worst Players did one better with a 10-5 defense and clinched the map 16-14, thereby advancing to the playoffs.

StarLadder Minor CIS - Cologne 2016Best of 3 ANOXMatchpage 0 2 28th April 2016 Worst Players 10Train 16 14Cobblestone 16

Worst Players	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Dmitriy 'Dimaoneshot' BandurkaDimaoneshot	51 - 32	+19	86.8	1.46
Vladyslav 'arch' Svistovarch	48 - 41	+7	91.9	1.30
Ilya 'fix' Golovkofix	46 - 37	+9	94.2	1.30
Vadim 'DavCost' VasilyevDavCost	36 - 37	-1	62.8	0.98
Anton 'tonyblack' Kolesnikovtonyblack	32 - 35	-3	78.0	0.97

ANOX	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Kirill 'hitMouse' TsarevhitMouse	42 - 44	-2	84.4	1.04
Igor 'dERZKIY' RadosavlevichdERZKIY	40 - 41	-1	78.1	1.04
Alexey 'ub1que' Polivanovub1que	36 - 38	-2	69.7	0.95
Dmitriy 'facecrack' Alekseyevfacecrack	34 - 46	-12	70.3	0.90
Savelii 'jmqa' Braginjmqa	30 - 45	-15	56.5	0.82

Day two action at the CIS Minor begins with a salivating Group A elimination match between two of the region's best teams, Arcade and Empire. With a best-of-one determining the future glory of one of these contenders, be sure to tune in at 13:00 .

The action can be followed live via StarLadder's Russian stream.

Do you find yourself dazed and confused when thinking about the Wild Wild West that is the CIS scene? Our writer Milan "⁠Striker⁠" Švejda wrote a in-depth preview that can help you get up-to-speed with all eight teams who are fighting for a chance to attend the Major qualifier.

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