Half the day has passed, with us already witnessing some domination from the side of G2, claiming a clean 2-0 series win over NiP. There are other matchups that followed if you want to read more about those in our Part 1 summary, click the link here.
The next two games would prompt a battle of strength of mind, as we see G2 battle against Liquid in order to make it through to the semi-finals, alongside TSM who try to find their way past Cloud9. The unique factor about this beginning matchup is that it is for all intensive purposes, a rematch of the original group games that took place earlier on today.
So, to get the ball rolling in the first Best of Three, the maps being Cobblestone, Dust 2 and Nuke. The first map kicked off nicely for the G2 side as they netted a handful of early Tec-9 frags, with the team starting to push a lead as they take advantage of their strong economy and momentum, finding themselves 6-0 up. There’s no better way to script it however as the new addition, JDM, forces Liquid onto the board as he picks up a triple kill to close out the 7th round, a feat that eventually lead to a balanced half of 9 – 6, towards the side of G2. Moving into the second half, s1mple forced himself up as a force to be reckoned with, as he nets himself a couple of quick 2K’s as well as one great looking triple kill. The last ditch attempt to edge out the first map in this series took place moments later, as we saw Liquid bring it right to the verge, on a 15-9 scoreline, albeit struggling to pick up that last round. It was only as the scoreline moved further and further from the point of success for Liquid that they eventually opted to close the map out, picking up one last round, making the score in Map 1, 16-12.
All photography credits to ECS.
The following map was G2’s map pick, Dust 2, and it certainly didn’t work as expected as G2 found themselves being destroyed piece-by-piece by nitr0. G2 brought it back in the third round, however, with a crafty force-buy on the duo, ScreaM and Shox, things got hectic but eventually we saw G2 begin to power ahead. Sticking true to what they’re good at, they eventually managed, after some back and forth frags to pick up the map 16-6.
Nuke added a unique twist to the Best of Three, with neither team favoured all too well to pick this one up. However, G2 certainly attempted to prove that they were the superior team in this matchup as they held the door, in a very convincing manner. Both a combination of strongholds and finding the much-needed frags, allowed them to storm ahead in the first half, with G2 taking it 11-4. In fairness to Liquid, they fought back hard here, picking up a cluster of rounds, however, a downside to them was the fact that, simply put, G2 can close out maps. After a quick force buy from G2, they managed to pick up that last needed round, winning the map 16-11, as well as the series 2-1.
All photography credits to ECS.
Next, up we were set to witness a battle of North American talent, as TSM faced Cloud9 in order to move onto the semifinals. To kick things off we saw Cloud9’s map pick, Cache, explode into some late-round pushes and big-frag opportunities, with the scoreline after some tight pistol rounds being equalised at 3-3. Things looked strong for C9 as they played the tempo to their own tune, picking up frags aplenty, however, it was all certainly about to change as TSM began to park the bus so-to-speak in the 2nd half. The sheer dominance in the holds as well as overall confidence in players such as Twistzz and Semphis, lead to a comeback from the TSM side as they, virtually unchallenged, edged closer and closer to that Map 1 win, with that following shortly after. 16 – 7.
The series shifted to Train, where we were looking to perhaps see TSM take a commanding 2-0, or, have Cloud9 fight back and bring us to a full Best of Three experience. The first half certainly didn’t go in the way of C9 though, as rounds began to fly past at speed, with TSM taking a dominating 8-3 lead. C9 clawed back what they could but simply put, it wasn’t enough as TSM continued to overwhelm C9 as they battled it back to a 12-8 advantage before eventually C9 succumbing to the strength, allowing TSM to close out, 16-11.
ECS action is not far away, as we’ll be back tomorrow with some high-octane match’s, including Fnatic up against G2 in one semifinal matchup, alongside Luminosity who will play TSM. It all kicks off at 1PM tomorrow!
