IEM Sydney 2017North edge OpTic in triple OT
After three overtimes on Inferno, North edged OpTic 25-23 in the first match of the Swiss group stage at IEM Sydney.
North began the first match of IEM Sydney on the Counter-Terrorist side and got off to a 3-0 start after Philip "aizy" Aistrup picked up three kills in the initial pistol round.
James "hazed" Cobb, who is standing in for Jason "jasonR" Ruchelski in Australia, then put up two entry kills after pushing through a smoke, giving OpTic their first round. Emil "Magisk" Reif's quad-kill and Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke's triple including 1v1 clutch then sent the Danes to a 6-1 lead before OpTic got their second on the A bombsite.
North proceeded to go on a streak of four rounds with k0nfig getting picks with the AWP all across the map before the North American squad closed out the half with three, as the Danish side switched over to the offense at 10-5.
With René "cajunb" Borg clutching a tight 1v3 on B, North extended their lead to 13-5, but it was OpTic who took control of the first gunrounds, retaking the B bombsite twice in a row.
North find their first victory after three overtimes on Inferno
Keith "NAF" Markovic's two triples in A defense closed the gap to 13-10 before North got their first gunround on the board thanks to a fantastic double from Magisk that turned a 2v4 situation in their favor.
As Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen's team was unable to string rounds together, OpTic proceeded to clinch match point at 15-14, while North exchanged a shoddy forcebuy for overtime.
MSL was the man of the hour in overtime, getting immensely important kills while lurking towards arch side, which gave his squad two rounds on the Terrorist side. OpTic repeated that feat, pushing the match to its second OT.
Starting as CT this time, North once again put two rounds on the board and had a chance to close it out after getting to 21-20 and a 3v3 situation, but OpTic defended the B attack for overtime number three.
That time it was OpTic who got two rounds on the CT side, but North replied with three in a row to clinch their first win in the Swiss group stage at 25-23.
  North |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41 - 33 | +8 | 82.8 | 70.8% | 1.19 | |
| 37 - 31 | +6 | 76.6 | 68.8% | 1.06 | |
| 30 - 31 | -1 | 76.0 | 68.8% | 1.02 | |
| 29 - 37 | -8 | 72.4 | 58.3% | 0.95 | |
| 27 - 30 | -3 | 62.1 | 66.7% | 0.94 |
 OpTic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44 - 35 | +9 | 93.9 | 64.6% | 1.22 | |
| 37 - 34 | +3 | 87.4 | 64.6% | 1.18 | |
| 33 - 31 | +2 | 66.7 | 68.8% | 1.06 | |
| 25 - 31 | -6 | 64.7 | 75.0% | 0.93 | |
| 23 - 35 | -12 | 61.8 | 62.5% | 0.78 |
The standings of the Swiss group stage are the following:
| 1-0 | 0-0 | 0-1 |
 North |
 FaZe |
 OpTic |
 Renegades |
||
| Astralis |
||
| Chiefs |
||
 SK |
||
 ViCi |
Nemanja 'nexa' Isaković
WingHei 'Freeman' Cheung
Aleksi 'allu' Jalli
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Fabien 'kioShiMa' Fiey
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
| 
MERKELREICH
Soontobeleaderofthefreeworld
| 
| 
SplasJ
0kkk33333
| 
avocadosatlaw
| 
| 
