IEM Katowice 2018Astralis edge past SK; Renegades knock out AVANGAR
Astralis have booked a spot in Group A's upper bracket final after beating SK Gaming 2-0, while Renegades are through to the second lower bracket round after seeing off AVANGAR.
The first Upper Bracket semi-final of the day kicked off on Overpass, where Emil "Magisk" Reif opened things up with a trio of kills in a post-plant situation to give Astralis their first round on the board. The Danish team went on to add the subsequent anti-ecos, bringing the scoreline to 3-0, but once SK had money in the bank the landscape of the game changed dramatically, with the Brazilians winning four rounds in a row.
Astralis were unwilling to let the game slip away from them, however, and upped the tempo, winning five rounds without response before SK responded to bring the deficit to 6-9.
The second half began in the same manner as the first as Astralis took the pistol round to extend their lead even further. A third-round buy from SK failed to pay off, putting the Brazilians in a dire economic situation, but then Marcelo "coldzera" David came up huge and picked up two triple-kills to give life to a team that looked to be dead and buried.
With their newly-found momentum, SK went on another great run and brought the deficit to just two rounds, but then Astralis picked up the pace and locked down the map, even after tossing away a map point against an SK team on an extremely shoddy buy.
SK came out with all guns blazing and took the pistol round with a flawless B execution, with Epitacio "TACO" de Melo getting three kills to his name. The game then entered a hectic period of play as the teams kept trading blows, with Astralis eventually coming out on top.
The Danish team set up a very tight defence and refused to let their foot off the gas, blowing their opponents away.SK simply could not find any openings and, more importantly, they were losing all the aim duels, and as the half came to an end they found themselves down by nine rounds.
Now playing on the CT side, SK found some breathing room as they picked up the pistol round after shutting down the B site. That round sparked a great run from SK, who only lost one of the first eight rounds of the half. Astralis were struggling to get anything going in an attacking sense, but then Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander came to the rescue and pulled off an amazing 1v4 clutch to put his team on 14 rounds and reset SK's economy.
And that is when the Fernando "fer" Alvarenga show began. The 26-year-old stepped up massively in the final stages of the half and had several multi-kill rounds, helping SK to crawl their way back into the game and eventually force overtime after turning around a 2v4 situation in the 30th round.
The first overtime failed to determine a winner as the teams cancelled each other out by taking two rounds on the Terrorist side. In the second overtime, SK wilted under the pressure and wasted a 2v1 and a 5v2 in the second half to allow the Danes to run away with the match.
  SK |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 56 - 42 | +14 | 82.2 | 75.7% | 1.17 | |
| 52 - 55 | -3 | 82.1 | 61.4% | 1.04 | |
| 46 - 50 | -4 | 67.7 | 62.9% | 0.93 | |
| 42 - 53 | -11 | 73.4 | 64.3% | 0.91 | |
| 29 - 51 | -22 | 58.5 | 64.3% | 0.72 |
 Astralis |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 58 - 47 | +11 | 80.8 | 68.6% | 1.21 | |
| 55 - 46 | +9 | 82.8 | 71.4% | 1.19 | |
| 46 - 45 | +1 | 85.6 | 75.7% | 1.12 | |
| 47 - 46 | +1 | 81.1 | 77.1% | 1.12 | |
| 45 - 43 | +2 | 58.1 | 68.6% | 0.93 |
The Danish team set up a very tight defence and refused to let their foot off the gas, blowing their opponents away.SK simply could not find any openings and, more importantly, they were losing all the aim duels, and as the half came to an end they found themselves down by nine rounds.
Meanwhile, Renegades and AVANGAR squared off for survival in the Lower Bracket after being defeated in the opening round of the tournament. The first map of the series, Mirage, began with Renegades responding really well to a pistol round from the CIS team as they cruised to a 9-2 lead after giving their opponents very little room to operate.
AVANGAR then kept their hopes alive by winning three of the last four rounds of the half, and they followed that up with the second pistol, but as Renegades got their economy back in order there was no stopping them, with Aaron "AZR" Ward ending the game with a 1.53 rating.
Map two, Cache, followed the same pattern as Mirage, with Renegades hitting back immediately after losing the pistol. AVANGAR then tightened up their defence, winning four of the next five rounds, but the Australians were in control during the final stages of the half and increased their lead to 10-5.
The Kazakhstani side came out of the break a completely different side and won six of the opening seven rounds of the half to restore parity at 11-11. That was when Renegades' defence finally showed up, with the Australians losing just one more round before running out 16-12 victors.
 AVANGAR |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37 - 37 | 0 | 75.1 | 57.7% | 1.00 | |
| 35 - 41 | -6 | 78.5 | 63.5% | 0.99 | |
| 25 - 43 | -18 | 75.6 | 63.5% | 0.84 | |
| 31 - 40 | -9 | 63.1 | 59.6% | 0.84 | |
| 21 - 40 | -19 | 43.4 | 55.8% | 0.59 |
 Renegades |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 - 27 | +23 | 94.9 | 78.8% | 1.39 | |
| 38 - 26 | +12 | 77.6 | 84.6% | 1.27 | |
| 43 - 27 | +16 | 82.6 | 73.1% | 1.27 | |
| 38 - 36 | +2 | 79.2 | 76.9% | 1.21 | |
| 32 - 33 | -1 | 69.0 | 71.2% | 1.04 |
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