IEM Sydney 2018device shines as Astralis overrun mousesports; Cloud9 survive ORDER scare
Astralis have assured themselves of a playoff spot at IEM Sydney after easing past mousesports on two maps, while Cloud9 live to fight another round in the lower bracket after defeating ORDER 2-1.
The battle for a spot in the playoffs began on Inferno, where MOUZ came out the livelier of the two sides as they jumped out to a 4-1 lead on the defensive side of the map. Astralis responded with a four-round streak of their own to take the lead for the first time in the game.
The rest of the half was highly contested as teams took turns stringing rounds together without really getting control of the economy, with MOUZ taking a narrow 8-7 lead on the back of a sensational quad-kill from Martin "STYKO" Styk.
The second half was a complete blowout. Astralis started to play with fire in their bellies and won seven rounds right off the bat to put MOUZ on the verge of meltdown. It was only then that the European mixture managed to break through the tight Astralis defence for the first time, but the Danish team rallied back immediately and eventually locked down the map thanks to a trio of kills from Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander.
With Dust2 left over as the third map, many hoped that MOUZ would take Nuke and level up the series to finally see the map coming into play. But Astralis had different plans. The Danes jumped out to a 4-1 lead on the CT side after picking up the pistol round and countering their opponents' gun round win to set up a 4-1 lead.
MOUZ then called a timeout in a bid to halt Astralis' momentum, only to get shut down by Nicolai "device" Reedtz in the following round. With the 22-year-old in stunning form and Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný struggling to get frags, Astralis just rolled over their opponents and closed out the half with a 12-3 lead.
The second half followed the same pattern as the first, with every round win from MOUZ being instantly countered by Astralis. In the end, there was nothing that mouz could do to prevent their opponents from running away with the game and moving on to the group's upper bracket final.
 MOUZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 - 33 | -4 | 65.8 | 67.4% | 0.85 | |
| 29 - 36 | -7 | 71.8 | 67.4% | 0.85 | |
| 25 - 38 | -13 | 64.6 | 63.0% | 0.75 | |
| 23 - 39 | -16 | 73.2 | 54.3% | 0.70 | |
| 21 - 36 | -15 | 55.2 | 45.7% | 0.59 |
 Astralis |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 47 - 22 | +25 | 106.6 | 82.6% | 1.71 | |
| 36 - 28 | +8 | 94.2 | 78.3% | 1.30 | |
| 34 - 30 | +4 | 88.8 | 78.3% | 1.24 | |
| 31 - 20 | +11 | 61.3 | 78.3% | 1.19 | |
| 33 - 28 | +5 | 72.9 | 71.7% | 1.13 |
Meanwhile over on the secondary stream, Cloud9 and ORDER faced off in a close series that went to all three maps. The opening map, Cache, was Cloud9's pick, but the final score would have suggested otherwise.
The Australian team set up a tight defence on the map and cruised to an 8-3 lead after preventing their opponents from getting any economic development. Cloud9 then finally picked up the pace and brought the deficit to two at the start of the second half, but then they were handed a heavy blow as ORDER responded in a force-buy. That was the start of a great run from the Australians that ended with a triple kill from Jay "Liazz" Tregillgas to give the home side the map.
Next up was Train, which began at a frantic pace as rounds went back and forth without either side being able to get a grip on the game. But then the game turned into a complete one-sided affair as Cloud9 closed out the first half with a commanding 12-3 lead and then lost just one round before locking down the map to take the series to Inferno.
Cloud9 got off to a flying start on the final map and picked up a four-round lead early in the game. It looked like the North Americans had the game under control, but ORDER fought back valiantly with another lively display from Liazz, and were up by one round by the end of the half.
ORDER further added to their lead by winning the pistol round after denying William "RUSH" Wierzba the ace, and they followed that up with an anti-eco. Once they had money in the bank, Cloud9 took control of proceedings, but some messy rounds really cost them and allowed ORDER to hit match point at 15-13.
With no margin for error, RUSH single-handedly rescued Cloud9 with a massive 1v4 clutch on B, leaving ORDER's players without money in the bank to prevent overtime in the 30th round.
RUSH headlined the first overtime by pulling off another massive clutch, this time on the other bombsite, but Cloud9 could not close out the match as ORDER came back from two match points to force a second overtime - in which the North Americans would come out victorious with a quad-kill from Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham in the final round.
 ORDER |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 79 - 52 | +27 | 103.5 | 77.4% | 1.46 | |
| 62 - 59 | +3 | 86.3 | 72.6% | 1.15 | |
| 55 - 50 | +5 | 64.1 | 69.0% | 1.02 | |
| 38 - 60 | -22 | 59.9 | 63.1% | 0.80 | |
| 40 - 60 | -20 | 49.2 | 65.5% | 0.73 |
 Cloud9 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 75 - 51 | +24 | 83.9 | 73.8% | 1.27 | |
| 69 - 59 | +10 | 89.2 | 75.0% | 1.25 | |
| 58 - 50 | +8 | 73.4 | 70.2% | 1.10 | |
| 43 - 58 | -15 | 68.8 | 63.1% | 0.93 | |
| 36 - 56 | -20 | 52.7 | 65.5% | 0.79 |
| 
| 
twil
Women
not_a_pedro
| 
shaak!
| 
Tbonto
Head_Of_Moon_Foreign_Relations
yus1
getrichfastdotcom
| 
papaski2
xxzoroxx31
| 
| 
KINGWaitagain
NotRivitur
Rahmanabdulazizqadirabdizahid
| 
SinnohBestRegion
OptimusBlyad
Kappa_Pride
lil_ghost
goodpeace
brotato!!
| 
| 
Huev000
| 
mRvlls
| 
| 
pedaro
| 
quartzSRB_Did_Nothing_Wrong
| 
CaminelEvadoressi
C9suso
rOtten_97
| 
| 
Dylanychus2
serotonin
