North edge out AGO to move on to semi-finals

North are the second semi-finalists of StarSeries i-League Season 5 Finals after recovering from AGO's incredible comeback on Dust2 to prevail 2-1 (Train 16-13, Dust2 14-16, Mirage 16-10).

The second quarter-final started on Train with Daniel "⁠mertz⁠" Mertz's quad-kill securing the pistol round and a 4-0 lead for North on the defence. The next four rounds were split between the two teams, but AGO soon found themselves up against the ropes once mertz stepped up with a triple and a 1v2 clutch, which led to a six-round streak and a 12-3 half in the end.

A chaotic second pistol round came to a close with Michał "⁠snatchie⁠" Rudzki clutching a 1v1 duel to kick off the comeback. North were unable to string rounds together on the lower bombsite, but they still crept towards victory with two out of four executes towards the B bombsite converted into a 14-9 lead.

The Polish team took advantage of the strain on North's bank, as after losing the next round, the Danes opted for a measly forcebuy, which came to no fruition. AGO closed the gap to just one round when Damian "⁠Furlan⁠" Kislowski defused the bomb in a smoke after a back-and-forth retake on B, but it wasn't enough. mertz's triple in the following round sent Tomasz "⁠phr⁠" Wójcik & co. on a low buy in the last round and North came out victorious at 16-13.

Dust2, the Danes' pick, saw the two teams trade rounds at the beginning until it was 2-2. The Polish side stopped the exchange by surviving North's forcebuy and an antieco, leading 4-2 on the T side, but that turned out to be all they could do in the first half.

Defending each bombsite with relative ease, Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen's squad powered to an 11-4 scoreline on the defense and topped it off with their second pistol round win, spelling trouble for AGO. Once Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup clutched a 1v3 in an anti-eco for 14-4, all hope of the Poles' comeback seemed lost, but that wasn't the case whatsoever.

AGO began putting up a dominant defense of their own, as North couldn't even reach either of the bombsites to put down the bomb. With Dominik "⁠GruBy⁠" Swiderski at the helm, the Poles mounted an incredible comeback against all odds, stringing 12 rounds together to force the devastated Danes to the deciding map, Mirage.

There, AGO grabbed a 2-0 lead as CT but quickly found themselves on the back foot after the first three gunrounds went North's way, in large part thanks to aizy's 1v2 clutch. Furlan's side lowered the deficit to one and kept the match close after most of the action took place on the A site, but North strung together three rounds towards the end of the half to switch over at 9-6.

Securing the second pistol round and the first gunround, AGO took a one-round lead, but it was short-lived, as North destroyed the Poles with just pistols in their hands and the tide turned. With six rounds in a row, MSL & co. secured their place in the semi-finals at 16-10, 2-1.