Giants upset Tempo Storm, Winstrike defeat Movistar Riders at Moche XL

In the round-of-six matches at Moche XL Esports, Winstrike advanced with a 2-0 victory over Movistar Riders while Tempo Storm was eliminated from the tournament by Giants, 2-1.

Moche XL Esports kicked off in Portugal today with the round-of-six playoff matches, where two European sides met two Iberian teams for places in the semi-finals tomorrow.

The first match saw Winstrike, formerly known as Quantum Bellator Fire, take on Movistar Riders. The Russian team picked Train to start the series off, but it was the Spanish team that was off to the better start. The first three rounds came down to defuses, but Movistar Riders still went on to grab a 5-0 lead at the beginning of the match.

Winstrike managed to recover mid-half, grabbing six T-rounds in a short span, and tied the score at 6-6. No team was able to run away with the lead until Winstrike won the second buy round on their CT side (10-10) which gave them the economic edge and saw them close Train 16-11.

Nuke followed, Movistar Riders' started on the Terrorist side and had a good half, securing five rounds despite not winning the pistol. However, the CT side was a struggle, as Alejandro "⁠mopoz⁠" Fernández-Quejo Cano and co. couldn't lock down the sites against the Russian side. With Nikita "⁠waterfaLLZ⁠" Matveyev leading the charge, Winstrike shortly closed out the map 16-6.

Giants took on Tempo Storm on Overpass to start things off, with the local team, who qualified for the event by winning Master League Portugal earlier in the day, starting as Terrorists. After picking up the pistol round, Giants went on to grab a clean 5-0 lead, converting on the anti-ecos and securing the first gun round. Tempo Storm then replied, and rounds started getting traded back-and-forth. Ricardo "⁠fox⁠" Pacheco's team was close to equalizing the score (6-5), but Ricardo "⁠roman⁠" Oliveira's CZ-75 double gave his side the round and allowed them to finish the half 10-5 up. After the switch, Tempo Storm narrowed the gap by winning the pistol, but ultimately couldn't contest Giants with rifles and dropped the map 16-9.

On Mirage, the story was quite different, as Tempo Storm took the first three rounds on the T side and then, after losing one, promptly struck back to reset the Spanish-Portuguese side. Kevin "⁠HS⁠" Tarn and co. were dictating the pace from the offensive side and continued picking up round after round, tieing seven together before Giants could reply with their second (10-2). The European mixture didn't allow the local team to gain any momentum, though, and continued to roll on to 16-2 victory on their map pick.

Train was played as the decider, with Giants starting on the defensive side and grabbing a 5-0 lead off the bat. In a round where they had just pistols, Tempo Storm managed to answer back, but Giants consolidated swiftly and continued to pick up CT rounds, finding themselves 7-1 up shortly. Entries from HS and Paweł "⁠innocent⁠" Mocek gave Tempo Storm their second, but they would once again fail to follow up on it and Giants ran away with the half, finishing it 13-2 up. With the second pistol round going their way as well (15-2), it was just a matter of time before Giants closed out the map and completed the upset over Tempo Storm, 16-7.

With these results, the following matchups will take place tomorrow, in the semi-final of Moche XL Esports: