BLAST Pro Series Istanbul 2018XANTARES paves the way for Space Soldiers' victory over NiP; MIBR defeat Cloud9 in Istanbul
After a dominant first half, Space Soldiers managed to close out the game against NiP on Mirage 16-13, while MIBR looked comfortable throughout the game against Cloud9 and took a 16-9 victory.
With a double entry from Ismailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş, Space Soldiers started Mirage against Ninjas in Pyjamas on the right foot, and they added more to their tally when the same player picked up a quad kill in the first rifle round, helping Ahmet "paz" Karahoca clutch out the 2v2 in the end.
Space Soldiers' star player XANTARES was on fire in the game, boasting 21 kills as his team grabbed a 10-0 lead. Then Ninjas in Pyjamas got the bomb down on A, splitting the site from ramp and connector, and just barely held off XANTARES' retake attempt to get on the board. Off the back of that, Ninjas in Pyjamas were able to get three before the end of the half, but still had a momentous task ahead of them on the defensive side of the map if they wanted to take the win.
They did the first step, winning the pistol and the subsequent anti-eco, and with Dennis "dennis" Edman waking up, they won four out of the first six CT rounds (14-6). Ninjas in Pyjamas then got on host streak, locking down the approaches to the sites, but just as they got close to making the full comeback and forcing overtime, Space Soldiers broke through the defenses, got the bomb down on A to win the game, 16-13.
 Space Soldiers |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36 - 16 | +20 | 126.5 | 82.8% | 1.98 | |
| 17 - 18 | -1 | 73.0 | 69.0% | 1.05 | |
| 19 - 18 | +1 | 68.6 | 75.9% | 0.97 | |
| 17 - 18 | -1 | 56.1 | 65.5% | 0.92 | |
| 13 - 20 | -7 | 44.1 | 58.6% | 0.61 |
 Ninjas in Pyjamas |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 - 20 | +1 | 73.3 | 65.5% | 1.12 | |
| 19 - 21 | -2 | 87.1 | 75.9% | 1.07 | |
| 21 - 24 | -3 | 80.7 | 58.6% | 0.97 | |
| 17 - 17 | 0 | 53.4 | 58.6% | 0.86 | |
| 12 - 20 | -8 | 61.6 | 72.4% | 0.83 |
In the MIBR - Cloud9 game, Jake "Stewie2K" Yip started off the action with two headshots, defending the A site, but his team's advantage was quickly canceled out by Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham's triple, which saw Cloud9 claim the early lead. MIBR struck back with a B site retake and started asserting their dominance in the gun rounds.
The Brazilian-American team strung together ten rounds straight, and just when Cloud9 managed to get one of their own, MIBR pushed mid and took down their opponents before they could approach a site, finishing the half 11-4. Due to a bad bomb plant, Cloud9 were able to win the pistol round and with that, try to come back on the CT side of Dust2. Fernando "fer" Alvarenga's triple kill in the first rifle round gave MIBR their first on the T-side early, but the American-Swedish side bounced back and brought the deficit down to just four rounds, 12-8.
That is when Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo's side edged out a close round and brought the control of the game back into their hands. To close out the game, MIBR exploded out on the B site, traded positively with Stewie2K and Marcelo "coldzera" David grabbing a kill each, and held the afterplant to win the game 16-9
 MIBR |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 - 13 | +14 | 102.7 | 76.0% | 1.61 | |
| 22 - 10 | +12 | 87.4 | 84.0% | 1.50 | |
| 17 - 15 | +2 | 83.9 | 80.0% | 1.24 | |
| 18 - 15 | +3 | 82.6 | 72.0% | 1.20 | |
| 16 - 13 | +3 | 61.6 | 76.0% | 1.06 |
 Cloud9 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 - 19 | 0 | 78.7 | 44.0% | 0.94 | |
| 15 - 20 | -5 | 66.6 | 56.0% | 0.84 | |
| 13 - 18 | -5 | 61.1 | 52.0% | 0.76 | |
| 11 - 22 | -11 | 56.4 | 48.0% | 0.55 | |
| 7 - 21 | -14 | 38.7 | 48.0% | 0.52 |
The group stage standing after the first round of matches is available below:
Astralis
Virtus.pro
Janko 'YNk' Paunović
Faruk 'pita' Pita
Professional_HLTV_User
| 
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fjallraven
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N0Love
HetIsPatat
| 
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Astranesia
GODcenz0r
| 
Mrkruvi
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zj2
| 
rrElPistolo
lil_ghost
| 
ALLAHTARES
| 
tarikasci
| 
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blizaardy
shox_1_major_s1mple_0_major
NiP_1_major_FaZe_0_major
hltvworstsiteever
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| 
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mryeet
| 
DrDeathDefying
| 
db42
(._.)
0kkk33333
Kaasplankje
how_much
P1MPLE_NEVER_WON_A_MAJOR_LUL
| 
Jack Russell
| 
| 
| 
Jaamby
| 
d0naldtrump
