MIBR outlast NRG to advance to playoffs, Renegades knock out BIG

After a nail-biting finish, MIBR defeated NRG (Overpass 16-7, Inferno 8-16, Mirage 19-16) to advance to the playoffs, while Renegades knocked out BIG with a 2-1 win (Cache 16-5, Overpass 14-16, Train 16-7).

NRG chose Overpass to kick off the first Group B upper bracket semi-final, but it was the Brazilian-American side who got off to a great start on the CT side, with Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo and Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga putting up some key multi-kills on the A bombsite en route to an 11-1 lead.

Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele's men secured the remaining three rounds on the back of heroics from Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov and Ethan "⁠Ethan⁠" Arnold, the latter of whom clutched a 1v1 in the last round of the half, and added a pistol round on top of it to close the gap to 6-11. However, that was when their run stopped, as MIBR put their stamp on the gunrounds by outrotated their opponents to find their way to the last five rounds over the next six, securing the opening map at 16-7.

Inferno followed and FalleN's team once again got off to the better start on the T side, leading 6-2 before NRG put their foot down. With Ethan leading the way, the underdogs climbed back into the half, eventually scoring an 8-7 lead before switching over to the offense. There, NRG were in control from start to finish, as MIBR could only win one round, courtesy of fer's quad-kill, while Ethan & co. ran away with the 16-8 win.

Mirage saw NRG control mid successfully early on as CT to go up 6-2 despite losing the pistol round and the subsequent round, with Ethan putting up an ace along the way. MIBR continued to struggle in the half after getting reset over the next couple of rounds, and they could only win two more, in one of which Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik denied his opponents the defuse in a 1v3 situation.

Down 5-10, the Brazilian-American side had lots to make up for and they did just that with a strong side on their own defense, as Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David's plays in the first couple of gunrounds helped MIBR take the lead at 12-11. NRG finally broke through the defense with clutches from Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte (1v1), CeRq (1v3), and Ethan (1v2) in three rounds in a row, with which they secured match point.

However, MIBR perservered to take the match to overtime, where they only lost the first round before going on a four-round streak to finish off the series at 19-16, 2-1.

In the first lower bracket semi-final of Group A, Renegades and BIG went back and forth early on on Cache, but the former team quickly picked up momentum on the CT side, with Fatih "⁠gob b⁠" Dayik & co. having trouble entering either bombsite.

The Australians grabbed 11 rounds on the defense, and when they also won the second pistol round, it was only a matter of time before they closed things out. That they did after only conceding one round, clinching their map pick at 16-5.

On Overpass, BIG controlled the first portion of the first half as Terrorists, responding to a pistol round win in the gunrounds to rack up a 7-3 lead. Renegades responded with five rounds in a row with Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad, Sean "⁠Gratisfaction⁠" Kaiwai, and Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage all putting in big multi-kills to finish the half with a one-round lead.

BIG replied with the second pistol round win to retake the lead, but it didn't last long as Renegades ran away with five in a row once more for a 13-10 advantage. A few massive plays by Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz propelled the German squad back into contention and they fended off elimination at 16-14, forcing the deciding map.

That was Train, where the two sides went toe-to-toe as the scoreline was 5-5 before Renegades ran away with four out of the remaining five rounds on the offense to secure a 9-6 half. As CT, they continued on that path, letting go of only one round to clinch Train 16-7 and the series 2-1 to send BIG out of the tournament.