Liquid go undefeated; FaZe, NRG, Cloud9 through to playoffs

Liquid have completed their undefeated run in the group stage with a 16-11 win on Vertigo over Renegades, while Cloud9 held NRG to a tie on Nuke and FaZe outlasted MIBR 16-14 on Inferno.

In the only match of the last round that had a place in the playoffs on the line for both sides, Cloud9 faced off against NRG on Nuke.

Although the new project began the map down 3-6 despite winning the pistol round, they managed to put together a successful offense, after all, clinching the last six for a comfortable 9-6 half before switching over to the Counter-Terrorists.

In the second half, the two teams went back-and-forth early on until the forcebuy shenanigans saw NRG come out on top. Soon, the grudge match was even at 11-11 and the two rivals continued to go blow for blow.

NRG were first to reach match point at 15-13, which was enough to clinch a spot in the semi-finals, but Cloud9 held them to a tie, in the end.

FaZe had already secured a spot in the playoffs ahead of the fifth round thanks to a top-four finish in any scenario, but MIBR still had all to play for as they needed a victory to advance to the playoffs.

The Brazilians had a hard time on the offensive side on Inferno, only winning two of the first 10 rounds, both of which on the back of individual plays from Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo, who clutched a 1v3 and picked up a second triple-kill later on. However, they managed to break FaZe's economy in the 11th round and locked down the rest of the half for seven rounds in total, in the end.

MIBR continued that run at the beginning of the second half with five in a row, but despite racking up a significant economic advantage, they weren't able to keep the lead for long. FaZe came back to even ground and the two teams fought tooth and nail until the end, when the European side clinched a close 16-14 victory to eliminate the Brazilians.

Similarly, Liquid had the first place in the group secured ahead of their fifth-round match with Renegades in the only Vertigo encounter of the tournament thus far.

The North American side took control of the first half early on as they put together a great offense with an 8-2 lead, but much like MIBR, Renegades stepped up late in the half to bring home four out of the last five rounds.

The second half looked comfortable from the tournament favorites, who reached match point only conceding two more rounds and took a few more to close things out, completing their undefeated group stage run at 16-11.

The final standings of the round-robin group stage are:

That means the semi-final matchups look as follows:

Liquid vs. Cloud9
FaZe vs. NRG