Sprout, Virtus.pro through to DreamHack Atlanta semi-finals

17-11-2019 03:30

Sprout and Virtus.pro are the last two teams through to the semi-finals at DreamHack Open Atlanta after exacting revenge on Illuminar and INTZ, respectively.

Day two of the North American event began with the two local representatives, Triumph and Chaos, being sent packing in the elimination stage following 0-2 defeats to Sprout and Virtus.pro, respectively, with Nils "⁠k1to⁠" Gruhne and Michał "⁠MICHU⁠" Müller putting up impressive displays.

The German team went on to face Illuminar in Group A's decider in a rematch of their opening game, which the Polish side had won 16-11. At first, it looked like the series would follow the same pattern as Illuminar took the lead with a surprisingly close overtime victory on Nuke after letting a 10-2 lead slip. However, Sprout responded immediately on Train before completing the reverse sweep on Mirage. k1to proved essential once again on the final map to take his tournament rating to 1.31, the joint-third highest overall.

MICHU is sitting on a 1.40 tournament rating in Atlanta

Virtus.pro's path to the semi-finals was more straightforward as they required just two maps to beat INTZ, but they got off on the wrong foot in the series and found themselves down 1-6 on Train. By the end of the half, however, the Polish team were trailing their opponents by just three rounds, and they assembled a very tight defense after the break to lock down the map in convincing fashion.

Dust2, the Brazilians' map pick, was largely dominated by Virtus.pro, who went into the break up by three rounds. INTZ still attempted a response in the second half but to no avail, as the Poles took control of proceedings with guns in hand and won seven rounds straight to complete their revenge mission against Gustavo "⁠yel⁠" Knittel's troops for Friday's loss. MICHU once again led his team's efforts and he is now sitting at the top of the tournament's rating charts (1.40), together with HEROIC's Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer ahead of Sunday's clash between the two teams.

The schedule for the final day of DreamHack Atlanta is the following: