Movistar Riders knock Sinners out of contention in Hungary

The Spaniards live to play another day in Budapest after taking out Adam "⁠NEOFRAG⁠" Zouhar and company.

Movistar Riders came out on top in a do-or-die series against SINNERS, winning the V4 Future Sports Festival Group B elimination match 2-0 to secure a spot in the playoffs, where they will play Group A's runner up.

The Spaniards, who knocked SINNERS out of IEM Fall the first time the two teams met on LAN with a best-of-one victory followed by a tie-breaker win, have thus once again out-perform a team that has traveled a similar path by putting the best players in their country together to try and break out among the top teams in the world.

This time around Movistar Riders started off hot, as Alejandro "⁠mopoz⁠" Fernández-Quejo Cano and company put their foot on the gas since the very beginning by winning SINNERS’ map pick convincingly. It then looked like Inferno was going to be another one-sided affair for Galder "⁠bladE⁠" Barcena's men, but the series got tense as the Spanish squad nearly choked a big lead on the CT side before claiming victory in extremis.

SINNERS and Movistar Riders played the first map of the series on Vertigo, a strong map for both of the teams and one the two played each other on at IEM Fall, where the Spaniards came out ahead in a 30-round barn burner.

This time around was different, however, as the squad led by Alejandro "⁠alex⁠" Masanet put on a dominating performance on the CT side with the in-game leader himself putting up the highest numbers on the server, ending his team’s 16-3 victory with a 1.99 rating and 122.4 ADR.

On their map pick, Movistar Riders kept the pressure on from the very beginning winning round after round to a 5-0 lead as their Czech rivals appeared dejected on the broadcast cameras between rounds. Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný and company then got on the board, but were unable to turn things around as they trailed 4-11 at the half.

SINNERS then woke up on the attack despite losing the pistol round, starting to slowly mount a comeback by winning crucial gun rounds and keeping Movistar Riders’ economy in dire straits, but the Spaniards were finally able to break through off the back of a triple by Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García to hit match point, enough to close the match out in the final round of regulation to end the comeback attempt and bag the series.