BIG clinch playoff berth, G2 knock out Astralis

After overcoming MIBR in two maps, BIG will face off against FURIA to determine who advances directly to the semi-final.

The final set of matches on day 2 of IEM Dallas saw BIG best MIBR in Group B's upper bracket semi-final, defeating the Brazilian side 2-0, managing a comeback win on Mirage 22-18, and a convincing Nuke victory, 16-4. The German side will take on FURIA on Wednesday in the upper bracket final to determine which of the two teams will obtain a direct semi-final berth in the playoffs, and which will start their run in the quarter-final.

On the other hand, G2 have kept themselves alive in Dallas after denying Astralis the reverse-sweep in their group's lower bracket semi-final series, ultimately sending Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's squad packing after three maps. The win sets up a decisive lower bracket final against Vitality for the third and final playoff spot on offer in Group A.

MIBR started Mirage with a successful pistol round and eventually a 3-0 advantage behind Raphael "⁠exit⁠" Lacerda's five kills in the first three rounds. Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz's men brought themselves back into the game by finding the bomb site in the next four rounds, giving the Germans the lead over MIBR, but that proved to be a small glimmer of hope for BIG, who faltered against the Brazilians' defense for the most of the first half and ended up trailing 5-10 at the break.

BIG opened the second half by taking the first two rounds, which also saw back-to-back triple kills from the in-game leader himself, tabseN. As soon as MIBR got their rifles, the Brazilians wasted no time, overpowering BIG's defense, winning five out of the next six rounds to put them on map point, with a 15-8 lead.

Unrelenting, BIG fought back and impressively managed to force overtime, coming back from a seven-round deficit spearheaded by an inspired AWPing performance from Florian "⁠syrsoN⁠" Rische. Two overtimes later, BIG were able to round out the comeback against MIBR and take Mirage 22-18 off the back of tabseN and syrsoN's 34 and 30 kills, respectively.

BIG came out of the gates swinging on Nuke, finding themselves at an 8-1 lead behind Karim "⁠Krimbo⁠" Moussa, Josef "⁠faveN⁠" Baumann, and tabseN's standout fragging output as the Germans rode the momentum of their comeback win on Mirage. MIBR scored, which BIG eventually matched as the scoreline read 11-4 in the Germans' favor after 15 rounds. From there on, BIG played a flawless T side and eventually capped off a dominant Nuke performance 16-4, ensuring their spot in the playoffs and setting up a spot decider against FURIA.

Astralis kicked things off on their map pick of Nuke with a swift 3-0 lead, taking pistol and making good use of their weapon advantage over their opponents. G2 quickly bounced back from their early deficit by shutting down Astralis' site advances and forcing them into eco rounds, garnering a 5-3 lead of their own.

A successful bomb plant followed by gla1ve's triple-kill in the next round allowed the Danes to catch up and bring things level again at five apiece. From that point on, however, it was all G2 for the remainder of the half as they systematically dispatched of Astralis' T side efforts, highlighted by electrifying AWPing by Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov, en route to a 10-5 lead at halftime.

Similar to how their Danish rivals opened the game in the first, G2 converted the pistol round and their next two as the attackers, bringing themselves up to a 13-5 lead over Astralis. Despite it being their map pick, the Danes completely collapsed and had no answer for G2's dominance as they gave up 11 consecutive rounds and Nuke in a one-sided affair.

Dust2 began with Astralis securing a 4-0 lead right off the bat, before a 1vs2 clutch from m0NESY to deny the retake notched G2's first round on the board. The Danes continued to shut down G2's A site advances and garnered a convincing 7-1 lead as the mixed European squad's struggles continued on their own map pick.

A triumphant ninth round for G2 caused gla1ve's men to opt for a half-eco in the tenth, which the Danes converted by playing aggressive on A long with utility and fending off a potential m0NESY clutch to secure an 8-2 advantage. G2 started stringing together rounds to close the gap to Astralis, as they entered the switch trailing the Danish side 6-9.

Coming out of the break, Astralis took the first two rounds, before G2 answered back with the next three for themselves. In the 21st, it looked all but written in the stars for Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen's squad to continue their streak, however Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke's quad-kill was the firepower the Danes needed to break into the bomb site at the last moment and steal the round away from their opponents. G2's defenses were not enough to keep Astralis at bay, who then took the last four rounds of the map to claim victory on Dust2 and force a decider on Vertigo.

G2 drew first blood on Vertigo and claimed a 3-0 lead to open the deciding map. Astralis then erased their opponents' lead by taking seven out of the next eight rounds for themselves, behind Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer's individual rifling ability and highlighted by a Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth ace in the ninth round. G2 and Astralis proceeded to exchange the last four rounds of the first half as Aleksib's crew trailed by three ahead of the side swap.

After falling behind in the first half, G2 scored nine unanswered rounds on the CT side coming out of halftime with Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug leading the way in terms of kills and Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač experiencing a second half resurgence. Astralis managed to take a round back in the 25th, however it would merely be a consolation as JACKZ would deliver the final blow in the 26th round, eliminating Astralis from IEM Dallas.