MOUZ, OG move to 2-1 pool; K23 and Falcons with backs against the wall

With the 1-1 pool coming to an end, the tournament now moves into best-of-three games.

OG and MOUZ secured victories on the third day of play and are now just one BO3 win away from progressing to the IEM Rio Major. Losses by Falcons and K23 mean they now join Monte and Sangal in the 1-2 pool, with the teams set to fight for their lives starting on Saturday.

OG met Falcons on Mirage, and it was the European combine that got the better start, equalizing the scores after losing the pistol to race to a 9-4 lead. A 1vs2 clutch by Ali "⁠hAdji⁠" Haïnouss got Falcons within three rounds of their opponents as they moved onto the CT side.

Maciej "⁠F1KU⁠" Miklas's quad-kill in the pistol round put OG in the driver's seat to close out the game, but it wasn't smooth sailing for Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković and company. Falcons put together a comeback attempt to tie up the scores at 12-12, as the fate of the game hung in the balance. Adam "⁠NEOFRAG⁠" Zouhar found a huge triple-kill to put his team back into the lead, with OG not looking back after that to win 16-12 and put themselves within touching distance of the Major.

MOUZ started Ancient with a dominant CT side against K23, with the CIS squad unable to find openings throughout their offense, getting just three plants in the entire half. Bogdan "⁠xsepower⁠" Chernikov got one of the rare Terrorist rounds for his team with an impressive 1vs3 clutch but was otherwise unable to find much success, as his team moved into the interval with a 2-13 deficit.

K23 were able to mount a comeback after putting together an eight-round streak on their CT side to get into double digits, but eventually ran out of steam. MOUZ ended up closing the game with the help of an A attack that finally got them over the line, winning 16-10.