Aurora earn Roobet Cup semi-final spot over BIG

The Russian side triumphed in what was a very scrappy series.

Aurora have secured a Roobet Cup 2023 semi-final berth thanks to a 2-0 victory over BIG, taking victories on Ancient (16-14) and Nuke (13-10).

BIG were favorites coming into the match but seemed out of sorts throughout the series, starting poorly on both maps and struggling on their offensive halves. It was a scrappy series in general, Aurora made some mistakes and had struggles of their own, but the superior firepower of the Russian side was enough to win out the series.

A semi-final matchup on November 1 is up next for Aurora, with the Russian side awaiting the winners of the quarter-final match between Monte and Movistar Riders.

Date	Matches
Roobet Cup 2023
30/10/2023	Monte 15:00 Movistar Riders	Match

Ancient kicked off proceedings, the map choice of BIG, and the Germans were made to rue their decision. Aurora started on the CT side and put up a powerful defensive half by taking advantage of an uncharacteristically bereft BIG attack, as the Germans were simply lacking in any potent offensive ideas. This allowed the Russians to take a hefty 9-3 lead into the second period.

Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz stepped up with a 4k on his team’s defensive pistol round to breathe life into the squad, and Aurora took too many liberties with their economy early in the half, forcing to the point that they let BIG back into the game. Still, BIG seemed out of sorts and uncoordinated in many of the gun rounds, and Aurora got themselves to overtime and eventually forced a narrow 16-14 win over the line.

Over on Nuke it was a similar story early doors, with BIG starting poorly, this time on the defensive half, before working their way back into the game. Aurora took a 5-0 lead before the Germans got on the board, but once BIG found their footing they secured a tied half, with tabseN and David "⁠prosus⁠" Hesse in particular putting in work.

Aurora struggled early on the favored defensive half, slipping to 7-10 deficit with their only round win coming via a half-buy. Another half-buy win got them to 8-10 and this seemed to resurrect Aleksandr "⁠KENSI⁠" Gurkin and Evgeny "⁠Norwi⁠" Ermolin as the duo began to carry their team, and once again BIG ran out of ideas on offense. The German side had nothing left to offer, and Aurora ran out 13-10 winners.