SAW eliminate Cloud9 from Showdown

Cloud9 will not appear at the BLAST Spring Final.

SAW have continued their good form and eliminated Cloud9 from the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown in a two-map affair (Nuke 16-13, Overpass 13-8). The Portuguese side is now on a seven-match win streak that dates all the way back to their 0-2 pool match at the RMR and has now secured their second upset of the tournament after eliminating Liquid in the opening round.

Ricardo "⁠roman⁠" Oliveira spoke to James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks after the match and admitted the veto surprised him and his team. "They had the game in their hands as well, we were surprised they picked Overpass because we expected Anubis. It's a bit strange, we lost it 1-13 last time we played. I don't get it, but I'm happy about it."

SAW now move to the qualification match, where they will face off against the winner of OG vs. HEROIC for a spot at London's BLAST Spring Final. "We came to this tournament to prepare for the Major, so any result is a win for us, but we're aiming for a win," roman said about their upcoming clash.

For Cloud9, this is another lackluster performance by their AWPer-less roster. While they showed improved form at the RMR, where Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov took over as primary sniper, Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy and Abay "⁠HObbit⁠" Khassenov joined their captain in the role at the Showdown. The Russian squad now has nine days to prepare for the Major, where they will start in the Opening Stage.

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The series started on Nuke, where Cloud9 recovered from losing the pistol round and ended the half at 6-6. Sergey "⁠Ax1Le⁠" Rykhtorov came alive in the second half and won two crucial clutches to help his team go 12-9 up, but they couldn't close it out in regulation and dropped the map 13-16. SAW showed incredible resilience to fight back from behind and made the most of João "⁠story⁠" Vieira having the better of HObbit in the head-to-head AWP duel, as the Portuguese sniper finished the map with 25 kills.

SAW made it three out of three pistols in the series at the start of Overpass, which gave them the momentum to secure a comfortable 8-4 CT half. With the CT-sided nature of the map, the match was far from done, and Cloud9 were able to tie up the scores at 8-8 and put themselves in the driver's seat. That was the exact opposite of what happened, though, as SAW won five gun rounds in a row by outmaneuvering the Cloud9 CT side on several occasions, and walked into an empty A bombsite in the final round of the match to close out a 13-8 victory.