Aurora stomp ODDIK for Astana playoffs

The Turkish team's shaky group stage comes to a successful conclusion after a dominant win over one of the tournament's surprises.

Aurora have secured a spot in the PGL Astana quarter-finals following a swift 2-0 win over ODDIK, eliminating the Brazilian team from the tournament.

The victory brings an end to the Turkish side's shaky group stage. In their first appearance since PGL Bucharest in mid-April, Aurora looked rusty to start with a narrow loss to BIG, which was followed by two close wins against HOTU and Ninjas in Pyjamas.

They then fell short in their first attempt at qualification for the playoffs in a close two-mapper against Natus Vincere, before they made their second count against ODDIK.

ODDIK's surprise run ends on a whimper

The Brazilian affair could not have been more convincing. Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş and company controlled both Terrorist side starts on Dust2 and Anubis to come away with a dominant victory.

The disappointing result brought an end to an otherwise promising campaign from ODDIK, who came into the tournament as one of the two heaviest underdogs and came out with two wins in the Swiss group.

After a competitive first match against Astralis, the Brazilians around Adriano "⁠WOOD7⁠" Cerato took G2 and paiN by surprise, before they ran out of steam in their two chances at playoffs qualification against FURIA and Aurora, in which they only won an average of six rounds per map.

MAJ3R provides insight into month-long break

Following the match, Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli appeared on the PGL broadcast's analyst desk to provide some insight into why Aurora might be looking shaky despite having over a month to update their playbook since their last appearance in Bucharest.

"We wanted to do a bootcamp, but we could not because there was an earthquake in Istanbul, which changed our plans a lot," the captain said. "Then we had a visa problem for the Major and some players went to Indonesia for five or six days just before this tournament."

"We came here not in the best shape. It's not the [only] reason we're playing badly, I think, but it's adding some things."