B8 dominate Wildcard in reverse-sweep to reach Stage 2

The Ukrainian squad delivered in their Major debut to reach the top-24.

B8 are through to Stage 2 of the BLAST.tv Austin Major after beating Wildcard in the 2-0 pool.

The Ukrainian side couldn't convert upon a match point on Train and fumbled the map in overtime (14-16), but bounced back with aplomb on Dust2 (13-6) thanks to a fantastic individual performance from Daniil "⁠headtr1ck⁠" Valitov before crushing Wildcard on Inferno (13-2).

It is the first top-24 appearance at a Major for B8 after they repeatedly fell just short of making it through the RMRs, including a 2-3 record at the Shanghai Major Europe RMR where the team were favorites to advance.

This time, they lived up to their status and advanced 3-0 from Stage 1 alongside HEROIC, leaving Wildcard reeling in the 2-1 pool with two more chances to qualify.

Three multi-kills by Josh "⁠JBa⁠" Barutt saw Wildcard come out swinging on Train, and their early stage dominance carried on after Tim "⁠susp⁠" Ångström tallied his second ace of the tournament by converting a 1v2 clutch.

B8 struggled to find a solution against some excellent offensive calling by Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz for much of the half, barely scrounging together a fifth round at the break, but took the lead in the second after winning the pistol and conversion.

That hard work nearly went to waste after Aran "⁠Sonic⁠" Groesbeek and Love "⁠phzy⁠" Smidebrant combined to recover a 3v5 thanks to a B stack and Wildcard jumped ahead 11-8, but Andrii "⁠npl⁠" Kukharskyi led by example and tallied three multis to set his side on map point. Wildcard refused to be put to bed, however, with JBa lurking Ivy for a triple to force overtime where his team edged out victory, 16-14.

There was little to write home about for Wildcard after that.

A 2.12-rated showing from headtr1ck was the catalyst in an utterly dominant Dust2 from B8, who utterly outclassed Wildcard's defensive setups with great grenade use and teamplay.

Wildcard scrounged together a few rounds at the end of the half, but were quickly put to bed after the swap as the Ukrainian sniper continued tearing his opposition apart.

Inferno unfolded much the same, although there it was Alexey "⁠alex666⁠" Yarmoshchuk who single-handedly shut down Banana round after round. Wildcard's attempts to go A were thwarted by excellent anchoring from Dmytro "⁠esenthial⁠" Tsvir as B8 raced to a 10-2 lead at the break, and again wasted no time in closing out in the second half.