Cloud9 among the first arrivals to ELEAGUE Premier 2017 semi finals
It was not long before we gave a look at the ELEAGUE Premier 2017 and kind of a preview of the playoffs stage, but it is going fast and the results are announced already.
In the first quarter-final of ELEAGUE Premier playoffs, Cloud9 defeated G2 2-0 (Cobblestone 16-12, Inferno 16-8) on their way to the semis.
Cobblestone kicked off the first quarter-final of ELEAGUE Premier, with G2 grabbing the better start after winning the second-round forcebuy for a 3-1 lead as Terrorists. Jake “Stewie2K” Yip’s two triples, as well as Tyler “Skadoodle”Latham’s 1v1 clutch, then tilted the scales in Cloud9’s favor, but that didn’t last long.
G2 slowly took over the half with a variety of B attacks, which awarded them four out of the next five rounds, while the last two were split evenly between the teams, with the Frenchmen leading 9-6 following a 1v2 from Richard “shox” Papillon.
Will “RUSH” Wierzba stepped up to the plate with three kills in the second pistol round, equalizing the score at nine apiece, but G2 were the ones to take over in the first gunrounds, much thanks to Kenny “kennyS” Schrub’s ace.
Inferno saw Cloud9 getting up to a 3-0 lead early on the offense, but their attacks towards A in the first gunround came to no fruition, as G2 strung together five rounds. Adjusted A executes, with Tarik “tarik” Celik sneaking into pit through a wall of smoke twice in a row, helped Cloud9 regain their lead at 7-5 and eventually switch over to the CT side at 8-7.
The American side won the fourth pistol round in a row and proceeded to lose the next anti-forcebuy yet again, but they opted for a force of their own in the third round to retake control of the economy. On the back foot, G2 were unable to convert a few promising situations and found themselves in a poor economic situation following a questionable force at 12-8. Cloud9 took no time to close things out, advancing to the semi-finals at 16-8, 2-0.
Astralis bested fnatic 2-0 in the second quarter-final at ELEAGUE Premier (Train 16-5, Overpass 16-12) to advance to the semi-finals.
The series began on fnatic’s pick of Train, one of the better maps for both teams. The Swedes pulled off a successful fake, but Astralis completed the retake and took the pistol round. fnatic sported a majority Galil buy on round 3, but were unable to put themselves on the board after a nice Popdog hold by Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen.
In the fourth round, Maikil “Golden” Selim smartly won the 1v1 against Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth to win his team’s force-buy, but fnatic were unable to convert their round and were economically reset.
Astralis continued their CT side domination, racking up eight rounds off of great play from dupreeh, until Golden pulled off a superb 4K to take over the B bombsite and give fnatic their second round. The last few rounds were back and forth, but ultimately the Danes closed out the half with a 12-3 lead.
The second half started with a clean retake by fnatic on the inner site. They then won their first consecutive round as well on the anti-force buy, but were unable to win the first gun round, falling to a fast play by the Astralis guys. fnatic was unable to hold either site, and Astralis just picked apart Golden’s team to take the first map 16-5.
Astralis’s pick, Overpass, began with another fnatic retake onto the B site, which earned them their first round. Following the pattern of the last map, Astralis won the following round off of some good picks by dupreeh, and tried to set up their economy for the half, but some amazing Deagle kills from Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson in the next round swung the momentum back in fnatic’s favor.
After finally forcing Astralis onto an eco, Golden’s men strung together multiple rounds and reduced their round deficit to only two rounds. On the full buy in the 23rd round, fnatic fairly easily took the B site, putting Astralis in a tough situation and furthering their comeback effort. Lukas “gla1ve” Rossandercalled for a force buy the next round, and after some masterful picks from device, the Danes put themselves back into the driver’s seat. After a few back and forth rounds, Astralis finally pulled away and locked down the map, 16-12.
