IEM Sydney 2018 semi finals will be a fight between CS:GO best teams
IEM Sydney 2018 has become the venue for the stars and a place to prove yourself and win. it may not have meant to be a struggle for the biggest CS:GO teams, but that’s fate held for it.
The teams in the tournament were a mixture of famous and professional teams, and the other regular did not get their share of fame and success, but the first match between the giant SK ended with a surprise loss after the last rounds additional 19-16.
The American Cloud9 did not shock his fans in this way but beat his opponent Grayhound thanks to full control of the atmosphere of the battle to end in favor of the result of 16-6.
FaZe have secured their spot in the IEM Sydney semi-finals after besting fnatic 2-0 (Cache 16-8, Mirage 16-14).
Starting as Terrorists on the opening map, Cache, FaZe got off on the right foot with a pistol round going their way. The first two gunrounds saw the Swedes defend the A bombsite without much trouble, but the European side replied with a miraculous round victory on B with just one P250 and four Glocks.
After two more successful B attacks, the momentum swung back in favor of FaZe, who were leading 8-2 and were looking to establish a dominant half. However, fnatic put their foot down and secured four out of the remaining five rounds, with Jesper “JW” Wecksell putting up two key doubles along the way.
In the following pistol round, the Swedes opted for a connector split to B, where Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács was waiting with open arms and clinched three kills to help his team secure an 11-6 lead. Richard “Xizt” Landström’s triple on A pushed the score to 14-6, at which point fnatic switched up the pace and added two rounds to their score. It was all for naught, though, as another triple from the Slovakian sniper gave FaZe match point, which they quickly turned into a victory on map one at 16-8.
The kick-off on Mirage saw Maikil “Golden” Selim secure the pistol round with a quick triple in a 3v3 afterplant situation, while Nikola “NiKo” Kovač replied with a triple of his own in the second-round forcebuy. FaZe capitalized on that, stringing a total of eight rounds together for an 8-1 lead. Switching up the pace, fnatic finally found a way to penetrate the defense with a quick B attack and managed to secure four rounds, before GuardiaN closed the half with three pick-offs at 10-5.
Winning a 5v5 after plant situation on A in the second pistol, Finn “karrigan” Andersen & co. powered to a 13-5 lead and soon found themselves at match point after NiKo put up a quick triple in the first gun round. There was still life left in fnatic, who started mounting a comeback and slowly but surely chipped away at FaZe’s extensive lead until it was 15-14, when the European squad put the final nail in the coffin with a full A execute, as Håvard “rain” Nygaard and NiKo combined for five kills.
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mousesports have booked their spot in the IEM Sydney 2018 semi-finals after defeating Renegades 2-1 (16-7 on Mirage, 23-25 on Inferno, 19-15 on Train).
The second quarter-final kicked off on mousesports’ map pick, Mirage, with Chris “chrisJ” de Jong’s men securing a quick 2-0 lead after retaking the B bombsite in their CT pistol. mousesports handled Renegades’s third-round buy really well and remained in control of the map, constantly denying their opponents’ executions with a very tight defense.
In the eighth round, as Renegades managed to pick up their first round after Aaron “AZR” Ward had found two rare entry-kills, and they followed that up thanks to a 1v2 post-plant clutch from the 25-year-old. The Australian side appeared to have found the formula for success, but mousesports remained calm and collected and won three more rounds before the break to secure a 10-5 lead.
In the second half, in a 1v4 post-plant situation, Tomáš “oskar”Šťastný pulled off a miraculous kill onto the defuser to deny Renegades from winning the second pistol. After that, mousesports rallied to get themselves to a 14-5 lead, and then went on to close out the map after losing just two more rounds.
Starting out as Terrorists on their map pick, Inferno, Renegades saw Karlo “USTILO” Pivac find two clean entries in the apartments before securing the first pistol round. Noah “Nifty”Francis’s men then followed that up with the anti-ecos, but, just like on Mirage, mousesports cruised to a comfortable lead, 9-3.
Renegades responded to their opponents’ nine-round winning streak with a successful B play, but mousesports refused to take their foot off the gas, stringing together the final two rounds of the half to switch sides with an 11-4 lead.
Renegades came from the break eager to turn things around and, now playing as CTs, won six rounds in a row to reduce the deficit to a sole round. On a shoddy pistol-buy, however, mousesports got back to winning ways following a successful A execution, which they then followed up with their 13th round.
Renegades responded with a strong defense in B, but the following round saw Robin “ropz” Kool and oskar clutch a 2v5 situation – which the Czech player closed out with a 1v2 clutch.
Justin “jks” Savage and co. did not let that get to them and eventually leveled up the score, but neither teams would be able to put the game to bed in regulation, or even in the first two overtimes. After a tremendous back-and-forth affair, which saw Nifty come up huge with an impressive +23 KDD (51 kills), Renegades were able to take the series to a third map.
mousesports got off to a flying start on the deciding map, Train, as they picked up a five-round winning streak as Terrorists. But Renegades started tightening up their defence from there, losing a single round before bagging a narrow 7-6 score.
That was when mousesports came back to life with a near-flawless round, yet Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad’s squad was the one who switched sides with the lead. In the second pistol, mouz equalized things off after Martin “STYKO” Styk and oskarclutched a 2v4 situation, with the 26-year-old finding three of their opponents.
In the gun round, oskar had assured his team of remaining in the driving seat with a 1v2 clutch, and then mousesports further added to their lead in the next two rounds, 12-8. Still, Renegades did not want to throw in the towel and won four rounds in a row to tie up the score.
mousesports responded with their 13th round, but Renegadesimmediately broke their economy, opening up a way for the Australians to grab a minimum lead. mouz still leveled up the score, but then both teams traded rounds back-to-back in what was a chaotic end of regulation.
In overtime, contrary to the latter stages of regulation, mousesports had a flawless display to wrap things up, 19-15, and seal passage to the IEM Sydney 2018 semi-finals over the home-crowd favorites.
