As the second day of the GEC offline finals has come to a close, the participation list for tomorrow's quarter- and semi-finals is complete.?
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Just to remind you, yesterday Team Dignitas made a clean sweep through their respective group and thus received a direct advancement to the semi-finals. While EnVyUs had some struggles overall, they managed to get on top of CLG twice in order to recieve the higher seed which means that they will battle the lower seed of Group B tomorrow. Counter Logic Gaming then received the lower seed in Group A resulting in them having to fight against whoever wins the consolidation match today.
Group B: 1st match - Cloud9 vs. G2 Esports
This first match saw a close fight between the two on de_Cache, in which C9 managed to easily secure themselves the first five rounds as terrorists. G2 then adapted to the more loose play style of the NA team whereas C9 struggled to break through the CT defenses resulting in them being unable to gather more than just one additional round for their score board in that half. The match went back and forth until Cloud9 brought it to map point with 15-12. In a stunning fashion then G2 won an eco rush onto B and brought it to overtime in the following two rounds. Cloud9 then woke up to secure all three overtime rounds on CT, whereas Gamers2 then answered with two rounds on CT themselves. In the last round of overtime, the NA team finally managed to get the fourth round needed to mark this map as theirs.
Train was G2's map pick and as such it should have heavily favoured the Frenchmen. And starting off it actually did, as they won the first six rounds on CT quite convincingly. C9 then upped their score board to three, but going back and forth G2 secured another three, similarly to C9. A final 6-9 score board in G2's favor marked the end of the first half, a quite successful one for Cloud9 considering the map's balance. On the favoured CT side the unfortunately could not live up to the hopes of their fans, as a very strong and methodical Gamers2 shredded them on their side. They tried to come back in the end, but the French closed it out 16-13.
The last map was played out very unspectacularly, as Cobblestone was G2's gate to the winner's match, 16-6 was the score line under which C9 just crumbled apart.
Group B: 2nd match - Astralis vs. Method
The CIS team Method did not really present a threat here for Astralis, the reasons being that they had to swap out two players due to visa issues and basically the fact that they are a tier two team. In total they did not manage to overcome a 7 points score line on both maps combined, ending Mirage 16-3 and Overpass 16-4.
Group B: Losers' match - Cloud9 vs. Method
The casters had mentioned that despite the very crushing defeat Method had recieved prior, they have had some pretty decent executions and strats. In this match it showed that they definitely had potential.
On Cache they came up to a 6-9 half and Method even took over the lead very strongly, 11-9 in favor of Method was the point at which Cloud9 took a timeout because they had not won any round in the second half so far. A real back and forth brought C9 to map point. It took them some time but in the last round they eventually finished it off 16-14.
On Dust2, Method should have recieved another shot at winning this map or even taking out Cloud9 entirely, but a strong start from Cloud9 made them finish the half at 9-6, just as on Cache. Cheti, one of the stand-ins, then delivered a beautiful ace in the second pistol round and eventually they brought it to a 10-7 lead, but Cloud9 prevailed and eventually took over the map 16-11.
Method may have gone out without winning a single map, but nonetheless it was a strong showing of a team that was not expected to achieve much even in their original roster, without having to find subs for two players.
Group B: Winners' match - Astralis vs. G2
Train was the first map to be played in this series and as the pick of G2 it should serve as a strong start for the Frenchmen. Indeed the first couple of rounds went in their favor as they had the advantage on the CT side. Back and forth it went, the B site was the platform for some very close and suspenseful retakes. G2 managed to secure 9 rounds in the first half but arguably failed a slight bit in terms of map balance, just too many rounds were given to Astralis in the process. This actually showed, as G2 had a very hard time finding rounds in the second half. Astralis managed a complete lockdown of both sites and the French only added two more rounds to their score line, giving up Train 16-11 to Astralis.
Overpass was sure to be going in Astralis' favor as it is one of their very strongest maps. But surprisingly, G2 turned up strong and took the first half 10-5, winning the pistol rounds and always stopping Astralis before they could get a momentum going. The second half featured back and forth fights, but ultimately G2 was on map point and though it took them some time, they closed it out 16-13.
Cache started with a first round for the CT Astralis, but then G2 fought back immediately and took over the control. The secured some rounds in a row, only to be stopped again by a huge Astralis that finally was able to use the CT advantage correctly. As G2 took over some few rounds at the end of the first half again a 7-8 score line for Astralis marked the beginning of another big momentum for G2 onto 14 rounds, but Astralis fought their way back in, only losing one single round and thus brought it to overtime, which ended prematurely as the Danes just swept away G2 without losing a single of the four rounds they needed to close it 19-15.
Group B: Consolidation match - G2 vs. Cloud9
This should be a rematch of the first group match, it even featured the same maps. Cache was on first, but instead of being the C9 win, they fell short to a 16-3 slaughter. Not much to be said here, two T rounds and one CT round marked the worst performance for Cloud9 in a long time.
But a professional team does not get influenced by such a terrible loss, and in fact they fought on on the second map - Train. The first few rounds went in their favor and though some other rounds didn't, their CT half ended quite convincingly at 10-5. Unfortunately, their bad terrorist performance had transferred onto Train as well, only one more round was won until G2 made this map their own, closing the series out with 16-11.
Today, Astralis will face the winner of nV/C9 in the semi finals, as Cloud9 has recieved the lower seed and needs to battle it out against the higher seed of Group A. G2, the higher seed of Group B will fight against the lower seed of Group A, which is CLG. Whoever wins this, will have to fight against dignitas in the semi finals.
