NiP, Astralis, Team Liquid and Cloud9 are all going home while TSM and G2 join Fnatic and LG in the semis of ECS.
We present a recap of today’s matches:
G2 Esports vs. 
Ninjas in Pyjamas 2:0 (de_cache 16-4, de_dust2 16-10)
Winner: G2 Esports
Maps: de_cache, de_dust2
MVP: Richard "shox" Papillon
The first match of the day featured two teams that were among the favourites to take the title. The Swedish NiP were outplayed by LG in their first game while G2 were caught off guard by Liquid. One of the two had to go home and it turned out to be NiP as the Swedish giants only managed to grab four rounds on the first map with G2 having a monster performance on the CT-half and ended up closing the map with a 12-round advantage. The second map was much closer, however it never looked like NiP could take it, losing a lot of key rounds and crashing out of the tournament with a 10-16 scoreline on de_dust2. Most notably all of the G2 players showed up with shox winning some key clutches and both rpk and ScreaM chiming in with great multi-kill rounds. Pyth and f0rest also tried their best but it was too little to stop the French.
Cloud9 vs. 
Astralis 2:0 (de_dust2 16-9, de_overpass 16-8)
Winner: Cloud9
Maps: de_dust2, de_overpass
MVP: Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert
The second match of the day saw yet another upset happen. The North-American Cloud9 was taking on the giants from Denmark - Astralis. Cloud9 started off strong, winning the CT pistol (in which we saw two knife kills!) as well as the first gun round quickly making it 5:0 in their favour. The Danes really struggled to find any T-rounds and ultimately ended up with just four to C9's eleven. The second half saw C9 struggle at first up until they decided to do the B contact play, catching Astralis off guard and switched up the pace with a fast long take round later closing the map out 16-9. The second and final map was de_overpass, Astralis' pick. It was very much the same story, C9 comfortably grinding out the T rounds with some explosive plays from Stewie2k and n0thing, and Astralis struggling to get anything going on their CT side. After a 9-6 T-side finish C9 managed to close the map out with a comfortable score of 16-8. It is worth mentioning that many of the Danish stars underperformed and C9's n0thing and Stewie combined for a total of 90 kills over the two maps.
G2 Esports vs. Team Liquid 2:1 (de_cobblestone 12:16, de_dust2 16:6, de_nuke 16:11)
Winner: G2 Esports
Maps: de_cobblestone, de_dust2, de_nuke
MVP: Richard "shox" Papillon
The third engagement of the day, we saw a re-match from yesterday, G2 faced off against Team Liquid. The first map was the one that put G2 in the losers match - de_cbble. It was TL's map pick and they played a very shaky CT side with G2 winning the mojority of the rounds for a 9-6 halftime score, however Liquid managed to comeback into the match with a great T-side only allowing G2 to grab three rounds, most of which came after the match point. The final score on cbble was 12-16 with TL grabbing the W, next up was dust2, G2's map pick. After a strong start by TL and a won pistol round as well as the anti-eco. In the third round TL decided to rush up middle and demonstrate their strength, however they ended up losing the round to four glaaaaawks and a single p250 with ScreaM and shox stepping up massively. After that things started spiraling out of control for TL and they ended up being crushed for a 16-6 score. The third and final map was de_nuke and as this match showed - not much has changed. G2 still managed to get 11 rounds on the CT side despite Valve making the map "more T sided". After switching the sides TL started mounthing a comeback untill G2 had enough of it and turned up the heat, securing their semi-final spot with a 16-11 victory. It was very difficult picking an MVP as both shox and ScreaM were insane, however shox won just so many clutch rounds that the title had to go to him. Also, worth mentioning is that TL's players all fragged very well, all reaching about 50 kills, all except for s1mple who underperformed heavily.
TSM vs. Cloud9 2:0 (de_cache 16:7, de_train 16:11)
Winner: TSM
Maps: de_cache, de_train
MVP: Timothy "autimatic" Ta
Last but not least, we had our forth game of the day between TSM and Cloud9 and what a game it was. TSM switched up the tempo after their underwhealming first few days at ELEAGUE and are now looking like one of the best NA teams. The first map was just a masterclass from the Canadians. They started off by winning the pistol round and followed it up by converting the next two rounds ultimately ending the half with a 9-6 lead on T-side de_cache. After that they won the pistol again and closed the map out comfortably 16-7. De_train, TSM's map pick and probably their best map, the Canadians continued their strong performance by winning another two pistol rounds and despite a few hick-up during the anti-ecos they still managed to cling the victory with a 16:11 scoreline. All of the TSM members performed with autimatic and SicK performing exceptionally well and Semphis clutching a lot of important rounds. On C9's side it was mainly a Skadoodle show but it was too little to keep Team Solomid out of the semi-finals of ECS.
Clip of the day: Jacob "Pyth" Mourujärvi's insane eco ace
See our continuing coverage on the ECS Finals here.
