Eight teams have emerged from the group stage and will be facing each other tomorrow for a placement at the semi-finals of the StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season LAN finals.
The past two days were incredibly intense, with surprising results across the board. Underdogs proved to have quite the bark, setting back some of the more established CS:GO teams. We saw Heroic, Team Dignitas, Cloud9, Ninjas in Pyjamas and G2 Esports breach their respective group winner brackets, securing a quarter-final placement undefeated.
Teams that went through the losers' bracket had a harder time climbing up the ladder. FlipSid3 Tactics emerged victorious after besting FaZe Clan, a result that was absolutely shocking to most. The Ukrainian roster was able to grind out the European mix in a triple map series, where they secured de_Nuke (16:12) and de_Cache (16:14). They are now going to face Cloud9 in the playoffs.
Next up were Astralis and TyLoo, where the Danes managed to secure the series, however it was intriguing to see the Chinese team perform at such a level, giving Astralis a run for their money on several occassions. The Danes secure de_Train (16:7) and de_Mirage (16:12) to face the Ninjas in Pyjamas for a place in the semi-finals.
The final match of the day saw Team EnVyUs outperform VG.Cyberzen via securing two consecutive maps. It was unfortunate to see the Chinese struggle on the second map - de_Cache (16:3), however they demonstrated a strong performance on de_Dust2 (16:14), where they were a single round short of sending the map into overtime. The boys in blue proceed to the quarter-finals of the tournament, facing fellow Frenchmen G2 Esports for a place in the semi-finals.
The schedule for the matches taking place on the 10th of September can be found below, times in CEST:
09:00 - 
Cloud9 vs. 
FlipSid3 Tactics
12:00 - 
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. 
Astralis
15:00 - 
G2 Esports vs. Team EnVyUs
18:30 - Heroic vs. Team Dignitas
Headline image courtesy of StarLadder Flickr
