The group stage action in Moscow continued with all four matches ending in a draw.
Virtus.pro vs. 
HellRaisers 6:9, 8:7 (14:16); 10:5, 6:2 (16:7)
Result: Draw (1:1)
Maps: de_Cobblestone, de_Nuke
MVP: Pawe? "byali" Bieli?ski
Like the first day, the Virtus.pro - HellRaisers matchup saw teams losing on their map picks. HellRaisers started with a 5-0 early lead on Cobblestone, VP's map pick. In response Virtus.pro decided to push B repeatedly and this tactic worked as they melted the gap. Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski's impact was crucial during these exchanges, as HellRaisers managed to grab a few rounds towards the end of the half to finish it 9-6 ahead.
HellRaisers, as the T side, used their weapon against Virtus.pro by continously attacking to B bombsite. A couple of rounds went back and forth until Martin "STYKO" Styk got a quad-kill in the 21st round, when it was 10-10. HR managed to grab another three rounds to reach 14 rounds against VP's 10. Despite losing four of the remaining six, the two rounds HellRaisers won were enough for them to steal the map away from Virtus.pro with a 16-14 scoreline.
HellRaisers won the pistol round on Nuke as Counter-Terrorists but Virtus.pro immediately decided to force-buy. Thanks to an amazing round, they reset the HR economy. Taking advantage of broken CT economy, VP won eight consecutive rounds. The teams couldn't manage to put in a solid streak in the remainder of the half, and the half time score was 10-5 in favor of the Poles.
HellRaisers won another pistol round to start the second half but VP's force-buy was successful in the second encounter of the half. After making it 11-6 and breaking HR economy, VP just lost a single round and closed out the map 16-7.
Dignitas vs. 
Ninjas in Pyjamas 11:4, 1:12 (12:16); 9:6, 7:6 (16:12)
Result: Draw (1:1)
Maps: de_Cobblestone, de_Nuke
MVP: Emil "Magiskb0y" Reif
Emil "Magiskb0y" Reif's impressive form continued as Dignitas took on NiP. Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke's triple kill secured the first pistol round for Dignitas. The Danes managed to take eight more rounds while losing just three to NiP. Mikail "Maikelele" Bill's 1v2 clutch in the 13th awarded NiP their last round victory of the first half as Dignitas won the remaining two to end the half 11-4 ahead.
Starting the second half as Counter-Terrorists, NiP won the pistol round. Building on that economical advantage, the Swedes won five more before losing one round. But Adam "friberg" Friberg and co. was able to reset T economy and win another six rounds without losing a single one to make an incredible comeback.
NiP started their map pick, Nuke, as the T side and despite the Terrorist disadvantage on that map, they've managed to end the half just three rounds behind, 9-6. Friberg got a quad kill in the second pistol round and his team managed to play two successful anti-eco rounds and one gun round to take the lead at 10-9. Then Dignitas woke up, found solutions to breach NiP defense and won seven rounds while losing just three to grab the victory on Nuke with the same score they lost on Cobblestone, 16-12.
Natus Vincere vs. 
G2 Esports 7:8, 9:1 (16:9); 4:11, 7:5 (11:16)
Result: Draw (1:1)
Maps: de_Train, de_Cobblestone
MVP: 
Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev
Despite losing the pistol round and following three on Train, G2 were able to win four rounds to make it 4-4. A lot of close rounds were played on Na'Vi's map pick after that but G2 managed to end the first half with a one round lead as Counter-Terrorists. Switching to the T side, Na'Vi started looking more solid as the game went on. Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev won the opening duels consistently and thanks to his performance the CIS-based team lost only one round before grabbing victory 16-9.
The second map of the series, Cobblestone, kicked off with G2 dominance as the T side. The French-Belgian team were 8-1 ahead before Na'Vi finally won three rounds in a row. But G2, led by the destructive duo of Richard "shox" Papillon and Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom, grabbed three more rounds to lead 11-4 at the half time. Kostyliev continued to clutch rounds and grab frags in the second half. At one point, the round deficit was only three but G2 stood solidly and defended the bombsites succesfully for the remainder of the map to win it 16-11.
SK Gaming vs. fnatic 9:6, 7:3 (16:9); 5:10, 0:6 (5:16)
Result: Draw (1:1)
Maps: de_Train, de_Mirage
MVP: Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson
The last matchup of the day was between fnatic and SK. The Brazilians were the sole team without a map victory before the match. In order to secure their first map of the event, SK started off the first map, Train, strong and got a solid 7-2 lead. However, fnatic found some weaknesses ion the Brazilian defense and won four rounds against SK's two.
Fernando "fer" Alvarenga and Epitacio "TACO" de Melo silenced the fnatic squad on the second pistol round and all of a sudden SK were leading 12-6 thanks to faultless anti-eco rounds. Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer and his AWP helped fnatic win three in a row but SK answered with their four round streak to close out Train 16-9.
The early rounds on Mirage were balanced as the score was even at 3-3. Mirage was SK's map pick but the dominant team was absolutely fnatic. The Swedes found a way to destroy the Brazilian defense in almost every remaining round of the first half to lead 10-5 at the half time.
Dennis "dennis" Edman grabbed a triple-kill on the second pistol round as the CT side. Two anti-eco rounds meant a 12-5 lead for fnatic. All of the remaining rounds, whether they were anti-eco or gun, were won by fnatic, leaving SK with just five rounds at the end of the map.
Image courtesy of EPICENTER.
