The Brazilians grind it out against Astralis and steal away the grand finalist spot.
SK Gaming vs. 
Astralis - 2-1 (12:16, 16:14, 16:12)
de_Overpass - 12:16 (6:9, 6:7)
The second semi-finals game started on Astralis' map of choice with SK Gaming on the CT side. The Danes rushed the A site but Epitacio "TACO" de Melo, who has had a fantastic tournament so far, crushed the Danes with a quad kill. After securing the two subsequent anti-eco rounds, SK were stuck in a 2v4 in the first gun round. Marcelo "coldzera" David turned things around for his team and the 2v4 turned into 1v1, with Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz as the last standing Astralis player. Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz clutched it and earned a round on the board for his team. Astralis then quickly tied up the score, 3:3. With SK on an eco, Astralis picked off the Brazilians with all five players alive, racking up economy. After SK Gaming had enough money to have a substantial buy, they started off with a pick onto Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander. Capitalizing off the player advantage, SK went on to win the round and the following round, taking their lead back. However, the back-and-forth nature of the game continued after a clumsy team kill in the SK Gaming camp which gifted a round for Astralis. At 5:5, Astralis managed to get a plant in the A site. SK attempted to defuse the bomb amidst smoke but the Danish shot-caller, Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander had an insane 3k spray down that stopped the defuser and two other SK players on the site. Astralis took off from then on. In the last round of the map, Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo had the first pick, gifting his team the early player advantage. But Astralis struck back and the round came down to a 1v1 between the two in-game leaders, Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo vs. Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander. With only a few seconds left in the round, the Dane tried to plant the bomb. But he didn't put down the bomb for the full four seconds it takes to plant and switched to a Molotov. After realizing what he had just done, Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander didn't have enough time to plant again and the round was gifted to SK Gaming. The half finished 6:9 in favour of Astralis.
After a horrendous finish to the first half, Astralis stepped up and took the pistol round. However, Astralis didn't smooth sail their way up the scoreboard, as all rounds came down to tight clutch situations. Unfortunately for the Brazilian side, they all went the way of Denmark. With the score at 6:14, it seemed grim for SK. But thanks to Epitacio "TACO" de Melo catching Astralis' aggressive push down B, SK finally got a round on the board in the second half. But despite Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo's three kills, the Danes reached map point. Because SK managed to get a plant, they had a fairly decent buy in the next round. Thereafter, the Brazilians showed a better face, thanks to monstrous efforts by Fernando "fer" Alvarenga. At 12:15, Astralis finally had a full-buy, for they were now on a maximum loss bonus. Their utilities and AK-47s paid off and Andreas "Xyp9x" Hojsleth were the Danish soldier to close out the map for Astralis.
de_Mirage - 16:14 (6:9, 10:5)
Now on their map of choice, SK kicked off the map on the offense. They quickly charged into the A site and planted the bomb. Astralis' retake attempt was unsuccessful, due to three crucial frags by Fernando "fer" Alvarenga. Along with the anti-ecos, SK Gaming got to 3:0. However, fully-equipped Astralis struck back and got three of their own. With the score tied at 3:3, SK Gaming took the lead once again with a win of their own. The eighth round was hectic, with frags occurring all over the map. The round came down to a 2v2, but Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjaerbye caught the two SK players off guard in Mid and the score was tied once again. For SK had no money, Astralis quickly reached sixth on the board. Epitacio "TACO" de Melo showed up for his team with two impact kills in the A site. He earned his team the win and SK were primed to win the subsequent round. However, Andreas "Xyp9x" Hojsleth had a massive 3k spray down from Connector onto the A site. Thereafter, Astralis went on to secure nine rounds for themselves in the first half. Just as they were about to get their tenth, Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo stole it away with a sick headshot.
Astralis took the second pistol after a sick T side execution. But the Brazilian side upset the Danes in the anti-eco and after some back-and-forth brawl, the score tied 12:12. With the game slowly but surely coming to a close, Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo had three massive kills right outside A Connector, demolishing Astralis and their economy. Astralis immediately forced into the next round with a few Deagles and TEC-9. However, though they planted the bomb at B, Astralis weren't able to get the round and SK Gaming moved only one round away from map point. Astralis forced into the next round and got the bomb down, this time at A, but they still couldn't take it as the Brazilians ninja defused the bomb amidst smoke. However, Astralis sparked a glimmer of hope and quickly brought the game to 15:13. The SK guys, two players with MAC-10 and three with M4A1, somehow successfully operated an intense retake on the B site. But because they didn't invest in defuse kits, Marcelo "coldzera" David didn't have enough time to defuse. Astralis only a round away from overtime, a lot was on the line. But to much disappointment of the Danes, SK stretched out the round win, the map win and forced another map in the semi-finals.
de_Inferno - 16:12 (7:8, 9:4)
The final map started with Astralis on the T side and SK on the CT side. After running the clock down a bit, Astralis committed to the A site. Marcelo "coldzera" David had two kills of his own just as Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjaerbye contributed too. Ultimately, the round became a 2v2 and then, a 1v1. Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz had the task of protecting the planted bomb. The Dane took the last remaining SK player out for a ring around rosie in order to run the bomb timer down. After what seemed like eternity, Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz finally took the last SK player out of his misery and Astralis took the early lead in the final map. After getting the 0:3 start, Astralis faced a fully-bought SK Gaming. SK Gaming couldn't counter the Danes once again but they were able to save a few rifles. The subsequent round repeated history, for Astralis once again burst into the A site, with Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen as the entry fragger. The post-plant became a 3v3 and the Brazilians slowly backed off to save the AWP and the two rifles onto the next round. Thanks to the saved rifles, SK were able to buy in the sixth round. After Marcelo "coldzera" David picked up two Astralis players with the AWP, Astralis lost all hope to bring the score to six to nothing. Thus, SK earned their first round on the board, impressively too, with all five players alive. Unfortunately, SK didn't live to see another round on the board. Astralis took control of the game right back and stretched their lead to 1:6. The next round was a chaotic one. Astralis explored onto the A site, grabbing multiple entry kills. But SK answered back, Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo killing one Danish player from Library and Marcelo "coldzera" David getting two from Balcony. Now, Astralis attacked the B site. However, they had to contest Joao "felps" Vasconcellos. The Brazilian proved too strong to battle against and SK Gaming got another on the board. With the score tied at 5:5, Astralis attacked the A site again. Though SK took the initial two kills, courtesy of Epitacio "TACO" de Melo and Marcelo "coldzera" David, Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjaerbye stepped for his team and took two of his own, nullifying SK's advantage and evening up the player count. But that was all Astralis would do in the round and SK Gaming tied up the score at 6:6. SK Gaming picked up one more but Astralis struck back and ended the first half with a victorious score of 7:8.
On the T side, SK Gaming started the last half of the series well with an impressive execution onto the B site. With the bomb in lower Banana, three SK players went up from Mid to Archside and wrapped into the B site through CT spawn. After picking up the anti-eco rounds, SK brought the score to 10:8. However, Astralis bounced back and tied the score, largely credited to hero plays by Andreas "Xyp9x" Hojsleth, such as his jumping headshot in Banana. The back-and-forth nature of the game continued and Astralis didn't rack up more than that. SK Gaming got four of their own. In the 25th round, SK started wrapping to the A site from Archside. However, because SK took to long to walk into the site, Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz flanked two of them from Arch. At 14:12, it was an all important round for both teams. The AWPers of the each team battled it out in the B site, both of them picking up insane kills through smokes but the Brazilian came on top. Now with SK at map point and their economy in disaster, it was a do or die moment for Astralis. They stepped up to the task against the fully-bought SK players. However, Epitacio "TACO" de Melo came in clutch in the 1v1 and earned his team the spot in the grand finals.
Image courtesy of SK Gaming
