The IEM Sydney Group Stage has ended after three days of CS:GO battles. Everything went as expected, except FaZe Clan and Renegades dropped out early. Read the full recap of the IEM Sydney Group Stage below.
Liquid topped Group A
Nitr0 and co. managed to win Group A in quite a dominant fashion. None of their first two opponents didn’t make it into the double digits. BOOT-d couldn’t stand a chance versus the NA team on Nuke as they lost 16-9. BIG also lost convincingly. The Germans (BIG) barely won 10 rounds in total on Dust 2 and Overpass. So, those were two easy opening wins front runners in Sydney, Liquid.
Their next opponents, however, made it look a little bit harder. Ninjas in Pyjamas reached IEM Sydney Group Stage Upper Bracket final after beating eUnited and the domestic team, Renegades. The Swedes didn’t drop a map as well. Nevertheless, they were underdogs in this duel.
The match kicked off on Nuke. NiP didn’t start so well on their pick, given that they allowed Team Liquid to secure an early lead (5-1). The big impact on the result had a second round of the match when Team Liquid won the round with upgraded pistols against SMGs and guns. It damaged NiP’s economy on one side and boosted Liquid’s economy on the other side.
NiP almost took the second map to Overtime
Things then moved to Overpass. Although it was a pick of the North American team, Ninjas in Pyjamas secured the first half with a score of 10-5. Regardless, the game showed us how the CT Overpass side is truly one sided once again. Despite being 10-5 at half-time, Team Liquid made a comeback and secured the second map with minimal advantage. As a result, Team Liquid advanced directly to the Semi-final, and NiP are going to play Quarter-final.
This match contained so many good individual plays including 3k, 4k, and clutches. But, the most consistent player was NAF who ended the match with score of 47-35 and the highest KAST (78.9%).
Renegades is out, mousesports made it to the Play-offs
After losing to BIG in the initial match, mousesports dropped down to Lower Bracket. There, they faced BOOT-d in the first match of IEM Sydney Group Stage Lower Bracket. They cruised through that match conceding just eight rounds in total on Mirage and Train. Afterward, they faced Renegades, the domestic team and one of the favorites for reaching the late stage of the event.
Nevertheless, mousesports knocked out Renegades in a very convincing style. The Aussies didn’t have a pleasing result after the first half on Train. Truly, mousesports was just one round up, but considering they kicked off on Train on T side it was a more than a good result. After side switch, Renegades clinched the first three rounds to get to double digits, but mousesports then got into the driver seat. They won eight out of ten following rounds to set the final scoreline to 16-12.
Teams then moved to Inferno where Renegades didn’t play any better. On the contrary, they lost the second map with score 16-7 and dropped out from IEM Sydney Group Stage.
Mousesports then faced BIG one more time. They got their revenge as they dismantled the German team. It was definitely painful for the German fans to watch, given that BIG won only two rounds on Mirage and just two rounds more on Inferno, the same map where they previously defeated mousesports. The young prospect from mouz, ropz, played insanely well on Mirage. He wona 1v4 clutch on Mirage, which helped him to get a rating 2.15 on that map.
NRG won Group B
NRG had an easy job at the beginning of the IEM Sydney Group Stage. They faced ViCi Gaming in the first round and didn’t show any mercy towards them. They allowed the Asian team to win just four rounds throughout the whole match. Afterwards, NRG confronted the weakened FaZe Clan who missed their best player, NiKo.
Although YNk had some good displays, it wasn’t sufficient for FaZe to avoid defeat versus NRG. Eventually, they lost 2-0 (16-12, 16-11).
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The opponent of NRG in the Upper Bracket Final was MiBR. In the first round, the Brazilians defeated Grayhound 16-11. Then, they beat Fnatic on Nuke and Overpass. It was relatively an easy ride for the best Brazilian team as they won with scorelines 16-4, 16-7. On Nuke, MiBR was just one round from perfect 16-0 victory. They secured the first half with 15-0, but Fnatic avoided shameful loss.
When IEM Sydney Group Stage finished, JW from Fnatic said that their problem was a mental part, but he also gave the credit to the other team:
“Yeah, we kept the communication and the team morale perfect I would say, throughout the whole game, but nothing ever went our way, and that can happen, especially on Nuke. It is one of those maps where you can just get locked out, it doesn’t matter if you play perfect, if the other guys play perfectly as well, you have no chance. Yeah, props to them to beating us in such fashion.” (source: HLTV)
NRG dominated MiBR on Nuke
MiBR had a chance to play Nuke once again in Upper Bracket final. They started off on CT side again, but NRG surprisingly crushed them in the first half. Brehze was playing particularly well and he earned a map point for his team with an ACE in the 19th round. MiBR tried to attack CTs from outside, but Brehze was waiting there for them. He took down all five MiBR’s players with his AUG to make one step further towards the first map triumph.
Brehze was again the best player on the map as he had 25 kills, 3 assists, 16 deaths and 97.6 damage per round. Overall, he was the MVP of Upper Bracket final in Group B.
Fnatic Gets to the Play-offs. FaZe is out
When Fnatic dropped down to Lower Bracket, they faced the Chiefs. The first map (Dust 2) didn’t finish so well for Fnatic side. Although they had an early advantage (5-0), the Chiefs secured the first half with scoreline 9-6. They won the second pistol round as well, but Fnatic then stepped up. It looked like the Swedes were going to win the first map as they made it 13-11. However, the domestic squad kept fighting and eventually won the first map to make a crowd happy. But that cheerfulness didn’t last for too long.
These two teams then moved to Mirage. The Chiefs won the first half with minimal advantage. However, Fnatic played incredibly well on CT side and allowed Chiefs to clinch only one round. So, the score was 16-9.
The map decision was Inferno, and Chiefs couldn’t hold out on Fnatic’s best map. Fnatic dismantled them to win the match with ending score 16-4.
Although Fnatic expected FaZe Clan in the Lower Bracket final of IEM Sydney Group Stage, they didn’t get there. On the contrary, another domestic team, Grayhound, eliminated the European dream team. In the end, it turned out that Grayhound lasted for one round longer than Renegades.
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Despite rain’s good performance on Inferno, Grayhound bested FaZe Clan on the first map. FaZe was seemingly in the driver seats throughout most of the match, but the Aussies stepped up when it mattered the most and secured the first map (16-12). FaZe Clan bounced back in the same manner on Dust 2, but failed to complete a comeback on Overpass. They were just one round from Overtime, but Grayhound found their way through. After the match, FaZe’s coach blamed himself for this loss as he didn’t perform at the highest possible level.
Lost 1:2 to Grayhound, gg’s.
Really dropped the ball today and singlehandedly cost us the game, both on Inferno and Overpass, sorry
— Janko Paunovic (@YNk) May 2, 2019
Dancing on thin ice, but everything went well
Fnatic kicked off the Lower Bracket Final in an excellent way as they almost bested Grayhound with 16-0 scoreline on Overpass. However, Fnatic “allowed” the Aussies to take two rounds. Grayhound celebrated their first round in the game like they won the big tournament.
The map of the decision was Inferno, where Fnatic secured the first half with a comfortable 10-5 lead. However, they allowed Aussies to come back in the match and tie the score. The match could easily have gone either way, but Fnatic stepped up for one more time and ended the Lower Bracket final with 16-12 scoreline to book a meeting with NiP in Quarter-final.
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