Astralis defeat Liquid and continue Nuke streak; Renegades secure playoffs over G2

In the match that decided which team would advance directly to the semi-finals, Astralis beat Liquid 2-0 (Inferno 16-12, Nuke 16-8). On the B stream, Renegades overcame G2 2-1 (10-16 Overpass, 16-13 Train, 16-8 Cache) to book a spot in the playoffs.

Following a pistol round loss handed to Astralis by Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken, the Danes established themselves on the CT side of Inferno and reset Liquid to grab a strong early lead, 6-4. Twistzz's quick double opened up A in a near-unwinnable round, giving the North Americans their fifth, but no momentum was built thanks to Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen's quad kill in the followup as Liquid tried to wrap A.

Astralis finished the half strongly, 9-6, but Liquid secured the pistol with a B stack and followed it up with a strong SMG hold in the first buy to tie it up at 9-9. Astralis's first round came off of a fast rotate from B to A that finished with a successful 2v2 afterplant, but Liquid struck back to force Astralis on pistols. That is when Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif went huge and picked up two Deagle kills to unlock B, pushing Astralis to a 14-11 lead. With a 4v2 advantage in a B site retake, Liquid was looking good to get back on track, but Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth pulled off a magnificent clutch and the Danes closed it out, 16-12.

Liquid added another pistol round to their tally as Nuke kicked off, soon taking a 4-1 lead on the CT side of Astralis' home map. After that, Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander and co. established themselves with the rifles, taking five out of the next six round off the back of yard control. (6-5) The North Americans tried to counter that by putting bodies outside, but it didn't work either as the Dane slithered into lower once again and held the post plant.

The first half ended with the Danish team sitting on a 9-6 lead, and then they secured their first pistol of the series and put down the foot on the defensive side of the map. Liquid was unable to break through the defenses for six consecutive rounds, with the Danes only losing one or two players per round as they reached match point, 15-6. Liquid finally managed to put two rounds on the board then, but it didn't take long for Astralis to close it out, with Xyp9x winning the final 1v1 to make it 16-8 and 2-0 for the series. With this win, Astralis secured their 27th consecutive Nuke win on LAN.

With Edouard "⁠SmithZz⁠" Dubourdeaux leading the charge for the French team, G2 started the series against Renegades on Overpass on the right foot, 6-3 up on the Terrorist side. Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad and Jay "⁠Liazz⁠" Tregillgas combined on the A site defense to stop the struggle on the defensive side. The Australians then went on a five-round winning streak, with a 2v3 retake by Liazz and Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage being key to Renegades grabbing an 8-7 lead before the switch.

By winning the pistol round and resetting Renegades straight after their first buy round, G2 had the upper hand throughout the second half. With that advantage, Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon and co. didn't have a tough time racking up rounds, reaching 15-9 before Renegades afforded a buy with full utility. With a B site execute, they managed to take the following round, but the map was shortly brought to an end as an A site push was stopped to make it 16-10 for G2.

On Train, Renegades got on track early by winning the second-round force buy, Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward picking up a triple kill with the AK-47. After being 3-1 down, G2 grabbed a round, but couldn't follow up on it as jks and jkaem secured a 2v2 after plant on B. Down 7-2, Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub woke up with multikills in three consecutive rounds and helped his side bring the score back to a 9-6 deficit before the switch.

Sean "⁠Gratisfaction⁠" Kaiwai's four USP-S kills on the pistol advanced Renegades' lead in the second half, and they managed to survive an early round loss to make it 13-7. G2 were looking good to make a comeback into it, but made a blunder out of a 4v3 round as SmithZz suicided to his molotov, allowing Renegades to reach a 14-10 lead. After some back-and-forth, the Australians closed out the game, 16-13, to move on to Cache.

On the decider map, G2 took the early lead, 4-0, but would find themselves in a rough cycle of winning one round and then losing three when Renegades rolled out the rifles. AZR's team finished the half 8-7 up and, with a five-round streak early on the T side, got on the verge of the victory, 13-7. shox and co. managed to put together a CT round, only to be replied on quickly, and Renegades closed out the game 16-8 to advance to the playoffs.