Grayhound defeat MVP PK; to upper bracket final at Asia Minor

Grayhound came from behind to beat MVP PK 2-1 (9-16 on Nuke, 16-8 on both Cache and Dust2) and book their spot in the Americas Minor upper bracket final, where they will take on Renegades.

The first map played in the second upper bracket semi-final of the Asian Minor was Nuke, MVP PK's map pick, which kicked off with the Koreans winning their Terrorist pistol on the back of doubles from Hyun-Pyo "⁠XigN⁠" Lee and Seon-Ho "⁠xeta⁠" Son. Grayhound would get on the board four rounds later, 1-4, but their opponents instantly countered them with a triple-kill from Lee.

It was only in the tenth round that Grayhound nearly picked up their second, but xeta stepped up to the plate with a great 1v2 clutch with just 1hp. That was when the Australians came back to life, losing just one more round before switching sides, 5-10.

In the second half, MVP PK came out of the gate looking ready to finish off the map in convincing fashion, going on a five-round winning streak to quickly hit map-point. Grayhound still tried to turn the tide around in their favour with a set of four successful rounds, 9-15, but that was all she wrote for Ollie "⁠DickStacy⁠" Tierney and co. on Nuke.

Next up was Cache, Grayhound's map pick, but it was MVP PK who took control of proceedings with a trio of rounds while starting out as Terrorists. Yet, Christopher "⁠dexter⁠" Nong's men strung together six rounds in response, in part thanks to Erdenetsogt "⁠erkaSt⁠" Gantulga finding a series of multi-kills.

Despite winning two more rounds in the process, MVP PK simply could not find a proper way to get through the defense until half-time, 5-10. The Koreans still reduced the deficit to three rounds after winning their fourth pistol of the series, but it was all about Grayhound, who took the match to a third map without much effort, 16-8.

The decider, Dust2, kicked off with Grayhound bagging their first pistol of the match with a triple-kill from erkaSt, but failing to follow that up as MVP PK replied with a successful force-buy. Even though the Australians then eventually took the lead, the game entered a back and forth period, with MVP PK managing to equalize the score at 5-5.

Still, Grayhound went on a great run from there, securing five rounds in a row to switch to the CT side with a 10-5 lead, with Liam "⁠malta⁠" Schembri topping the scoreboard for the first time in the series with 17 frags.

Grayhound opened up the action in the second half with doubles from dexter and DickStacy, and they prevailed in the subsequent two rounds to go up 13-5 on the board. MVP PK lost one more round before they finally found a footing on the map, but it was simply too little, too late, to stop Grayhound, who saw Euan "⁠sterling⁠" Moore and erkaSt add an ace and a quad-kill to their name, sealing the deal at 16-8.