EG breeze past fnatic; 100 Thieves take down Heroic

Evil Geniuses and 100 Thieves are through to Group A's upper bracket semi-finals following convincing victories over fnatic and Heroic, respectively.

The second pair of matches in Odense was headlined by a match between two top-five sides, which turned out to be a one-sided affair as Evil Geniuses made light work of fnatic on Mirage. It looked anything but a clash between teams separated by just two places in the rankings, with the North Americans racing to a 13-2 lead after a dominant CT performance, led by Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov, who racked up 19 frags.

fnatic responded in convincing fashion with a victory in a quick pistol round, but more misery was to come for them. EG rallied back immediately on a force buy and put together a string of rounds en route to a quick finish that puts them through to move on in Group A's upper bracket.

Meanwhile, 100 Thieves beat Heroic on the secondary stream on Vertigo, where they put up a masterclass of a defensive performance. After a slow start, the Danes took the reins of the game and secured the lead, but the Australians fought back and ended the half up 8-7.

Now playing on the CT side, 100 Thieves kept their defense tight and compact and won seven rounds in a row to hit match point. Heroic still attempted a response, but one round was all they could muster as the former Renegades squad laid the game to rest to set up a clash against Evil Geniuses later in the day.