EPIC League CIS 2021Spirit, Gambit to face off in EPIC League upper bracket semi-finals
K23 and Entropiq will now fight to stave off elimination in the RMR event's lower bracket following losses in the first round of playoffs.
Spirit and Gambit are through to the EPIC League CIS upper bracket semi-finals after winning their opening playoff matches against K23 and Entropiq. The winners and losers of this first playoff matchday will now go on to face each other in their respective brackets. Before that, however, Natus Vincere will go up against Akuma and Virtus.pro will face FORZE to close out the first round of bracket play on Tuesday.
Nikolay "mir" Bityukov and company’s 2-0 victory against K23 now puts them at a clean 8-0 map record in the tournament, while Gambit are on a good path to making up for a slow 3-2 start at the RMR event with a victory over the rising stars of Entropiq in a series that featured three one-sided maps.
The first round of playoffs quickly appeared it would be a walk in the park for Spirit as they took K23’s map pick, Overpass, by a wide 16-4 margin with mir averaging 120 damage in the 20 rounds played, but the Kazakh-majority side then pushed Spirit to the brink on Dust2, coming back from an 11-15 deficit as Rustem "mou" Telepov tallied 32 kills. Finally, however, K23 were unable to hit the mark when it mattered most, in the thirtieth round, and fell to the lower bracket after two maps.
Entropiq showed their teeth from the get-go against Abay "HObbit" Khassenov and company with a 9-6 lead after their terrorist side on Dust2, which they followed up with a very strong CT side to a considerable 16-7 victory. The world’s top ranked team then took the reins of the series on their own pick, Dust2, with an equally impressive 16-6 before putting forth another dominant map, a 16-7 victory on Mirage, to proceed through the tournament’s upper bracket, where they will next play the undefeated Spirit in a rematch from the group stage.
  Spirit |
K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43 - 31 | +12 | 93.7 | 1.30 | |
| 40 - 30 | +10 | 86.6 | 1.19 | |
| 36 - 31 | +5 | 79.0 | 1.14 | |
| 35 - 30 | +5 | 67.6 | 1.14 | |
| 26 - 31 | -5 | 55.5 | 0.84 |
  K23 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41 - 34 | +7 | 95.0 | 1.29 | |
| 36 - 35 | +1 | 82.0 | 1.02 | |
| 27 - 37 | -10 | 72.2 | 0.86 | |
| 25 - 37 | -12 | 60.5 | 0.79 | |
| 24 - 38 | -14 | 50.5 | 0.71 |
 Entropiq |
K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 46 - 45 | +1 | 73.9 | 1.00 | |
| 39 - 46 | -7 | 65.4 | 0.88 | |
| 44 - 51 | -7 | 72.3 | 0.88 | |
| 34 - 53 | -19 | 63.9 | 0.72 | |
| 30 - 50 | -20 | 54.4 | 0.66 |
 Gambit |
K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 57 - 35 | +22 | 84.4 | 1.34 | |
| 48 - 38 | +10 | 86.0 | 1.28 | |
| 51 - 39 | +12 | 82.3 | 1.24 | |
| 49 - 48 | +1 | 82.9 | 1.11 | |
| 40 - 34 | +6 | 58.0 | 1.04 |
The next round of opening playoff matches in the double-elimination tournament is scheduled for Tuesday, whereas the first round of the lower bracket will be on Wednesday and the upper bracket semi-finals will follow on Thursday.
Tuesday, May 25
16:00 -
Virtus.pro vs.
FORZE
19:00 -Akuma
Sanjar 'SANJI' Kuliev
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis
respi
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