It was a big day for the big teams at IEM Fall CIS with convincing 2-0s for all of the favourites.
That angle might be a little harsh on Virtus.pro, who should probably qualify as one of the big boys, but nobody is bigger than NaVi in the region.
NaVi’s Cerberus runs rampant
Remember when the talk was how NaVi would never win when they had two superstars and three weaker players?
It turns out just swapping one of the weaker players for a superstar was all that was needed to fix it. B1T has picked up the slack and transformed NaVi, and his quiet, unerring performance was the backbone on which s1mple and electronic built on to take VP down in two.
Of course, s1mple and electronic will rightfully take the headlines, especially when the latter pulls off moments like this:
Inferno went all the way to OT, but it was the youngster B1T who just about pushed NaVi over the line with 31 frags, before taking a back seat as electronic and s1mple took over on Mirage.
Not a bad performance on either map from VP, who take 28 rounds on 2 maps but lose 2-0, but not quite enough.
Gambit tear Entropiq asunder
The boys mean business again.
While VP’s performance was a heroic failure, Entropiq’s was a showing of very little to build on. Like, really, really little. A 16-0 drubbing followed by a 16-4 drubbing will be something to worry about, even if they’ve already qualified for the Major and don’t really care.
Perhaps they were celebrating, or maybe they don’t care about this game, but either way that is a pretty horrendous showing. sh1ro picked up a 40-11 scoreline – yes, eleven deaths in 36 rounds – and every single member of Gambit picked up a positive K/D and over 75 ADR.
That’s a paddlin’.
Spirit pop the INDE IRAE bubble
Few people were aware of INDE IRAE before this tournament, but they have been the surprise package and even pushed Spirit to overtime on the favourites’ pick.
Ancient was hard-fought, but the star power of degster and mir eventually shone through as both collected thirty bombs to take the map in second OT.
The underdogs appeared to run out of steam, however, as on their own map pick, Spirit put up a flawless 15-0 half and converted three rounds into the second half. degster once more chewed and spat out INDE IRAE to end on a +33 scoreline for the series.
NaVi and Gambit are now in the grand final, with Entropiq and VP fighting over third place. Team Spirit officially finished 5th, with INDE IRAE 6th.
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