Oh dear, Cloud9.
If interz was the problem, then buster doesn’t appear to be the solution. What threatened to be a day of little intrigue quickly took a sharp turn east, as IHC didn’t just beat Cloud9, but 2-0’d them.
2-0. IHC. Over Cloud9.
With a stand-in. We really thought them beating FURIA would be the headline.
It went to 30 on both maps, but it’s not even like Ax1le and sh1ro didn’t show up. Ax1le picked up 54 and sh1ro collected 50. If your stars show up and you still lose both maps to a massive underdog… something is wrong structurally.
IHC had been impressive, but they did get soundly beaten by Team Liquid in their opening game, in the way a favourite should beat them.
The other team leaving the event were BIG, who despite going 1-0 up, and then 5-0 up on Mirage, capitulated against Spirit. A superstar performance from w0nderful put them in the dirt on Mirage, and Spirit picked them apart and made themselves a cushy 13-2 lead on Anubis.
They almost choked it, but that’s not the point.
BIG also lost to G2, while Spirit lost to FaZe, in their openers. Both very reasonable. But they took an even bigger loss to NiKo.
In Group B, Heroic kicked off Katowice in shaky fashion. Complexity had them on the ropes thanks to some world-class fraggin’ from floppy, but the clothesline didn’t connect, and Heroic slipped away, survived, and regrouped.
OG scraped a victory over MOUZ, despite being largely lacklustre, and Vitality smacked NIP around. fnatic pipped Outsiders to the post, leaving NIP vs the Major champions in an elimination game.
We can’t wait for IHC to knock on FaZe’s door tomorrow and take them out. Team Spirit vs Team Liquid, similarly, is a spicy elimination game. Get the popcorn in.
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