Our CS:GO tournament concluded this past Sunday, 8/28/2016, with some of the best teams currently residing in North America fighting it out for the largest share of the $15K prize pool. In attendance were some household North American teams such as Team Liquid and Cloud9 and also two Brazilian teams, Immortals and Luminosity Gaming, who are currently living in the United States. Rick Fox’s organization, Echo Fox, was supposed to end, but a scheduling conflict led to NRG replacing them.

Quarterfinals

Team Solomid vs OpTic Gaming

The quarterfinals were played on Saturday in a standard single elimination tournament format. First up were TSM and OpTic in what viewers predicted would be a very close match. True to the predictions, map one was closely contested with neither team being able to pull away from the other. Eventually, OpTic managed to reset TSM’s economy to win the game, 16-12. Map 2 began heavily in OpTic’s favor as they took the first half with 10 rounds, but TSM mounted a comeback to almost even the score at 13-12 for OpTic. However, OpTic clinched the last 3 rounds and won with the same score as the first map to sweep the series.

Team Liquid vs Luminosity Gaming

The second match was played between Team Liquid and Luminosity Gaming. Team Liquid were the highest seeded team in the tournament due to their performance at the most recent major. Unfortunately for Luminosity, Liquid showed why they deserved to be rated so highly as they won both maps comfortably, 16-8 and 16-9, to move on to the semifinals.

Cloud9 vs NRG

Cloud9 recently picked up autimatic from TSM and have been on a huge winning streak in the online matches they have played. NRG also added Tabsen from Penta to make their team 3/5 German. Cloud9 continued their dominant online run as they wiped out NRG on the first map, 16-5, and the second map, 16-10, to advance to the semifinals with ease.

Immortals vs Selfless

The series between Immortals and Selfless was the only one of the tournament to go to 3 maps. The first two maps were mirror images of each other as Immortals smashed Selfless, 16-4, on Cobblestone while Selfless proceeded to do the same to Immortals, 16-7, on Mirage. Unfortunately for Selfless, their momentum from the second map did not carry over to the decider map and they fell 2-16 to Immortals.

Semifinals

Team Liquid vs OpTic Gaming

The first map of the series was Mirage and Liquid showed their solid Counter-Terrorist side by putting up a wall on defense to take the first half 11-4. A pistol round victory in the second half secured the game for them as they easily took the next 4 rounds to win 16-4. The second map was much closer as the first half on Cobblestone ended indecisively with Liquid barely edging OpTic out, 8-7. Liquid’s Terrorist side proved to be too strong and they closed out the map, 16-11.

Cloud9 vs Immortals

The other semifinals match was between Cloud9 and Immortals, with Immortals using fnx from SK Gaming as a stand-in for lucas. The first map was a wash for Cloud9 as they stormed out of the gates with 10 rounds on the Terrorist side of Train and a flawless Counter-Terrorist half to win 16-5. Immortals’ fortune on Overpass didn’t change much as Cloud9 also won that map easily, 16-8. Cloud9’s win set up the finals to be between two United States based organizations.

Grand Finals

Team Liquid vs Cloud9

The top two seeds of the tournament made it through unscathed to reach the grand finals. Both teams have struggled for dominance over the North American scene over the last few years with neither being able to retain their spot for long. Cloud 9’s S-trio of, shroud, Stewie2k, and Skadoodle, smashed through their opponents and allowed their team to win both maps 16-7 in a non-climatic ending. Cloud9 proved to be the strongest team in the tournament at the moment and continue their flawless online winning streak ever since acquiring autimatic from TSM.