Playoff Brackets and Schedule
Photo Source: Twitter
Of the 16 teams that attended the tournament from the start, 8 were eliminated and 8 moved on to the playoffs after Thursday ended. The 4 teams that took the first place seed in their group and advanced directly to the playoffs were mousesports, Natus Vincere, Team Dignitas, and Virtus Pro. The 4 teams that had to fight their way out of a best-of-three series to claim the second place seed in their group are Tyloo, GODSENT, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and EnVyUs.
Natus Vincere vs Tyloo
Na’Vi were forced to play the group stages with their coach, starix, in place of star AWPer, Guardian, due to Guardian recovering from a wrist injury. Surprisingly, starix played extremely well in both of their group stage matches and even topped the scoreboard in the first game against GODSENT on Train. Seized from Na’Vi also performed well in the group stages, getting a whopping 37 kills against the American team, CLG. On the other side, Tyloo were the surprise dark horse of their group. Their first game against defending major champions, Luminosity Gaming, resulted in a 7-16 loss after the Brazilian team roared to an 11-0 lead. Undaunted, Tyloo avoided elimination by taking down Team Liquid in an exciting double overtime game. They met LG in the decider match for this group and everyone expected a repeat of the first game, but Tyloo shocked the world by taking the Brazilians down 2-1. In this match, it will be optimistic to say that Tyloo could out-right win, but they have shown that they are a good tactical team that could compete with the best in the world. Na’Vi are quite favored in this match, but maybe Tyloo could continue their miracle debut performance and defeat them.
Team Dignitas vs EnVyUs
Dignitas looked like a revitalized team after their slight drop off in performance over the last few months. They came storming into the tournament with a decimation of favorites, Ninjas in Pyjamas, with a 16-2 win on Overpass. Their second match was against fellow Danish rivals and the world’s fourth best team, Astralis. In previous games, Dignitas always lost to Astralis, but in this one, they managed to finally defeat their nemesis 16-9 on Cache. nV has been another team that has looked extremely poor over the last few months. The team lost to Tempo Storm in their first match after almost completing a comeback after being down 3-12. Their second match was against a slumping, FaZe Clan, and they dispatched of them in another close game, 16-12. Their decider match was once a rematch against Tempo Storm and this time, nV came out ahead 2-0 with the second map being a close 16-14 win. Both of these teams have looked better in this tournament than they have in a long time, especially Dignitas. It’s hard to say how good each team’s form is, as Dignitas has played extremely well, but EnVyUs seems to be building on each game.
Mousesports vs GODSENT
Another case of both teams with good form in this tournament. Mousesports had their struggles in the major and previous tournaments, primarily the fact that the team revolved mostly around their star player, Niko, needing to play well for them to win. This time, both Spidii and nex, two players that had problems performing on LAN, played extremely well in the group stages to allow them to win their games against Liquid and Luminosity. GODSENT started off poorly against Na’Vi, but then again, Na’Vi are one of the world’s best teams. Their second match against G2 was a dominating performance as was their decider match against Counter Logic Gaming. Overall the team looked like they had very good strategies and coordination. For the match between these two teams, mousesports should be winning this game as they have the slight edge in firepower and have been together as a team for much longer.
Virtus Pro vs Ninjas in Pyjamas
It’s a scary thing to see the difference in Virtus Pro online compared to how they play on LAN. VP came into the tournament with a quick win over FaZe clan on Train to bring themselves into the winner’s match in the group where they faced Tempo Storm. VP started off strong on the CT side grabbing a 9-6 lead before transitioning over. The pistol round win quickly propelled them over the finish line after Tempo Storm was not able to string enough rounds together. NiP had some trouble in their first game as they were smashed by Dignitas 2-16. The Swedish team had been looking stronger with their addition of coach, THREAT, so this was a surprise. NiP bounced back in their game against CSGL and took them down 16-8 on Cache. NiP’s decider match was against Astralis which many people thought would be a close and exciting game. It certainly looked that way when the first two maps were traded with both teams taking their own map picks to send the match into Train. It looked like Astralis would be able to gain a lead when they won the second half pistol after a close first half, but somehow, NiP managed to win a full eco round with just one P250 purchased. The game quickly spiraled out of control for Astralis and NiP made the playoffs. These two teams have had a long history against each other dating all the way back to previous iterations of Counterstrike. It is hard to say who will win this game as both teams are very even at the moment.