It is no secret that the Brazilian team has gone from being unknown to the world’s best team in the short span of a year or so. With olofmeister from Fnatic being forced to take a break due to wrist issues, it was the perfect opportunity for a new team to wrestle the title away from Fnatic. Luminosity did that and so much more. At the recent major, LG were one of the favorites to win the tournament, but they went into the finals as underdogs against Natus Vincere. LG delivered and won 2-0 to begin their dominance as the best team in the world.
Group Stages
Photo Credit: HLTV
As the best team in the world, LG were the favorites to get out of their group with ease and proceed to the knockout stages. Therefore, it was a shock when the Brazilians lost their first game to the French team, G2, despite holding an 8-0 lead at one point. This dropped them into the elimination match against Danish team, Astralis, another world class team who were upset in their first game. It was looking bleak for LG as Astralis took the first map and were posed to sweep the series. However, LG managed to pull off the win in the second and third map by a hair to win the series 2-1. Their next game was against Optic Gaming, one of the surprises of the group. The series was closed out pretty quickly as LG took a 2-0 win to advance to the playoffs. Although they made it through the group stages, the world’s best team was looking infallible.
Semifinals
LG’s opponent in the semifinals was the veteran Ninjas in Pyjamas squad. NiP had been looking revitalized since they brought in their coach, THREAT, and could be called LG’s biggest rival in the tournament. The first map was a wash for LG as they dominated the map and held the Ninjas to only 4 rounds. They were repaid the favor as NiP took their own map comfortably 16-8. This sent the series into the final, decider map, Cobblestone. LG began with a strong Terrorist side to win 10 rounds to NiP’s 5. Everything came down to whether NiP would be able to replicate LG’s success on their own T-side. Unfortunately for NiP, their road ended their as a pistol round for LG basically secured the deal and the map for the Brazilian team.
Finals
In the finals, LG played against G2, the team that they had originally lost to in the group stages. This was their chance for a rematch, but the French team had seen a huge improvement in form as they took down Fnatic to get to the finals themselves. The finals were played in a best-of-five format with each team getting to ban one map. The first map was LG’s best map, Overpass. Unexpectedly, G2 won the map 16-10 to take the early lead and give themselves a good chance to win the series. The next two maps were traded as LG took Train and G2 took Cobblestone. The fourth map was Dust II, traditionally the permanent ban of LG and a map that G2 has been very strong on in the past. Despite G2 taking the first half with a 3 round advantage, LG pulled off a strong second half and won the map 16-11. The final decider map would be Inferno, a good map for both teams. Luminosity began with a strong 7 rounds on the T-side in what could be arguably the most CT sided map of the map pool. Still, G2 held on and pushed the match into overtime on their own T-side. LG took the first overtime half 3-0 as the CTs to give themselves 3 match points. After G2 won the first round on their own CT half, LG closed out the series.
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