Cloud9 and FaZe overcome the gap to avoid elimination

Another day of CS:GO competition at IEM Sydney, Australia is over and we are only one day away from the final group stage.

Four elimination matches and two matches in the winning bracket took place on May 2. Heavyweights Cloud9 and FaZe Clan were almost eliminated from the $250,000 tournament. The story of this article revolves around the Australian black horse, ORDER, and Grayhouse Gaming when they almost blew the bet against Cloud9 and FaZe, as well as the demise of G2 at the hands of Fnatic.

In the losing bracket match of Group A, Cloud9 faced ORDER in a BO3 format on Cache, Train and Inferno maps. Quite shockingly, both teams won their maps, while the last map had to wait for two overtimes to resolve. Cloud9’s RUSH is easily seen as the MVP in the final map. He single-handedly saved a 1v4 clutch and a 1v3 round in overtime to give his team hope. RUSH finished Inferno with 43 kills, averaging 25 kills per map in this series.

FaZe’s situation is not much different, when they lost the Mirage map to Grayhound. Grayhound’s DickStacy had many kills to help his team beat FaZe 16-14. Unfortunately the Aussies couldn’t surprise Cache and Dust2 because the team’s CT was too weak. However, Grayhound proved to be a formidable opponent despite being eliminated.

Entering Group B, French Team G2 won their first Dust2 map against Fnatic. But Fnatic fought back on map 2, beating Mirage against an unconfident G2. In the deciding map, JW somehow always finds a way to look down on G2: with his cymbals and arrogant tackles – before the end of the game, top frag 25 kills. G2’s biggest weakness is when they can’t fight the opponent’s initiative in anti-eco rounds.

Table A

Knockout match

Cloud9 vs. ORDER

• ORDER wins Cache 16-7
• C9 beat Train 16-4
• C9 beat Inferno 22-19

FaZe Clan vs. Grayhound Gaming

• Grayhound beat Mirage 16-14
• FaZe beat Cache 16-10
• FaZe beat Cache 16-10

Table of Omissions

Bracket battle won

Astralis vs. Mousesports

• Astralis beat Inferno 16-9
• Astralis beat Nuke 16-5

Fnatic vs. G2 Esports

• G2 beat Dust II 16-12
• Fnatic beat Mirage 16-7
• Fnatic wins Overpass 16-14

Knockout match

NRG Esports vs. BOOT-d[S]

• NRG wins Cache 16-5
• NRG beat Inferno 16-9

MVP PK vs. Chiefs Esports Club

• MVP beat Nuke 16-14
• MVP beat Inferno 16-8

The third day of competition will continue on May 3, and will conclude the group stage. Six teams will advance to the playoffs this weekend, and the match on May 4 will decide who moves on.