After a thrilling group stage, the action will now move to the Qudos Bank Arena, where the six remaining teams will compete in a single-elimination bracket for the lions share of the US$ 250,000 prize.
With the group stage now over, we are down to the final six teams at IEM Sydney. While this years event saw three teams representing Asia, unfortunately, all three of ViCi, MVP PK and BOOT-d[S] couldn’t manage to top their adversaries.
Defending champions, FaZe, fought their way through the group stages without their star player, Nikola “NiKo” Kovač. NiKo was forced to miss out on the event due to Visa issues. In his place, FaZe coach Janko “YNk” Paunovic stepped in. While the team had a close run against hometown favorites, Grayhound, eventually the Aussies topped the defending champions 2-1, giving the local audience much to cheer about.
With confidence backing them, Grayhound went on to face Swedish giants fnatic in the final decider game. After losing 16-2 on Overpass, the Aussie spirit brought them into overtime on Mirage, winning the map 19-16. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be for the Aussies, and they eventually lost the series 2-1 giving up their spot in the Quarter-Finals to fnatic.
With North American duo Liquid and NRG lying in wait in the semi-finals after topping their respective groups, the playoffs will kick off today at 15:00 (AEST) with an exciting clash between mousesports and MIBR, followed by a Swedish classic between NiP and fnatic.
Below you can find the schedule for the playoffs, which will culminate with a best-of-five title decider on Sunday at 15:00 (AEST):
Friday, May 3rd
15:00 – ??mousesports vs. ?? MIBR | BO3
18:50 – ?? NiP vs. ?? fnatic | BO3
Saturday, May 4th
15:00 – ?? Liquid vs. ?? mousesports / ?? MIBR | BO3
18:50 – ?? NRG vs. ?? NiP / ?? fnatic | BO3
Sunday, May 5th
15:00 – Grand Final | BO5
CSGO2ASIA will be reporting LIVE from the Qudos Bank Arena. Be sure to stay tuned to our Twitter and Instagram for more current updates.
Check out our interviews from this event:
?? FREEMAN – “I AM HAPPY TO PLAY FOR ANY TEAM IN ASIA: ENGLISH OR CHINESE SPEAKING”
?? XETA – “IF WE DELETED CS:GO, THEN I THINK THAT WOULD BE THE END OF CS IN KOREA.”
?? D4V41 – “I JUST NEED TO FIND A WAY TO OVERCOME THAT BIT OF FEAR AND I WILL BE OK.”
