Day three was an eventful one for the Spring Showdown, as Ninjas in Pyjamas clashed with Cloud9 for a spot in the EU final, while Complexity faced old rivals Imperial and FURIA took on Evil Geniuses in the North American quarterfinals.
Prior to the start of the Showdown, many would have had Cloud9 penciled in as the hot favourite to progress on the European side. On the Russian’s map pick of Ancient, they showed us all exactly why they were the bookmaker's favourite, decimating NiP 16-8 off the back of marvelous performances from the dynamic duo of Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov and Dmitriy "sh1ro" Sokolov, going 23-8 and 21-11 respectively.
Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen and co. were not just going to roll over and die however, bouncing back on their own pick of Overpass, shutting out the CIS roster 16-10 following a dominant CT performance which netted them 11 rounds.
A strong 7-1 start on Vertigo for NiP had Cloud9 looking rattled, however Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov rallied the troops and put on a clinic. Cloud9 dominated the Ninjas by winning 15 of the next 16 rounds, closing the map out 16-8 and setting up a finals matchup against the winner of BIG vs 9ine which is set to take place tomorrow.
NA darlings Complexity has developed quite an interesting rivalry with Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo’s Imperial. The Brazilians eliminated Complexity from the IEM Rio RMR in October, with Complexity recently getting revenge at ESL Pro League by eliminating Imperial in last place.
With an identical veto to their EPL clash, Complexity did what they couldn’t do in their previous clashes. Win Imperial's pick of Inferno, doing so this time 16-12 following a stellar T-side.
While Complexity was finally able to take Inferno from Imperial in the opening, the Brazilian side was able to achieve what they had failed to do in their last two encounters. Win Complexity’s map pick. At EPL Complexity edged out Ancient in a tight 16-14 affair, however this time around, Jhonatan "JOTA" Willian dominated the NA team with a whopping 31-10 stat line in the 16-10 affair.
In their previous two encounters, both series have been decided on Overpass and both have required multiple overtimes to separate the two. This time around, no overtimes were required as Imperial moved on to the semifinals of the showdown with a 16-12 win on the final map.
Represented by their EG Black lineup, Evil Geniuses shocked the community as they took down top Brazilian side FURIA. Starting off incredibly strong with a 9-4 lead on their T-side, EG were unable to sustain their success as FURIA’s experience shun through, taking EG's map pick 16-11.
Heading over to Mirage, EG Black shocked not only FURIA, but the entire community, with a complete domination of the Brazilians. Winning the first half 13-2, both Jeorge "Jeorge" Endicott and Paytyn "junior" Johnson dominated with the AWPer specifically crushing his former team with a colossal 1.82 rating and 24-7 stat line.
Building on the momentum of Mirage, junior put on a clinic on Inferno with an insane 31-13 statline as Evil Geniuses pulled off the shock victory coming all the way back from 13-6 to close out the game 16-13 and set up a clash against Imperial on Saturday.
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