Vitality back to winning, Astralis flop - G2, Heroic advance: Spring Final day two recap
Day two was another day chocked full of exciting Counter-Strike action, and with a three-map loser match that went the full 90 rounds, there's plenty to go over.
Let's start with the Major champions, Vitality and their victory over Cloud9...
Vitality back to winning ways
The biggest surprise on day one was Vitality's torrid time against Imperial. A faltering performance Cloud9 clearly bought into too much; they made a huge mistake by expecting the BLAST.tv Paris Major champions to allow slip-ups on Overpass for a second match in a row.
The Russian team managed to keep Overpass close, but as he had all year, ZywOo was too hot to handle, and his 27 kills decimated both Cloud9's attack and defence.
An even closer map, ZywOo continued his strong performance on Anubis. Magisk also stepped up, and Vitality ended the series in overtime as they won 19-17.
Spare a thought for sh1ro and Ax1Le, the duo amassed 114 kills between them, but a meek 63 from buster and H0bbit helped sink the faltering Russians in this one.
Celebrations for apEX. Photo: Stephanie LindgrenG2 stay strong in D.C.
G2 have been outwardly disappointed with recent results, but they'll be happy with their showings in D.C. thus far.
Imperial might've given them a harder game than they expected, pushing them to a third map, but the individual strength of their side was enough to see them through to the semi-finals.
NiKo opened the series with an incredible performance on Ancient. The Bosnian finished 35-10 as G2 swept Imperial aside with a 16-7 scoreline.
Potentially a surprise to many fans, Imperial bounced back on G2's map pick with a 16-13 win on Inferno. chelo and VINI were the stars in map two, with the former getting a mean 1v3 ace clutch from a 2v5 situation.
Unfortunately for the Brazilians, they couldn't convert stealing G2's map pick into a victory, as they later fell on Nuke. They kept it close once again, with the score ending up 16-13, but a star performance from m0NESY gave G2 the juice to advance to the semi-finals.
It's always nice to see a smile on HooXi's face. Photo: Stephanie LindgrenAstralis and Complexity play 90 rounds
A best of three rarely involves 90 rounds without an overtime, but that's what we got with Astralis versus Complexity. The game of the day, it was the North American side that came out of the series the victors.
With Complexity winning both halves of their map pick Vertigo 8-7, their fast paced T side and stubborn CT side eventually got the best of Astralis. blameF and device both performed well, but the Danes just couldn't handle Complexity's attack well enough to amass enough CT rounds.
Astralis won their own map pick of Ancient thanks to another strong performance from blameF. The esteemed Lurker was constantly able to find space in Mid on both sides and turn rounds in the favour of his team. floppy outfragged him, but Complexity running out of steam and Buzz and Altekz putting their foot on the gas allowed them to prevail.
While Complexity won map three of Overpass, their victory was ultimately overshadowed by another uncharacteristically poor performance by device. After having his career worst Overpass game against FaZe, he struggled again as stand-in Sonic consistently ripped his head off with a Deagle.
A strong team performance from Complexity. Photo: Stephanie LindgrenHeroic up, FaZe down
The second Winners match of the day, Heroic overcame FaZe to book themselves a place in Saturday's semi-finals.
Nuke was an incredible team performance by the Danes, targeting FaZe IGL karrigan on their T side as every player finished with 20+ kills in a 19-16 overtime victory.
Moving into their own map pick of Inferno, Heroic were firmly in the driving seat, and with a 10-5 T half, they were firmly in the final straight. cadiaN, stavn, and jabbi all performed strongly again as, once again Heroic displayed why they are one of the best teams in the world.
Heroic in the huddle. Photo: Stephanie LindgrenWhat to expect from playoffs
While Astralis and Cloud9 will now be heading home, there's still plenty of Counter-Strike left to be played.
In tomorrow's quarter-finals, we'll see the Imperial vs Complexity rivalry continue as the NA side will be extra hungry to play in front of their home crowd. In the second game of the day, Vitality take on FaZe in what is sure to be a banger series.
As for G2 and Heroic, they will have to wait until the end of tomorrow to see who they face in Saturday's semi-finals.