Aurora dominate and PARIVISION clinch close game: BLAST Open Rotterdam quarter-finals recap

It’s playoffs time here at BLAST Open Rotterdam, and we kicked off proceedings with two banger games between Aurora and The MongolZ, and PARIVISION and Falcons.

Two games that were incredibly hard to predict, one was kept quite close, but the other was very much decided by who was finding it easier to click heads on the day.

cobrazera struggles as XANTARES and Wicadia thrive

Aurora went into their quarter-final against The MongolZ with a pretty poor record against their opponents, but the absence of coach maaRaa certainly turned the tide in the Turkish team’s favour.

The Turks were on top from the start, building up a 4-1 lead on their Inferno T side after The MongolZ won pistol. The Mongolians did fight back, though, they levelled the score by half time at 6-6, but their T side fell utterly flat as Aurora closed out the game 13-6 with XANTARES topping the scoreboard at 17-13.

Aurora kept up their momentum going into Mirage, they soon built up a 5-0 lead on their CT side. The MongolZ did have a response once more, just weaker this time, only managed to wrestle back four rounds by half time.

A quick three-round salvo put Aurora in control of the map in the second half, and although The MongolZ once again tried to fight back, the gap was just too large. The series came to an end at 13-9 with XANTARES putting in another strong map, but Wicadia pipped him to the top of the scoreboard with a monstrous 23-13 showing.

PARIVISION edge out Falcons

The second game of the day promised to be a closer affair, and while that was true, Jame’s squad still managed a 2-0 victory over their opponents.

It started in a horrible fashion for Falcons, PARIVISION raced to a 9-3 lead on their CT side as NiKo went 0-9. The Bosnian fared much better in the second half, picking up eight kills for his nine extra deaths, but the gap was too great, and BELCHONOKK’s 2.06, 15-10-rated T side saw PARIVISION close out the opening map 13-11.

Falcons started brighter on Ancient, they won their CT pistol and converted for a 2-0 lead, but Jame’s calling soon proved to be too strong, and PARIVISION soon found themselves with a narrow 7-5 advantage at the break.

PARIVISION then extended their lead on their CT side, winning three of the next four rounds via retakes as they took their tally to 11. Once again, Falcons responded, but once again, it wasn’t enough, BELCHONOKK carried his strong first map into the second and PARIVISION closed it out 13-10.