Only six teams remain at the $750,000 EPL Season Seven Finals now that the group stage has finished.
A hectic day of CS:GO in Dallas, Texas decided the first two semifinalists and four quarterfinalists for the championship bracket, which begins tomorrow. Natus Vincere edged out FaZe Clan in the Group A winners’ match and Astralis did the same against Team Liquid in the Group B winners’ match. In the lower bracket of the groups, Mousesports and SK Gaming emerged victorious over the likes of Renegades, Space Soldiers, and OpTic Gaming.
Related: Liquid and Astralis clinch playoff berths while C9 and NiP fall at the EPL Season 7 Finals
The winners’ matches were pretty straight-forward thanks to sweeps from Na’Vi and Astralis. Na’Vi surprised FaZe with two 16-12 showings led by Denis “electronic” Sharipov, who found his way up in the kill column above their usual top fragger Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev. Astralis’ consistency was stronger, however, since they minimized the impact of Liquid’s Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski and Nick “nitr0” Cannella, on two of their stronger maps (Nuke and Inferno). To no surprise, Astralis looked on point today even though there were occasional slip-ups.
The group B decider match was a much more contested game than the group A decider match though, with OpTic going the distance against SK. Clutches from North American star Jake “Stewie2k” Yip kept SK alive late into map one, but the Danes still won to no avail in round 30. SK then cleaned up the Green Wall on Dust II, before making a great CT side comeback on Inferno, which was spearheaded by Marcelo “coldzera” David. Despite their early exit, OpTic’s performance at the EPL Finals is proof that this iteration of the Green Wall can finally compete with the world’s best teams.
Group A
Winners’ Match
Natus Vincere vs. FaZe Clan (2-0)
- Na’Vi won Mirage 16-12
- Na’Vi won Nuke 16-12
Decider Match
Mousesports vs. Heroic (2-0)
- Mouz won Cache 16-9
- Mouz won Mirage 16-14
Group B
Winners’ Match
Astralis vs. Team Liquid
- Astralis won Nuke 16-10
- Astralis won Inferno 16-7
Elimination Matches
SK Gaming vs. Renegades
- SK won Cache 16-7
- SK won Mirage 16-11
OpTic Gaming vs. Space Soldiers
- OpTic won Inferno 16-4
- OpTic won Nuke 16-5
Decider Match
SK Gaming vs. OpTic Gaming (2-1)
- OpTic won Train 16-14
- SK won Dust II 16-6
- SK won Inferno 16-13
Tomorrow’s quarterfinal matches will feature a fierce bout between four of the world’s best teams—FaZe Clan, SK Gaming, Team Liquid, and Mousesports. The winners of those games will advance to the semifinals to play Na’Vi and Astralis on Saturday, May 19. Team Liquid vs. Mousesports will start at 12pm CT and the classic matchup of FaZe Clan vs. SK Gaming will follow at around 3:55pm CT.
