DH Austin Day Two: Fragsters and Space Soldiers to semifinals
The final group stage games concluded in Austin, beginning with the elimination matches. In Group A, Fragsters had a difficult battle with Luminosity, before prevailing with a 2-1 win to reach the decider. Group B saw OpTic comfortably dispatch compLexity in two straight matches to keep their tournament going.
Group A's decider match was the first to take place, with eUnited and Fragsters set to face off on Nuke, Mirage and Cache. The Danish team took first blood by securing the first map, overturning a good start from eUnited which saw the American side take a 9-6 lead. But the second half saw a pistol round reset from eUnited as they looked to keep a lead, but Jacob "dragonfly" Lund's 32-kill monster performance saw them take nine straight rounds to claim a 16-12 lead.
Mirage was a much more dominant performance from eUnited. After a pistol round reset, they managed to run up an 8-1 lead on their T-side. A small run of rounds from Fragsters saw the half eventually be made closer at 9-6, but the Americans were still in control. With Michael "dapr" Gulino and Will "dazzLe" Loafman both topping the tables for their team, with 114.7 and 107 ADR respectively, they claimed all but one of the rounds in the second half for a 16-7 win.
Cache was the deciding map and, well, the Danes were in charge. From the opener to the end, they were ahead and winning rounds. A string of four in the first half from eUnited appeared to stem the tide, but youngster Martin "stavn" Lund helped his team to a dominant 16-4 win. This allowed Fragsters to claim the 2-1 win and head to today's semifinals.
eUnitedFragsters| eUnited |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Michael 'dapr' Gulino |
65 - 45 | +20 | 90.2 | 71.8% | 1.32 |
| Skyler 'Relyks' Weaver |
49 - 51 | -2 | 70.4 | 66.2% | 0.94 |
| Will 'dazzLe' Loafman |
41 - 51 | -10 | 69.9 | 66.2% | 0.92 |
| Brandon 'Ace' Winn |
35 - 48 | -13 | 46.6 | 67.6% | 0.78 |
 Kaleb 'moose' Jayne |
32 - 44 | -12 | 55.2 | 62.0% | 0.77 |
| Fragsters |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jacob 'dragonfly' Lund |
60 - 42 | +18 | 77.4 | 71.8% | 1.24 |
| Martin 'stavn' Lund |
53 - 56 | -3 | 87.9 | 66.2% | 1.15 |
| Lucas 'Bubzkji' Andersen |
45 - 42 | +3 | 79.8 | 67.6% | 1.10 |
| Ismail 'refrezh' Ali |
49 - 42 | +7 | 75.9 | 69.0% | 1.08 |
| Nicolai 'torben' Amorim |
32 - 40 | -8 | 46.0 | 69.0% | 0.86 |
The second decider was between Space Soldiers and OpTic, with the two teams battling on Mirage, Inferno and Train. The first map was a strong showing from the Danish team, with René "cajunb" Borg being the out-and-out strongest player on the server, hitting a1.52 rating. Bar a short period in the first half OpTic were ahead, forcing their way to a strong 16-7 win to start the series off.
Inferno followed, and this time Space Soldiers were on top. Overcoming a strong Danish start, the Turkish team rallied in the middle of the first half to manage to take a slim 8-7 lead at the half time before moving to their T-side. With Ismailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş on their side anything was possible for Space Soldiers, stamping a dominant display to take a 16-9 win.
Train was more of the same for Space Soldiers. Engin "MAJ3R" Küpeli helped ensure his team took a strong, dominant lead in the first half on their T-side, securing a 12-3 lead at the half. The second half began with the Turkish team edging closer to series point, with the first two rounds of the half, before OpTic started to mount a comeback. Managing to reach ten rounds, Space Soldiers put an end to it with help from Buğra 'Calyx' Arkın on 105 ADR for a 16-10 win.
Space SoldiersOpTic| Space Soldiers |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş |
63 - 52 | +11 | 90.1 | 77.0% | 1.33 |
| Buğra 'Calyx' Arkın |
58 - 44 | +14 | 84.8 | 75.7% | 1.19 |
| Engin 'MAJ3R' Küpeli |
51 - 45 | +6 | 72.0 | 67.6% | 1.07 |
| Ahmet 'paz' Karahoca |
51 - 48 | +3 | 70.7 | 68.9% | 1.00 |
| Engin 'ngiN' Kor |
29 - 46 | -17 | 56.4 | 67.6% | 0.78 |
| OpTic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| René 'cajunb' Borg |
56 - 46 | +10 | 73.1 | 68.9% | 1.15 |
| Jakob 'JUGi' Hansen |
47 - 44 | +3 | 70.6 | 67.6% | 1.06 |
| Nicklas 'gade' Gade |
48 - 53 | -5 | 74.3 | 68.9% | 1.02 |
| Kristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke |
45 - 54 | -9 | 64.5 | 66.2% | 0.88 |
| Marco 'Snappi' Pfeiffer |
38 - 56 | -18 | 73.3 | 62.2% | 0.86 |
The semifinals are set to begin at 11am EDT, with the final North American side remaining, Rogue, taking on Fragsters. The second is scheduled for 2pm EDT with Heroic taking on Space Soldiers before the final begins at 6pm EDT.
