MIBR and fnatic eliminate Cloud9 and FaZe at ELEAGUE Premier
MIBR and fnatic have survived to see another day in Atlanta, defeating Cloud9 and FaZe respectively in the two elimination matchups of the tournament.
The day began with MIBR's matchup against Cloud9, with Inferno, Cache, and Overpass set to be the American battlegrounds. Cloud9's pick of Inferno was up first in the series, and MIBR was set to kick off the match on the CT side.
The first pistol round of the series went the way of the Brazilian-American squad to grant them the standard 3-0 lead after the ensuing anti-ecos were secured. Though the first gun round was claimed by Cloud9, an immediate reset saw Maikil "Golden" Selim and co. forced back onto pistols.
From here on in the CT side seemed easy for MIBR as Jake "Stewie2k" Yip and Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo combined to shut down any hopes of Cloud9 attacking B site, while Fernando "fer" Alvarenga and Marcelo "coldzera" David ensured few openings were given on the other side of the map. Reset after reset saw Cloud9 manage only three more rounds in the half, resulting in MIBR putting up an 11-4 half going onto their T side thanks to a deagle 3k by Tarik "tarik" Celik.
Cloud9's fate on Inferno was quickly sealed as the second pistol round also went the way of MIBR, and with the ensuing anti-ecos in hand FalleN and co. swiftly brought the map to a close with a 16-5 scoreline.
Cache seemed set for Cloud9 to suffer a similar fate as once again Golden's side found themselves economically reset after losing the first gun round. MIBR shot up to a 7-1 lead before Cloud9 finally managed a response, with Will "RUSH" Wierzba helping to narrow the deficit to 5-8 before MIBR took the final two rounds of the half for a 10-5 lead.
Yet another pistol round went the way of MIBR, granting them all four pistol victories in the series thus far. Cloud9's third round buy granted a small opening for the squad, but that hole looked to be filled as MIBR found match point at 15-8. A comeback was on the cards as Cloud9 fought back round-after-round to even the score at 15-15 with major contributions from Golden and RUSH.
The fairytale comeback was put to an end by MIBR in overtime. Despite Cloud9 finding two of the initial three rounds, FalleN was able to rally his troops once they were on the T side to reclaim the lead, and brought the map to a close 19-17 to advance to the Group A decider match.
Cloud9MIBR| Cloud9 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Timothy 'autimatic' Ta |
39 - 38 | +1 | 74.9 | 70.2% | 1.12 |
| William 'RUSH' Wierzba |
36 - 47 | -11 | 71.1 | 70.2% | 0.90 |
 Maikil 'Golden' Selim |
37 - 47 | -10 | 71.2 | 61.4% | 0.85 |
 Martin 'STYKO' Styk |
27 - 40 | -13 | 53.8 | 66.7% | 0.78 |
| Tyler 'Skadoodle' Latham |
27 - 41 | -14 | 56.8 | 59.6% | 0.75 |
| MIBR |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga |
44 - 31 | +13 | 90.5 | 82.5% | 1.36 |
| Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip |
47 - 43 | +4 | 93.6 | 82.5% | 1.30 |
| Marcelo 'coldzera' David |
49 - 30 | +19 | 79.9 | 73.7% | 1.25 |
| Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
41 - 30 | +11 | 70.4 | 80.7% | 1.23 |
| Tarik 'tarik' Celik |
32 - 33 | -1 | 69.3 | 86.0% | 1.05 |
Shortly after Cloud9's demise at the hands of MIBR, FaZe took on fnatic in Group B's elimination matchup. FaZe's pick of Dust2 was up first, with Mirage and Overpass drafted as the remaining two maps.
Dust2 kicked off with a short back-and-forth between the two sides, seeing FaZe come out on top after four rounds were split between the two sides. The European side worked their way up to a 8-2 lead before fnatic found themselves able to reply, with Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson stepping up for the Swedish side to narrow the lead to 9-6 in favor of FaZe at the half.
KRIMZ and Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovacs went head-to-head as FaZe moved over to the CT side. A pistol round victory put the Europeans in a good position to close out the map as a 12-6 lead greeted them, but fnatic repeatedly exploited FaZe's rotations to put their economy in turmoil. From here fnatic found themselves a number of openings to evne the score at 13-13, but it was FaZe who would reach match point first after rounds were once again traded between the sides.
FaZe had a chance to close out the map as they sat upon match point, but four kills from Richard "Xizt" Landstrom on catwalk ensured that the series would be headed to overtime. It was here that the Swedes crushed the remainder of FaZe's hopes on map 1 as four rounds went fnatic's way to close out Dust2 19-15.
Mirage would see a similar back-and-forth battle early on as the first eight rounds were heavily contested by both sides, with pistols coming out on top of rifles repeatedly. The trading was finally put to a stop by fnatic as the Swedes found four rounds in a row, extending their lead to 10-4 despite heavy contention from FaZe in almost every round.
Nikola "NiKo" Kovac's best efforts were not enough for FaZe, even on the T side. Numerous openings by the Bosnian granted the European team a chance in almost every round, with Finn "karrigan" Anderson and co. attempting to fight back for a third map. fnatic were the first to claim match point as Jesper "JW" Wecksell and KRIMZ combined to put their side in touching distance of a series win at 15-10, but NiKo and GuardiaN were having none of it as they helped FaZe put up four rounds to bring the deficit to a minimum.
Round 30 saw JW step up on B site to give fnatic enough time to rotate against FaZe's site hit, and with a stacked site against them, FaZe were unable to complete their comeback and fell to fnatic 16-14.
fnaticFaZe| fnatic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson |
53 - 38 | +15 | 87.3 | 75.0% | 1.31 |
| Jesper 'JW' Wecksell |
51 - 44 | +7 | 85.9 | 75.0% | 1.20 |
| William 'draken' Sundin |
36 - 45 | -9 | 70.2 | 73.4% | 1.02 |
| Richard 'Xizt' Landström |
48 - 48 | +0 | 71.5 | 70.3% | 0.99 |
| Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist |
36 - 49 | -13 | 75.1 | 60.9% | 0.86 |
| FaZe |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač |
60 - 45 | +15 | 82.4 | 73.4% | 1.24 |
| Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer |
47 - 47 | +0 | 92.4 | 79.7% | 1.15 |
| Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács |
44 - 42 | +2 | 81.6 | 75.0% | 1.09 |
 Håvard 'rain' Nygaard |
37 - 45 | -8 | 65.0 | 73.4% | 0.92 |
 Finn 'karrigan' Andersen |
36 - 45 | -9 | 66.9 | 64.1% | 0.88 |
FaZe and Cloud9 have both been eliminated from ELEAGUE Premier, giving the players a chance for respite as the August player break now looms. Cloud9's roster remains uncertain as Martin "STYKO" Styk and Golden remain stand-ins, while FaZe will have the opportunity to practice with olofmeister as the Major draws near.
MIBR are set to once again face off against Liquid in the Group A decider match, with the winner moving on to face Na`Vi in the semifinals. fnatic will have to face mousesports to determine who will challenge the Danish juggernaut of Astralis in the second semifinals. The first group decider between MIBR and Liquid is set to kick off tomorrow at 2 PM EDT, with the Group B matchup playing out immediately afterwards.
