NRG beat 5POWER, HellRaisers; through to IEM Shanghai Playoffs
Depending on your sleeping pattern, you were most likely asleep whilst NRG were barraging their way through the opponents that the Chinese city of Shanghai was presenting them in Group A.
5POWER was their opponent in the opening game of the group, and the North Americans found themselves in a fairly comfortable spot at the start of the match on Inferno. The first five rounds of the half went NRG's way, and it appeared a strong first half would be their's in this match. 5POWER managed to pull some rounds back, however, but NRG kept ahead for a 9-6 halftime lead.
The second half started with NRG taking the pistol round, but 5POWER won the immediate forcebuy and came within one round of evening the game up. The two teams then traded the following two rounds before NRG once again found form and saw Ethan "nahtE" Arnold take his team to the 16-10 win, also managing to take 102.3 ADR as well.
NRG5POWER| NRG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold |
21 - 15 | +6 | 102.3 | 73.1% | 1.51 |
| Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
26 - 14 | +12 | 93.2 | 84.6% | 1.50 |
 Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov |
16 - 16 | +0 | 71.4 | 73.1% | 1.09 |
| Jacob 'FugLy' Medina |
16 - 14 | +2 | 46.3 | 80.8% | 0.99 |
 Damian 'daps' Steele |
12 - 15 | -3 | 67.0 | 76.9% | 0.99 |
| 5POWER |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 ZhiHai 'QKA' Fu |
16 - 17 | -1 | 70.3 | 61.5% | 1.05 |
| Wei 'shuadapai' Wang |
16 - 16 | +0 | 59.0 | 76.9% | 0.92 |
 Bat-Enkh 'kabal' Batbayar |
15 - 17 | -2 | 66.7 | 69.2% | 0.90 |
| Peng 'xiaosaGe' Song |
15 - 21 | -6 | 72.8 | 61.5% | 0.82 |
| Gan-Erdene 'dobu' Batbold |
12 - 21 | -9 | 61.4 | 69.2% | 0.74 |
This lined them up with a winners match against HellRaisers, starting on Mirage. HellRaisers had the best of the opening game, taking ten of the rounds in the first half, after starting on the T-side and picking up the pistol round. With NRG only having two opportunities to string rounds together, they were 5-10 down at the end of the half.
Jordanian Issa "ISSAA" Murad was his team's stand-out performer this map, a fact that was well noticed as his team retained control of the game in the second half as they stormed to a 16-9 victory in the best-of-three match.
Overpass was a different beast, as NRG caught a good start on their T-side with the opening five rounds. However the European mixture weren't going to lie down against this threat and mounted a comeback that saw them even the rounds, then take a narrow 8-7 lead for the half.
The second half was close to pure domination for the North Americans, however. Securing the pistol round and following anti-ecos not before mounting a strong run to map point saw Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov reach a 1.72 rating in the map. Although HellRaisers secured a final round, NRG had the last laugh for a 16-10 win.
The decider map saw Train turn up to break the deadlock that had emerged. HellRaisers had started off well on the first half, taking the first rounds of the map. But it was NRG who was the stronger team in the first half, battling past HellRaisers' single rounds to come out 9-6 leaders at the half time break.
The second half started with a trading of rounds before HellRaisers came close to evening the game up. Even though it was HellRaisers who were having some of the stronger performers on the map, it was NRG who came out on top, stabilizing their lead and taking the game with 16-11.
NRGHellRaisers| NRG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold |
58 - 48 | +10 | 82.4 | 76.9% | 1.27 |
| Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov |
55 - 45 | +10 | 75.4 | 78.2% | 1.16 |
| Jacob 'FugLy' Medina |
53 - 49 | +4 | 74.8 | 69.2% | 1.10 |
| Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
44 - 54 | -10 | 62.5 | 75.6% | 0.96 |
| Damian 'daps' Steele |
45 - 51 | -6 | 66.5 | 70.5% | 0.91 |
| HellRaisers |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Issa 'ISSAA' Murad |
60 - 45 | +15 | 70.1 | 71.8% | 1.16 |
 Kirill 'ANGE1' Karasiow |
50 - 55 | -5 | 77.4 | 64.1% | 1.03 |
| Vladyslav 'bondik' Nechyporchuk |
46 - 53 | -7 | 72.4 | 73.1% | 0.98 |
 Bence 'DeadFox' Böröcz |
49 - 54 | -5 | 67.5 | 70.5% | 0.93 |
 Kristjan 'fejtZ' Allsaar |
42 - 49 | -7 | 54.7 | 70.5% | 0.90 |
This result means NRG are through to the playoffs on Saturday, where they'll face the second placed team from Group B.
