NiP take down Astralis; SK outlast EnVyUs in overtime
One of the first two matches of IEM Oakland saw Astralis taking on NiP with their coach, Danny "zonic" Sorenson, in place of their star player Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz. The other had EnVyUs facing SK on Cobblestone.
Overpass began by Astralis securing the pistol round and ensuing anti-ecos with simple A site defenses, thanks in part to three quick kills from Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjaerbye. NiP were able to take control of the early portion of the half once they got onto their gun rounds, quickly picking up seven rounds for themselves, with Astralis only able to take one in between. The Swedes weren't able to shut the rest of the half down as Astralis did take three more rounds, but the last round of the half also went NiP's way allowing them to win the half 8-7.
A one-on-three clutch from William "draken" Sundin net NiP an important pistol round - one that they capitalized on for the rest of the half. The Ninjas took the economical advantage they had from their first round victory and began to dismantle Astralis' offensive side. Round after round the Ninjas held down their sites, and retook when necessary. This led to them shutting down Astralis' T side completely to reach 14 rounds. It was here that Astralis finally picked up two rounds of their own. A wallbang from Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg got the Swedes an early pick on their next gun round, and from there they were able to take match point for themselves. Astralis answered back by resetting the CTs, but after NiP saved for a single round they were able to close out the match 16-11.
Ninjas in PyjamasAstralis| Ninjas in Pyjamas |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Patrik 'f0rest' Lindberg |
23 - 17 | +6 | 77.6 | 81.5% | 1.32 |
| Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund |
19 - 15 | +4 | 82.9 | 70.4% | 1.22 |
| William 'draken' Sundin |
20 - 17 | +3 | 78.7 | 74.1% | 1.14 |
| Fredrik 'REZ' Sterner |
19 - 18 | +1 | 76.0 | 70.4% | 1.07 |
| Richard 'Xizt' Landström |
14 - 20 | -6 | 73.3 | 70.4% | 0.89 |
| Astralis |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Markus 'Kjaerbye' Kjærbye |
22 - 19 | +3 | 87.7 | 66.7% | 1.16 |
| Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander |
17 - 16 | +1 | 64.2 | 70.4% | 1.02 |
| Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth |
17 - 17 | +0 | 64.8 | 74.1% | 1.01 |
| Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen |
18 - 21 | -3 | 80.0 | 70.4% | 0.96 |
| Danny 'zonic' Sørensen |
12 - 22 | -10 | 58.4 | 70.4% | 0.79 |
SK and EnVyUs was a far closer affair. The Frenchmen and the Brazilians traded sets of rounds back and forth for both halves, where we saw Cédric "RpK" Guipouy finding massive first picks for EnVy. This was countered by Marcelo "coldzera" David and Fernando "fer" Alvarenga who showed why they're a fearsome duo - fer finding opening frags, and coldzera sitting back and mopping up frags himself.
Despite the duo on SK, EnVy were able to pressure SK's economy throughout the match, on both their CT and T side. This went both ways, where we saw teams picking up chunks of rounds - three rounds for one, four for the other, and so on. These rounds sprees came to an end as we reached overtime, where Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo began picking up multi-kills alongside coldzera. The Frenchies did reach match point in the first overtime, but were unable to push past SK's B site hit. From here SK took control of the map, giving up only one more round in the second overtime to close out the match.
EnvySK| Envy |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Cédric 'RpK' Guipouy |
44 - 28 | +16 | 105.9 | 69.0% | 1.42 |
| Alexandre 'xms' Forté |
30 - 31 | -1 | 72.7 | 76.2% | 1.09 |
| Vincent 'Happy' Schopenhauer |
31 - 32 | -1 | 84.7 | 64.3% | 1.05 |
 Adil 'ScreaM' Benrlitom |
27 - 29 | -2 | 73.5 | 66.7% | 1.01 |
| Christophe 'SIXER' Xia |
12 - 32 | -20 | 42.8 | 61.9% | 0.61 |
| SK |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga |
36 - 28 | +8 | 108.0 | 69.0% | 1.37 |
| Marcelo 'coldzera' David |
36 - 29 | +7 | 85.0 | 76.2% | 1.17 |
| Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
30 - 26 | +4 | 73.5 | 71.4% | 1.16 |
| Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
33 - 29 | +4 | 73.0 | 64.3% | 1.03 |
| Ricardo 'boltz' Prass |
17 - 32 | -15 | 51.0 | 59.5% | 0.64 |
