PLG Grand Slam Day 2: Sharks make semifinals, INTZ forced out in quarters
The second day of the PLG Grand Slam has concluded, seeing the group stage finish and the first round of the playoffs take place. INTZ advanced to the quarterfinals, but fell to forZe, while Sharks took the win against TYLOO in their playoff match.
To reach that point though, INTZ first took down Chosen5 in the Group D elimination match. The Brazilians kicked off the map being down 0-4 on Cache, but made a great comeback on the Terrorist side to finish the half with a 9-6 lead. The new team captain João "felps" Vasconcellos put up an impressive 29 kills and 135 ADR to propel INTZ through a quick second half, helping to secure the map 16-8.
Chosen5 wasn't able to get any momentum going on Mirage, with the first half going 11-4 for the Brazilian team. Alexandre "xand" Zizi was the main force for INTZ on map two, with six entry kills, leading his team to a comfortable 16-9 map win.
Chosen5INTZ| Chosen5 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Omar 'VIPPEER' Adwan |
42 - 35 | +7 | 90.1 | 63.3% | 1.12 |
| Omar '3ARK00Z' Elyyan |
37 - 38 | -1 | 74.5 | 53.1% | 0.94 |
| Mohammad 'Zerocool' Ahmad Issa Al-Adwan |
20 - 37 | -17 | 59.5 | 53.1% | 0.66 |
| Yazid 'laTal' Kurdi |
22 - 36 | -14 | 47.0 | 65.3% | 0.65 |
| Mohammad 'Foolz' Subhi Tawfiq Abdel-Rahman |
10 - 40 | -30 | 43.3 | 38.8% | 0.41 |
| INTZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 João 'felps' Vasconcellos |
50 - 26 | +24 | 118.1 | 77.6% | 1.59 |
| Alexandre 'xand' Zizi |
41 - 26 | +15 | 85.4 | 71.4% | 1.40 |
| Vito 'kNgV-' Giuseppe |
37 - 30 | +7 | 76.0 | 71.4% | 1.17 |
| João 'horvy' Horvath |
29 - 23 | +6 | 57.0 | 75.5% | 1.09 |
| Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedes |
27 - 28 | -1 | 60.6 | 67.3% | 1.01 |
In a rematch of the initial match, INTZ took on B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape in the Group D decider. Much unlike their previous game, INTZ held control on both Dust 2 and Train, which they lost yesterday. This resulted in two strong map victories 16-10 and 16-4 to advance to the playoffs.
![BOOT-d[S]](https://img-cdn.hltv.org/teamlogo/A4xH0MX3yekEnWtPlXc-jM.png?ixlib=java-2.1.0&w=50&s=5804e38fdac966b635450afd6da9b730 "BOOT-d[S]")
BOOT-d[S]INTZ| BOOT-d[S] |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Kumaresan 'Tommy' Ramani |
26 - 37 | -11 | 57.5 | 58.7% | 0.78 |
| Anthony 'ImpressioN' Lim |
26 - 36 | -10 | 67.5 | 54.3% | 0.77 |
| Benjamin 'moxie' Kou |
22 - 38 | -16 | 52.7 | 54.3% | 0.60 |
| Nevin 'splashske' Aw |
19 - 41 | -22 | 51.6 | 50.0% | 0.54 |
| Leslie 'Bobosaur' Soen |
18 - 40 | -22 | 63.3 | 43.5% | 0.53 |
| INTZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alexandre 'xand' Zizi |
45 - 21 | +24 | 98.1 | 78.3% | 1.60 |
| João 'horvy' Horvath |
39 - 21 | +18 | 85.7 | 82.6% | 1.44 |
| Vito 'kNgV-' Giuseppe |
38 - 21 | +17 | 77.3 | 82.6% | 1.42 |
| Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedes |
38 - 23 | +15 | 86.1 | 82.6% | 1.41 |
| João 'felps' Vasconcellos |
32 - 25 | +7 | 91.2 | 80.4% | 1.26 |
The first half of Inferno between Sharks and 5POWER was very contested, with Sharks edging the lead in the end 9-6. Wei "shuadapai" Wang put up a strong defense for the Asian team, with the rock solid CT side resulting in 5POWER winning map one 16-13. Sharks didn't lose hope though, as a huge Terrorist half on Cache put the Brazilians up 11-4 at the half.
They couldn't close it out in regulation however, with 5POWER securing overtime. Raphael "exit" Lacerda stepped up for Sharks on this map, racking up 28 kills and a 82% KAST, resulting in a 19-15 win to tie the series. This seemed to have broken the 5POWER side, as a 14-1 half on Train and another good map by exit helped Sharks to win map three 16-5 and the series 2-1.
Sharks5POWER| Sharks |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raphael 'exit' Lacerda |
73 - 52 | +21 | 94.4 | 82.1% | 1.36 |
| Leonardo 'leo_drk' Oliveira |
67 - 58 | +9 | 84.8 | 73.8% | 1.23 |
| Renato 'nak' Nakano |
63 - 57 | +6 | 85.0 | 66.7% | 1.10 |
| Rodrigo 'RCF' Figueiredo |
56 - 58 | -2 | 73.8 | 76.2% | 1.08 |
| Jhonatan 'jnt' Silva |
48 - 50 | -2 | 55.4 | 70.2% | 0.91 |
| 5POWER |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Gan-Erdene 'dobu' Batbold |
56 - 61 | -5 | 76.3 | 69.0% | 1.04 |
 Wei 'shuadapai' Wang |
52 - 55 | -3 | 67.6 | 77.4% | 1.02 |
| Bat-Enkh 'kabal' Batbayar |
56 - 65 | -9 | 70.9 | 64.3% | 0.97 |
| ZhiHai 'QKA' Fu |
60 - 63 | -3 | 72.9 | 69.0% | 0.96 |
| Peng 'xiaosaGe' Song |
51 - 63 | -12 | 68.8 | 63.1% | 0.92 |
In the playoffs, Sharks took on the pride of Asia in TYLOO. Even though they lost the pistol round, TYLOO put up an exceptionally strong half, racking up 11 CT rounds on Cache. Sharks weren't out yet however, as Leonardo "leo_druNky" Oliveira and co. put on a masterful comeback, managing to win 16-14 on map one.
The Brazilian side kicked off the second map strong, going up 5-0 and ending the half 9-6 ahead. Once again it was exit who stepped up for Sharks, with the 22 year old leading his team to a 16-6 victory on Mirage and 2-0 for the series.
TYLOOSharks| TYLOO |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Hansel 'BnTeT' Ferdinand |
35 - 37 | -2 | 84.3 | 73.1% | 1.07 |
| HaoWen 'somebody' Xu |
37 - 37 | +0 | 77.7 | 59.6% | 1.03 |
| Hui 'DD' Wu |
31 - 39 | -8 | 69.7 | 69.2% | 0.91 |
| Kevin 'xccurate' Susanto |
37 - 40 | -3 | 65.5 | 63.5% | 0.88 |
| Ke 'captainMo' Liu |
22 - 35 | -13 | 49.6 | 73.1% | 0.82 |
| Sharks |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raphael 'exit' Lacerda |
44 - 34 | +10 | 89.3 | 84.6% | 1.34 |
| Jhonatan 'jnt' Silva |
37 - 29 | +8 | 76.2 | 71.2% | 1.18 |
| Leonardo 'leo_drk' Oliveira |
38 - 35 | +3 | 79.5 | 73.1% | 1.15 |
| Renato 'nak' Nakano |
34 - 31 | +3 | 75.3 | 78.8% | 1.14 |
| Rodrigo 'RCF' Figueiredo |
35 - 33 | +2 | 67.4 | 71.2% | 1.06 |
INTZ's quarterfinal match pit them against forZe who surprised early on in the tournament, beating G2 16-11 in their opening match. The Russians continued to impress and surprise, as they dominated INTZ on both maps. On Dust 2, forZe put up a 13-2 half, and with Jenya "FL1T" Lebedev at the helm, they closed it out 16-4.
The second map was essentially a repeat, with a 13-2 half time lead for forZe. This time it was the in-game leader Andrey "Jerry" Mekhryakov who stepped up for the Russian side, and helped to close out the map 16-3 and the series 2-0.
FORZEINTZ| FORZE |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Andrey 'Jerry' Mekhryakov |
40 - 12 | +28 | 96.3 | 84.6% | 1.77 |
| Evgenii 'FL1T' Lebedev |
41 - 16 | +25 | 99.1 | 87.2% | 1.66 |
| Bogdan 'xsepower' Chernikov |
33 - 18 | +15 | 78.8 | 87.2% | 1.47 |
| Almaz 'almazer' Asadullin |
34 - 25 | +9 | 99.2 | 82.1% | 1.44 |
| Dmitriy 'facecrack' Alekseyev |
29 - 26 | +3 | 97.2 | 84.6% | 1.37 |
| INTZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedes |
22 - 33 | -11 | 67.7 | 53.8% | 0.68 |
| Vito 'kNgV-' Giuseppe |
20 - 37 | -17 | 68.1 | 53.8% | 0.67 |
| Alexandre 'xand' Zizi |
21 - 35 | -14 | 70.3 | 51.3% | 0.63 |
| João 'felps' Vasconcellos |
18 - 37 | -19 | 60.5 | 51.3% | 0.59 |
| João 'horvy' Horvath |
16 - 35 | -19 | 48.8 | 46.2% | 0.49 |
With these quarterfinal results, Sharks will advance to the semifinals, where they will play G2 tomorrow (tonight). INTZ find themselves eliminated from the event, and will look to prepare for the Americas Minor taking place in January.
