SK take down OpTic, to face NiP in IEM Oakland semi-finals
The first pistol round of IEM Oakland's quarter-finals kicked off on Overpass with the Brazilian side in SK flawlessly execute on B site. The pistol secured, SK easily dominated OpTic on the ensuing anti-ecos to quickly work their way up to a 3-0 lead. Once again Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo led his team to B on the first gun round, but three kills from Kevin "HS" Tarn held strong for OpTic to take their first round.
A team ace in the following round from FalleN and co. crushed OpTic's economy, and FalleN went on to grab four frags in the next round while OpTic saved. The second gun round saw OpTic picking up three quick frags, SK finding only one in return. Epitacio "TACO" de Melo and Marcelo "coldzera" David combined in the infamous "TACOld" duo to secure this two-on-four for SK, continuing the Brazilians spree of dominance over the Europeans. One more round went SK's way, and it was here that OpTic grabbed their second round — this time without dropping any of their players. This would be the last round OpTic would take in the half as SK went on to run through the defensive side, closing out the half 13-2 with little difficulty.
TACO gave himself up on the second pistol round to draw OpTic's aim, allowing coldzera to quickly tap down three. The best player in the world then went on to take the last two kills, picking up an ace for himself. This locked OpTic out of the match, leaving them no way back in as SK closed out the map without issue 16-2.
SK had the advantage of starting on the CT side for OpTic's map pick of Inferno. The Europeans decided to take B on their pistol round, and Emil "Magisk" Reif took three kills to ensure that OpTic were able to take the first round of Inferno. SK kept the pressure up in the subsequent round, bringing it down to a one-on-one; however, they weren't able to close it out, and OpTic continued to build their lead. The first gun round went SK's way with TACold securing four kills to hold down A, but a reset immediately followed by the hands of OpTic as Magisk took three more kills.
Two more rounds went OpTic's way until SK were finally able to buy once again. At first it seemed that Adam"friberg" Friberg and co. would take this gun round too, but a poor rotation from OpTic allowed coldzera to clutch out a one-on-two for the Brazilian squad. This clutch put SK back in the match as they went on to tie up the game, and soon had control of the half as closed it out 9-6.
Another three-kill round from Magisk in the second pistol guaranteed the round victory for OpTic, but FalleN was able to get a bomb plant down with a quick rotation to enable a buy for SK in the third. A CT-split from SK gave them the B bombsite on their gun round, but coldzera was unable to close out this one-on-two and OpTic tied up the game. HS picked up a pair of three-kill rounds, one while SK saved and the other to hold down pit in the second gun round for the Brazilians.
Once again a bomb plant enabled another buy from SK, and this time they capitalized to take their second round in the half. A reset once again seemed on the horizon as SK were picked apart, but a trio of frags from coldzera in another two-on-four gave SK the round to tie up the match 11-11. FalleN and co. began running away with the half as they moved up to 14 rounds, picking apart OpTic's defenses on both sides of the map.
Friberg was finally able to take down two SK players on the B defense to help give his team their first round in five, but they only survived with two players going into the next. SK took advantage of OpTic's lack of money and ran over the Europeans on A, and quickly brought the map to a close in the following round to end the map 16-12.
SKOpTic| SK |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga |
46 - 29 | +17 | 109.7 | 71.7% | 1.57 |
| Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
36 - 28 | +8 | 87.1 | 80.4% | 1.34 |
| Marcelo 'coldzera' David |
38 - 25 | +13 | 83.0 | 76.1% | 1.30 |
| Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
35 - 22 | +13 | 70.2 | 71.7% | 1.19 |
| Ricardo 'boltz' Prass |
28 - 27 | +1 | 73.0 | 67.4% | 1.12 |
| OpTic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Emil 'Magisk' Reif |
33 - 34 | -1 | 66.3 | 58.7% | 0.89 |
 Aleksi 'allu' Jalli |
26 - 38 | -12 | 75.2 | 58.7% | 0.83 |
 Oscar 'mixwell' Cañellas |
25 - 39 | -14 | 72.6 | 58.7% | 0.82 |
 Kevin 'HS' Tarn |
27 - 34 | -7 | 65.2 | 54.3% | 0.80 |
 Adam 'friberg' Friberg |
20 - 38 | -18 | 55.5 | 60.9% | 0.63 |
SK move on to the semi-finals in Oakland, where they'll now take on the Swedes from Ninjas in Pyjamas. Cloud9 and Gambit will also face for a slot in the semi-finals, where the North Americans will look to succeed in place of Team Liquid.
