Cloud9 take down Gambit, to semi-finals
Cloud9 began Overpass with a quick B-push on their CT side, which immediately shut down Gambit’s attempt to take control around sewers. From here Cloud9 took the standard 3-0 lead, building up their economy with Jake “Stewie2k” Yip on the MP9. The first gun round went the way of the CIS side as they pushed their way onto B, but Cloud9 answered right back to break Gambit’s economy.
Three more rounds went the North Americans way as Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham began opening up the map with his AWP. Once again Gambit picked Cloud9 apart one by one for another round, and once again Cloud9 shattered the CIS economy. This time however, Gambit’s force-buy broke through Cloud9’s A site hold, breaking Cloud9’s economy in turn.
Will “RUSH” Wierzba was able to save an AK during Cloud9’s save round, but that was all they took from it as Gambit picked up one more. Timothy “autimatic” Ta picked up four kills on the B defense for his side, giving them their ninth round. At this point Gambit had already warmed up into the half, and went on the take the last two rounds to bring the score to 9-6 in the North American’s favor.
The second half of Overpass began with a huge quadruple kill by Bektiyar "fitch" Bahytov, but Gambit couldn't convert and lost to Cloud9's force-buy. In the follow-up rounds, RUSH and Stewie2K cleaned up the Gambit players to bring C9 up to 12 rounds. When the CIS side finally got some rifles, Mihail "Dosia" Stolyarov prevailed in the B defense, and kept the hopes of Gambit on their map pick alive.
Gambit then proceeded to tie up the game at 12-12, and gained a lot of momentum going into the final rounds of the game. After Gambit acquired match point, Cloud9 put together their best effort, and fought all the way back to 15-15 with an ace by RUSH to beat the heroics of Abay "HObbit" Khasenov.
The first half of overtime went 2-1 to Gambit after two close retake wins. The Kazakh team then rolled Cloud9 on the second half and closed out the first map 19-16.
Like the previous map, Cloud9 began Cobblestone with a pistol round win featuring some clean kills by Stewie2K. Skadoodle then helped C9 to a quick 4-0 lead on the T side. The rest of the half was very back and forth, with Cloud9 keeping a staunch lead, but Rustem "mou" Telepov, fitch, and HObbit pulled it back for Gambit to secure a 7-8 scoreline.
autimatic secured a perfect pistol round record for the map with a big USP-S defense on the A site. The other half of the Asia duo also put in work to help push Cloud9 up to 11, but they couldn't win the gun round. Tarik "tarik" Celik wasn't interested in losing however, as a big quadruple in round 20 kept Cloud9 in the driver's seat.
tarik continued racking up kills and despite the NA squad making it to 14, Gambit didn't give up; HObbit got some key entries onto the B site, and allowed the CIS team an opening. Stewie shuts down the Gambit comeback with a huge AWP play at the B statue which led to Cloud9 taking map two 16-11.
The final map in the series began with a strong pistol round by tarik, who racked up four frags and a defuse for his team. Gambit answered immediately back, and both teams proceeded to each win a few rounds in a row before losing a few in return. Dosia and tarik both picked up triples leading into a very important round 10.
Gambit took the B site by storm and gave themselves a very strong grip on the rest of the first half. Skadoodle, with a bit by RUSH as well, steppedup big once again and allowed his team to climb back to seven rounds, which Cloud9 converted into an 8-7 half.
After winning the pistol, Gambit rocketed back into the lead, winning one gun round, but a big clutch by RUSH kept the deficit small for the Americans. Cloud9 eventually eliminated the deficit entirely, and mounted a strong offense, securing six rounds in a row. Gambit disrupted the Cloud9 terrorist side train for only a moment, but couldn't prevent the American side from taking the game 16-11 and the series 2-1.
Cloud9Gambit| Cloud9 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Tarik 'tarik' Celik |
74 - 57 | +17 | 83.7 | 73.0% | 1.27 |
| Tyler 'Skadoodle' Latham |
72 - 51 | +21 | 79.9 | 82.0% | 1.24 |
| William 'RUSH' Wierzba |
61 - 61 | +0 | 81.8 | 80.9% | 1.13 |
| Timothy 'autimatic' Ta |
59 - 61 | -2 | 72.6 | 74.2% | 1.00 |
| Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip |
56 - 62 | -6 | 71.9 | 62.9% | 0.99 |
| Gambit |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov |
82 - 59 | +23 | 86.7 | 77.5% | 1.26 |
| Rustem 'mou' Telepov |
56 - 66 | -10 | 72.8 | 68.5% | 0.98 |
| Bektiyar 'fitch' Bahytov |
54 - 71 | -17 | 66.0 | 69.7% | 0.92 |
| Dauren 'AdreN' Kystaubayev |
51 - 63 | -12 | 68.7 | 66.3% | 0.91 |
 Mihail 'Dosia' Stolyarov |
48 - 63 | -15 | 68.1 | 66.3% | 0.86 |
With this win, Cloud9 will advance to their sixth top four placing in a row. They will face the almighty FaZe Clan in their semi-final on Saturday to determine who will play in the grand final on Sunday. Tomorrow is a day off as the teams move to the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California.
