SK comfortably dispatch Cloud9; take 2-1 record
With all the North American sides taking battle in the small hours, Cloud9 and SK were up next. The two sides were set to face off on Cache, Inferno and Train.
Cache began with SK securing the pistol round and two anti-ecos on their CT-side, before a comfortable site take got Cloud9 onto the board. The two sides then traded rounds before Cloud9 ran to even the game up, including a round where Timothy "autimatic" Ta collected four kills.
Fernando "fer" Alvarenga and Gabirel "FalleN" Toledo then combined to keep prevent Cloud9 from claiming a lead, collecting three rounds in a row to keep their lead intact. Although the Americans secured the next two rounds to keep them in it, SK ended the half strongly with a retake and site defense to claim a 9-6 score.
The second half began with SK taking the pistol and two anti-eco rounds on their T-side, comfortably extending their lead. Cloud9 claimed the first buy round, thanks to autimatic keeping up his strong displays, but they couldn't capitalize in the next round.
With SK opening back up into the next two rounds, Marcelo "coldzera" David helped push his team to a stronger lead. Cloud9 then secured the following eco round, but couldn't push on to make a run of rounds, as SK then returned the eco to claim map point and then the win, at 16-8.
Inferno began once again with a SK T-side pistol round, with fer keeping up his monstrous display with four kills, followed up with the next two anti-eco rounds. The first buy round went Cloud9's way, with autimatic claiming four to defend the B-site. With Cloud9 looking like they were set to claim the next few rounds, SK came in with an eco to upset the balance.
The two sides then traded rounds but it was SK who kept the advantage, pushing on to take the next six rounds. With Cloud9 unable to get past coldzera's displays, the Brazilians secured the necessary rounds for a 10-5 lead at the half.
The second half began like the first, with SK taking the pistol round on their CT-side, meaning they secured all four in the match so far. The Brazilian side pushed on for the following anti-ecos before also securing the first buy round to put them on 14 rounds. With the end looking close, Cloud9 secured a forcebuy to keep them in with a shout.
The Americans secured the next two rounds, but with the weapons saved by SK they managed to secure their way into match point, and have Ricardo "boltz" Prass and fer combine to take down the Cloud9 push to secure a 16-7 win.
Cloud9SK| Cloud9 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Timothy 'autimatic' Ta |
40 - 36 | +4 | 93.2 | 68.1% | 1.22 |
| Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip |
26 - 38 | -12 | 70.0 | 70.2% | 0.88 |
| Tarik 'tarik' Celik |
28 - 34 | -6 | 69.9 | 68.1% | 0.88 |
| Tyler 'Skadoodle' Latham |
24 - 35 | -11 | 55.6 | 61.7% | 0.73 |
| William 'RUSH' Wierzba |
12 - 36 | -24 | 40.1 | 59.6% | 0.58 |
| SK |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Marcelo 'coldzera' David |
49 - 18 | +31 | 94.6 | 89.4% | 1.71 |
| Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga |
42 - 30 | +12 | 104.5 | 78.7% | 1.50 |
| Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
31 - 25 | +6 | 80.3 | 74.5% | 1.23 |
| Ricardo 'boltz' Prass |
32 - 29 | +3 | 69.6 | 72.3% | 1.06 |
| Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
25 - 28 | -3 | 57.4 | 80.9% | 0.93 |
This result sees SK go to tomorrow's 2-1 bracket, and Cloud9 drop down to join the 1-2 teams. The next games in Kiev are all European, with Astralis taking on Gambit starting next.
