OpTic have sent Cloud9 packing following a nail-biting finish to their elimination match of Group A (2-1; Dust2 8-16, Overpass 16-12, Cache 19-17).

Cloud9 went with a B split in the initial pistol round, which yielded them three rounds in a row. They used the same tactic in the following gunround as well to reach 5-0.

The individual players of OpTic then stepped up, with William "⁠RUSH⁠" Wierzba and Oscar "⁠mixwell⁠" Cañellas putting up eight crucial kills over the next three full buys, which made the scoreline even at 5-5.

Cloud9 then regained the lead on the back of great play from Tyler "⁠Skadoodle⁠" Latham and Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip, and secured a 9-6 half. When the sides switched, Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta's quad-kill gave them the second pistol round and a 12-6 lead.



Cloud9 took control of the match early on

The next two gunrounds were exchanged and OpTic had to eco, which Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic turned around with quad-kill. Replying with an eco round win of their own, Cloud9 took control of the rest of the map to win 16-8.

Cloud9 continued with their pistol round streak and got their third in a row as CT on Overpass and topped it off with two clean anti-ecos. OpTic then survived a retake on the A bombsite, but their economy was in shreds once they lost the following round to Stewie2K's aggression in middle.

Similar situations happened twice more, when OpTic won two more rounds during the rest of the half, one of which was an eco, but couldn't string more together and had to eco more often than not. That gave Cloud9 a 12-3 scoreline on the defense, though their opponents threw themselves a lifeline with their first pistol round win in the series.

The OpTic side secured the first full buy with RUSH winning a 1v1, and kept defending each site while everyone was pitching in with multi-kills. Only a few of the rounds were close, including one where mixwell defused in a 2v2 situation and another in which Jordan "⁠n0thing⁠" Gilbert had a solid chance in a 1v3. However, with a perfect defense, OpTic forced Cache following a 16-12 victory.



OpTic put up a perfect defense on Overpass to come back from a 3-12 deficit

OpTic started out well on the decider, picking up a 4-1 lead before Cloud9 took over. Two A attacks gave n0thing's team the economic advantage, which saw them getting five rounds in a row. RUSH's triple then defended another attack towards the same bombsite, but OpTic found themselves with no money once again after they lost the following round, while Cloud9 got a 10-5 half.

As n0thing needed an extra second to defuse the bomb, a close pistol round went OpTic's way along with the following two rounds and the first gunround on B. With that, Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz's team made the score even at 10-10.

The rounds kept going back and forth afterwards, which would have worked against Cloud9 had they not won a couple of eco rounds on the back of Stewie2K's plays, including a quad-kill with a sole AWP. The second eco win pushed the score to 14-13 in their favor, but OpTic broke their opponents' economy in turn after they made a fake tactic work. After winning the anti-eco, OpTic got the entry kill but couldn't turn it into a round win, as the decider went to overtime.

The rounds continued to go back and forth, but it was OpTic who got the better of their Terrorist half. autimatic and Skadoodle then turned a 2v5 situation around, but OpTic still still secured the series after NAF got five crucial kills in the last two rounds.

ECS Season 2 Finals Best of 3 OpTic Matchpage 2 1 Cloud9 8 Dust2 16 16 Overpass 12 19 Cache 17

OpTic K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Tarik 'tarik' Celiktarik 63 - 65 -2 78.7 1.08 Keith 'NAF' MarkovicNAF 62 - 59 +3 77.0 1.06 William 'RUSH' WierzbaRUSH 57 - 56 +1 71.7 1.04 Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguzstanislaw 58 - 61 -3 72.7 1.00 Oscar 'mixwell' Cañellasmixwell 57 - 67 -10 71.2 0.88 Cloud9 K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Jake 'Stewie2K' YipStewie2K 69 - 60 +9 89.2 1.21 Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamSkadoodle 67 - 54 +13 78.4 1.14 Timothy 'autimatic' Taautimatic 67 - 62 +5 84.3 1.11 Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbertn0thing 53 - 61 -8 65.7 0.93 Mike 'shroud' Grzesiekshroud 52 - 61 -9 66.2 0.93

The Brazilian battle will now follow in Anaheim, Immortals will face SK in Group B's elimination match shortly.