SK beat G2 in the first quarterfinal match of the day, 2-1. The Brazilian team started out losing Nuke, 6-16, but then won Train, 16-5, and Dust2, 16-3. SK will go on to face Astralis tomorrow in the semifinals.

The first map, Nuke, saw SK take the first pistol round after Lincoln "⁠fnx⁠" Lau got the last trade of the round and defused G2’s A plant. The French team then started to exploit the outside area creating walls of smokes and penetrating SK’s defenses for a 3-2 lead. To change it up, G2 then quickly took the inside site forcing SK on an eco, which they also won for a 5-2 lead. SK were quick to adjust, making their B holds stronger winning a couple rounds, but G2 managed to stay ahead with a 6-4 lead.

G2 started to run away with an 8-4 lead, but a few deagle headshots gave the Brazilian side an eco win to not completely fall off the map. The French team didn’t take long to strike back, though, as a quad kill by Alexandre "⁠bodyy⁠" Pianaro on A site gave G2 the advantage back. After winning the last round of the half, G2 had a comfortable 10-5 lead going into the CT side.



G2 had a good showing on Nuke, but weren’t able to keep it up

Having lost the pistol round SK seemed in a dire situation, but with the bomb having been planted, the Brazilian side would get an early buy in the half. After a very poor eco round, and with a broken buy in the third, G2 were able to stop SK’s inside push for a 13-5 lead, and putting the Brazilian side back into an eco. The French-Belgian team quickly snatched the map, 16-6, to go into Train.

The second map, Train, has been SK’s playground as of late. The French side, however, didn’t seem intimidated as they were able to take the first pistol round with Adil "⁠ScreaM⁠" Benrlitom going huge with three kills and the defuse. The Brazilian side didn’t put their chin down, though, and the following round went their was as G2 messily ran right into SK’s players.

With 3-1 in SK’s favor, Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon came out with a nutty round killing four of SK’s players to get his team back on track to a 3-3 tie, forcing the first timeout of the map to be called. Quickly, though, it became clear SK were going to be the dominant side on Train, running away with a 4-9. G2 were able to take a round after a tactical timeout with doubles by bodyy and ScreaM, but then allowed SK to take the last round of the half, going down 10-5 in the half.

With a CT side pistol win SK showed they weren’t playing around and took every round of the side to win the map 16-5.



SK kept their calm and strolled through the last two maps of the series

The last map, Dust2, was as good as any for G2, who have a storied history in the desert map. The Brazilian side, however, started imposing their own law early on, taking the first five rounds of the map without breaking a sweat, giving up a total of five deaths. On the seventh round, G2 were finally able to bring it to SK on an upgraded pistol buy as a great individual effort by ScreaM with three kills got his team on the board.

That was the end of the half for the French team, though, as they only managed three total rounds for a 12-3 deficit. Taking long and planting on A, Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David and Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo won a 2vs2 against shox and bodyy to take the 13th round and put G2 against the ropes. With G2 trying to force buys but unable to get anything good, SK had no trouble closing out the map and match, 16-3.

IEM Oakland 2016 Best of 3 G2 Matchpage 1 2 SK 16 Nuke 6 5 Train 16 3 Dust2 16