HellRaisers and Virtus.pro are the first two teams reaching playoffs at SL i-League Invitational Shanghai after defeating Heroic and Renegades, respectively, to top their groups.

In Group A's winners' match, Heroic and HellRaisers battled it out for the high seed going into the playoffs. The Danes started off well on their pick, Train, with a 5-1 lead early on as Terrorists. HellRaisers then got back on their feet, winning six out of the remaining nine rounds to switch over to the offense with seven on the board.

With the second pistol going the way of Kirill "⁠ANGE1⁠" Karasiow's squad, HellRaisers took control of the match and didn't let Heroic string rounds together until they reached map point at 15-10. Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer's side climbed to 13 but inevitably fell, with the in-game leader nearly turning around a 2v5 situation in the last round.

ISSAA led the way for HellRaisers

Heroic once again grabbed an early lead as Terrorists on the second map, Cache, but once their opponents got their first buys, the Danish squad was unable to penetrate the defense. HellRaisers locked down the first half with 10 rounds to their name and lost the second pistol round, but their full buys worked wonders once again and the European squad secured first place in the group at 16-8.

SL i-League Invitational Shanghai 2017 Best of 3 Heroic Matchpage 0 2 HellRaisers 13 Train 16 8 Cache 16

Heroic K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Nikolaj 'niko' Kristensenniko 35 - 33 +2 81.4 1.08 Jakob 'JUGi' HansenJUGi 35 - 35 0 69.3 1.03 Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferSnappi 38 - 45 -7 76.4 1.01 Andreas 'MODDII' FridhMODDII 28 - 36 -8 59.7 0.87 Patrick 'es3tag' Hansenes3tag 19 - 36 -17 54.0 0.65 HellRaisers K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Issa 'ISSAA' MuradISSAA 50 - 34 +16 101.5 1.43 Kirill 'ANGE1' KarasiowANGE1 43 - 37 +6 91.8 1.19 Patrik 'Zero' ŽúdelZero 36 - 26 +10 75.6 1.16 Kristjan 'fejtZ' AllsaarfejtZ 30 - 27 +3 64.5 1.07 Bence 'DeadFox' BöröczDeadFox 26 - 31 -5 51.5 0.94

Group B's match for first place saw Virtus.pro recover from a shaky day one, when they barely survived the opening battle against Flash. Renegades' pick, Cobblestone, was a one-sided affair, with the Poles securing 10 rounds as CT despite losing the pistol round. VP only conceded one round throughout the second half, going into map two with a 16-6 win in the bag.

Renegades went into Inferno with a much better look, getting off to a 6-3 start. A few individual plays kept Virtus.pro in the half, such as a 1v3 from Filip "⁠NEO⁠" Kubski and a 1v1 from Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski, which allowed the Polish side to switch over with eight rounds.

NEO kept Virtus.pro alive on the CT side of Inferno

Grabbing the first five rounds at the beginning of the second half with the help of Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas, who clutched a 1v3 up against a scary eco attempt from Renegades, VP got up to 13-7.

There was still life left in Noah "⁠Nifty⁠" Francis's team, who then got on the board thanks to the AWPer's triple, but after they grabbed four rounds in a row, the veterans regained control with an eco round victory to eventually finish off the series at 16-11, 2-0.

SL i-League Invitational Shanghai 2017 Best of 3 Renegades Matchpage 0 2 Virtus.pro 6 Cobblestone 16 11 Inferno 16