Space Soldiers will be in the playoffs after beating PRIDE, 2-1, in the Group B decider match.

The first map of the Group B decider was Mirage, where PRIDE took the early lead after winning the terrorist-side pistol round and the anti-ecos. However, Space Soldiers were quick to bring it to a 4-4 tie and then take the lead for the first time in the half in the following round as Ahmet "⁠paz⁠" Karahoca was able to kill Maciek "⁠Luz⁠" Bugaj in a 1vs1 as the Polish player tried to plant. Following it up against an eco, Space Soldiers took the 6-4 lead, prompting PRIDE to call the first timeout.

Getting into stride, the Turkish team won back-to-back rounds on defense with a particularly in form paz who had several multi-kill rounds. Finally, an A execute worked for the terrorists as they were able to plant on A and defend the bomb from the retake and going to the half trailing 5-10 to the Turks.

The second half started with Space Soldiers playing contact on B and picking up the pistol round, but PRIDE won the pistol force and kept stacking rounds, including one in which Tomasz "⁠ToM223⁠" Richter won a 1vs1 against Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli for a close defuse to keep his side on the road to a comeback. Without giving Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş & co. a chance in the rest of the half, PRIDE did indeed turn the match around not giving up a single round since the pistol for a 16-11 victory.

The second map, Cobblestone, started very much the same way as the Turks took took a big lead on the defending side despite losing the pistol round but winning the second round. PRIDE’s players were unable to come up with solutions to make it through Space Soldiers’ defenses, running into a wall round after round for a very big deficit at the half.

Down by an astonishing 3-12 at the half, PRIDE really needed to win the pistol round, and they did, but an incredible ace by Buğra "⁠Calyx⁠" Arkın on the force-up the following round got the Turks closer to the decider map. It wasn’t going to be that easy, though, as the CTs were able to win their own pistol buy in big part thanks to a triple by Paweł "⁠reatz⁠" Jańczak around A long.

XANTARES & Co. made it past PRIDE for a spot in the playoffs

With both teams finally on a full buy, paz got an incredibly speedy double on B platform to open up the round allowing Space Soldiers to plant, defend, and get the economic advantage in the following rounds. The Turkish team then took the map, 16-7, to push the match to the decider on Train.

Space Soldiers started on the CT side, and XANTARES kicked the round off with a double entry which was followed up by a triple by paz to give their side the first round. After winning two anti-ecos, Space Soldiers were able to keep going on the first gun round stopping PRIDE’s late round A execute.

Finally on the sixth round the Poles were able to get on the board, planting on A in a 3vs2 superiority, killing MAJ3R in drop and forcing XANTARES to save an AWP. The Turks were then able to win the following two rounds, though, pushing PRIDE into a large deficit and a full eco. Having bashed the Poles and their glocks, Space Soldiers took a solid 8-1 lead.

For the third time in a row, Space Soldiers were absolutely dominant during the first half of a map, taking i 12-3 ahead of the pause. Coming back on the attacking side, Space Soldiers were unable to seal the deal as PRIDE won the pistol round to stay alive. Having lost the two ecos, Space Soldiers were able to take the first gun round with an A execute, securing the afterplant. Following it up for a 14-6 lead, PRIDE were put into a full cz75 buy which they were unable to win. Space Soldiers then closed it out, 16-6, for a spot in the playoffs.

Europe Minor - ELEAGUE Major 2018 Best of 3 Space Soldiers Matchpage 2 1 PRIDE 11 Mirage 16 16 Cobblestone 7 16 Train 6