After a couple of really rowdy weeks at the FACEIT Major, we nearly had a return to complete normality on Thursday, as the first quarter-finals took place. Two wonderful underdog stories came to an end, and two home talents departed stage left, no doubt to reappear in some future production, but for now forced to watch the action from the side lines. It would be too simplistic to simply say class told in the end, but when you break down the two games, it’s hard to say it was much more complex.

BIG v Na’Vi

The first quarter-final featured the UK player that has garnered more of the headlines to this point, Owen ‘smooya’ Butterfield, and he was up against the best player in the world, Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev, in a head-to-head AWP battle. Initially the map was Dust 2, but that was only for a brief period, as Na’Vi took a 16-2 win on map one, and made it clear this game was not going to be a contest.

That might surprise a few, as to this point BIG haven’t shown much fear, and should have been galvanised by their run at ESL One Cologne. When you add that to the fact smooya has already gone head-to-head with the likes of Ladislav ‘GuardiaN’ Kovács and done OK, it seems odd to think that he would go missing, but it was more a case of one team just not having the ball, or the ability to get it.

For some reason, Na’Vi and Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev s1mple seemed to know from the first minute that this was their game to lose, and their normally intense team atmosphere was punctuated by laughter and smiles quite regularly during the game. Denis ‘electronic’ Sharipov was just as dominant as s1mple, and by the end of map one it was clear who the first semi-finalist was going to be.

To their credit, BIG tried to regain some dignity on Nuke, but could only muster six rounds, and knew the game was over by half-time as they lost the famously CT-sided map 12-3 in the first half, while playing CT. Ioann ‘Edward’ Sukhariev and Egor ‘flamie’ Vasilyev were the top players for Na’Vi as the stars decided to share the spotlight, and it was only a couple of the BIG players who put up a fight, with Tizian 'tiziaN' Feldbusch and Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz leading the way for BIG.

It was a great run for the German team, but there are rumours behind the scenes that this might not be their five man group at the next event they attend, with smooya potentially looking for a move, to a ‘better’ team. For us, the timing on that would be wrong, as he needs the correct setup at this point in his career and has shown weaknesses that could become issues if the pressure were increased, but they are only rumours at this point.

MIBR v coL

Prior to click-off, there was more debate about who might win this game, mainly due to the fragility that MIBR have displayed on their journey to this point. The desk loves to repeat the statistic that this is the only team with five men who have won a major, but at times they have looked more like a team with no Major experience, and even the fans weren’t 100% sure this was going to be a simple encounter.

As game on unfolded, it looked as though we were in for another no contest, with the action on Train being about as one-sided as it gets. The North American mix did their best to make it interesting, and the result was more dominant than their display in-game, but it was Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David and Fernando ‘fer’ Alvarenga who stepped up, with the latter having his best game in a while.

That continued onto Inferno, which MIBR let through again for some reason, with fer joined at the top of the scoreboard not just by coldzera, but also Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo. None of the coL stars were really able to get going, and even the normally incorrigibly cheerful Jaccob 'yay' Whiteaker had a sombre expression on stage. As with BIG, there may have been an element of stage fright to their play, but it was more about the performance of MIBR than the failings of the Americans.

In truth, the simplest way to describe what happened to MIBR is that they remembered who they are. When you put their team on paper, it should win by an even wider margin in these scenarios, but there is still much healing to be done. For now, a Major semi-final is great compensation for all the hard work, and the unit really seem to believe they can win a title in London, against most conventional wisdom.

What did we learn?

Of Friday's winners, there is one team that looks a real threat at this stage, and it’s the black and yellow of Na’Vi that we expect to see in the final. MIBR are a fantastic team, but their tactical setup so far has shown holes, and there is a sense that they break under pressure, as Astralis demonstrated.

Add to that the fact Na’Vi have possibly the two best players in the world right now, a leader who has won a major, and less fear than a coked-up honey badger trying to find a snack. With all of that in mind, they are going to be very hard to stop, and even the awful FACEIT tech setup is nothing to worry about for a CIS team.

FalleN and his team will be working on a solution for the problem, but the answer for Na’Vi is s1mple, and electronic. They have the talent to blow any team out of the water, and although MIBR have made massive progress to make it this far, it will be a surprise if they come through on Saturday against the CIS mix, who have to be second-favourites to win the event now, behind only Astralis.

Picture: r/99beastwood