MLG: Columbus – Day 2 Recap

The second day of the MLG: Columbus major tournament saw quite some overtimes and surprises as the first teams were about to be eliminated from the tournament.

mousesports vs. FlipSid3 Tactics 31:28

Map: de_Cobblestone, Best-of-One

The first match of the day was a pretty chaotic battle between the German team of mousesports and the Ukrainian team of FlipSid3 Tactics on de_cbble. The game began with FlipSid3 leading by three rounds after winning the pistol. With the scoreline 07:01 in favour of the CIS team, mousesports called a tactical pause. In the end, FlipSid3 brought the scoreline to a 12:03 before heading into the second half.

Thanks to a clutch one on one from mousesports NiKo, the German team kept their tournament hopes alive. Buying in the third round, FlipSid3 succeeded but failed to build on that win as mousesports hit back with a force buy. With the scoreline at 09:13 still in favour of the CIS team, Andrey "B1ad3" Gorodenskiy secured another round with a three kill. The pressure on the German team was high but the team showcased great fighting spirit to equalize the score at 14:14. Chris "ChrisJ" de Jong pulled off a great clutch with his AWP but FlipSid3 rescued the final round, taking the game to the first overtime.

The overtime began well for mouz as they managed to get a 02:01 advantage but FlipSid3 woke up and answered to bring it to another overtime. Losing the first two rounds in a row, mousesports managed to secure the three following rounds in a row but failed to capitalize on a 5 vs. 2 advantage. The back and forth continued throughout the third and fourth overtime. Bringing it down to a match point once again in the fifth overtime, with ChrisJ's 1vs.1 victory secured the 29:28 lead after the first half. NiKo managed to win another clutch round, this time 1vs.2, with the German team securing two more rounds to the final score of 31:28.

FaZe Clan vs. Splyce 16:03

Map: de_Inferno, Best-of-One

In the second match of day two at the MLG: Columbus 2016 we saw the battle between the European team FaZe and the North American team Splyce on de_inferno. FaZe started strong into the match as they successfully took the B side, securing round after round as the North American squad could not find a solution. After a timeout it looked like Splyce had found an answer as they grabbed their first round but lost the following one despite a 5 vs. 3 advantage. Desperately looking for more rounds, a force-buy worked out quite well. However it was too late, as the first half ended 12:03 in favour of FaZe.

With Splyce losing the pistol round and the following round, FaZe had no trouble to finish the job with a 16:03 scoreline.

EnVyUs vs. Gambit Gaming 13:16

Map: de_cache, Best-of-One

In the third elimination match in Columbus, defending champion EnVyUs met Gambit Gaming on de_cache. With the unexpected loss against Counter Logic Gaming, the defending Major champions were with their backs against the wall only one match away from getting eliminated in the group stage. Gambit Gaming opened the series with a mid push in the pistol round. Mihail "Dosia" Stolyarov won the clutch 1 vs. 1 in the buy round EnVyUs, however, was everything but defeated and managed to tie the score line 05:05. With Gambit Gaming struggling to execute proper buy rounds at the end of the first half, the French team won the first half 09:06.

The Russian team once again won the pistol and the following rounds with Yan "waylander" Rahkonen finding entry frag after entry frag. With a mixed buy at match point for Gambit Gaming at 15:09, EnVyUs finally managed to secure their 10th round but it already was too late as Gambit ultimately closed out the match with a 16:13 score.

G2 eSports vs. Cloud9 16:03

Map: de_Dust2, Best-of-One

Last but not least we had the French G2 eSports facing off against the North American team Cloud9 on de_dust2. Kicking things off was Kevin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans with an all-headshot quad-kill, furthermore showing great plays onwards. Everywhere Cloud9 tried their luck they run into a wall until the scoreline was 11:00 but unfortunately one attempt after another got ripped apart by Droolans. Following a force-buy, shroud replied with a quad-kill himself for the 12:03 half time score in favour of the Belgian-French mix. With another two triples, one executed once more from Richard "shox" Papillon and one from Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom, it did not take long for G2 to send Cloud9 packing with 16:03.

Luminosity Gaming vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas 16:05

Map: de_Mirage, Best-of-One

Who would be the first to advance to the quarter finals at MLG: Columbus 2016? We were about to find out as Luminosity was about to face off against Ninjas in Pyjamas on de_mirage. Group A winners match started with a back-and-forth trade between both teams until NiP managed to pick up two in a row after the 03:03 tie. Thanks to two doubles, Lincoln "fnx" Lau once again tied the scoreline to a 05:05. Eventually the Brazilian team managed to overcome the Swedish team, ending the first half with 10:05 in their favour despite fribergs efforts with a triple kill on his own.

Lau then continued where he stopped in the first half, winning the pistol round with another triple kill. Two anti-Eco rounds later, the Brazilian team executed a B side strategy, pushing further towards match point and ultimately to win the match against the Swedish team with 16:05.

Team Liquid vs. fnatic 22:19

Map: de_Dust2, Best-of-One

Will there be hope for the North American CS:GO scene? We were about to find out as Team Liquid had to take on the Swedes from fnatic on de_dust2. After a great retake on A side in the pistol round, fnatic lead 02:00. Thanks to a 1vs.2 clutch from EliGE, the third-round buy went well for Team Liquid. However, fnatic kept their things together in the following round. Late in the first half the North American team managed to turn the 01:05 deficit into a 10:05 advantage as fnatic seemed to have disappeared from the server.

Stomping fnatic in the pistol round of the second half with their build up momentum only to get punished by the eco of fnatic. The Swedes took more and more rounds to tie things up at 11:11. Both teams traded rounds with Liquid coming out on top only to see fnatic striking back to bring the scoreline to a 15:13. The Swedes, however, were unable to finish the job as Liquid won the final rounds and forced an overtime.

The North American side started the first overtime with a 02:01 as defender. HiKo then brought his team to match point with a stellar performance after the bomb was planted on B side. Failing to carry on the momentum, fnatic took the match to another overtime. Following the pattern of the first overtime, the second one saw Team Liquid lead 02:01 as attacker. After switching sides, fnatic seemed broken as even the called timeout from the Swedes could not change the outcome of the series. The North American team won 22:19, advancing to the quarter finals.

Counter Logic Gaming vs. Astralis 09:16

Map: de_Overpass, Best-of-One

Who would come out on top of group C? We were about to learn next as the North American team Counter Logic Gaming was about to met the Danes from Astralis on de_overpass. Starting off with a 03:00 as defender, CLG lost the first buy round against a clean B execute from Astralis. Luckily the North American team managed to crush their opponents economy the next round as hazed found the triple with his five seven. It took two more rounds until the Danes started to picking up a couple of rounds with some B side executes. CLG managed to secure two almost clean rounds for a 08:07 halftime scoreline.

Winning the pistol round again, the Danes let the North American squad come to a 09:09 tie before Astralis powered their way to a 16:09 victory.

Natus Vincere vs. Virtus.Pro 16:04

Map: de_Cobblestone, Best-of-One

The last match of the day would determine the winner of group D as the CIS mix of Natus Vincere met the Polish team of Virtus.Pro on de_cbble. Na'Vi came out on top with a 06:00 lead when Virtus.Pro finally secured a round. That was quickly countered by Natus Vincere however, forcing the Polish team to deal with a hard reset while the CIS team enjoyed a comfortable lead with economic control. Little surprise, Natus Vincere took a commanding 12:03 half time lead.

More and more pressure for the Polish team as Na'Vi won the pistol round as defender with an amazing retake in a 2 vs. 4 situation. A desperate buy round in the following third round from Virtus.Pro failed to succeed. With the game at match point, VP took a round with a Tec9 push, delaying the inevitable as Natus Vincere secured their quarter-final spot right after with a 16:04 scoreline.

Stay tuned to Gosugamers.net for further recaps of MLG: Columbus, as well as other eSports related news.