Cloud9 win the iBUYPOWER 2016 Spring Invitational after defeating Team Liquid 2-1 (17-19 on de_dust2, 16-7 on de_train, and 16-5 on de_cache).

The iBUYPOWER 2016 Spring Invitational marked the computer hardware company's return to an online tournament format, in a similar style to its Fall, Summer, and Spring Invitationals of last year, with ten teams dueling for $15,000 over two days this time around.

Easily the the biggest upset stories from the first day's bracket were the Brazilian teams Luminosity and Tempo Storm, who are currently ranked #4 and #12 in the world, fall by the wayside against Selfless and CLG respectively in their quarter-final matches.



freakazoid was the highest rated player throughout the iBP Spring Invitational

By the second day, the semifinals saw Cloud9 and Liquid advance to the best-of-three grand final.

The first map of de_dust2 first appeared as if it would be a complete blowout as Kenneth "⁠koosta⁠" Suen and teammates of Liquid ran over Cloud9's defenses to finish up with a 12-3 half. However, dynamic T-side executes from Jordan "⁠n0thing⁠" Gilbert and his team somehow brought Cloud9 forwards into an overtime situation.

In overtime however, Aleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev helped his team buckle down and take the first map 19-17.

With Liquid's apparent inability to close the second half perhaps being an indication of them being the weaker outfit, Cloud9 showcased strong T and CT sides on de_train to clinch the map 16-7.

de_cache was also a downwards spiral for Liquid with Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip, Ryan "⁠freakazoid⁠" Abadir, and n0thing all playing at their peaks and in the end Cloud9 closed out the map 16-5 (which included a game closing highlight moment courtesy of Mike "⁠shroud⁠" Grzesiek) and won the iBUYPOWER Spring Invitational 2016.

iBUYPOWER Invitational Spring 2016 Best of 3 Cloud9 Matchpage 2 1 Liquid 17 Dust2 19 16 Train 7 16 Cache 5

Cloud9 K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbertn0thing 69 - 46 +23 86.7 1.34 Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamSkadoodle 60 - 40 +20 74.7 1.30 Mike 'shroud' Grzesiekshroud 59 - 45 +14 76.9 1.22 Ryan 'freakazoid' Abadirfreakazoid 60 - 56 +4 84.3 1.18 Jake 'Stewie2K' YipStewie2K 57 - 55 +2 88.3 1.15 Liquid K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE 67 - 60 +7 100.3 1.24 Kenneth 'koosta' Suenkoosta 39 - 59 -20 65.3 0.81 Spencer 'Hiko' MartinHiko 46 - 60 -14 66.2 0.80 Aleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple 50 - 64 -14 58.4 0.77 Nick 'nitr0' Cannellanitr0 39 - 63 -24 61.0 0.76

iBUYPOWER Spring Invitational 2016 final standings:

stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter