Favorites advance to ECS Season 8 Week 3 semifinals
Week three of ECS Season 8 saw Cloud9, FURIA, Evil Geniuses, and Complexity kick things off with wins, earning the quartet of teams spots in the semifinals.
The matchup between FURIA and Riot Squad was a back-and-forth affair across all three maps, with FURIA ultimately taking the series 2-1. A narrow 16-14 victory for FURIA on Mirage was responded to by Riot Squad, who were able to post an 11-4 T-side half on Inferno before eventually closing the map 16-13.
A strong showing from in-game leader Pujan "FNS" Mehta was not enough for Riot Squad to secure a win on the deciding map of Nuke however, with Yuri "yuurih" Santos and Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato combining to grant their side a 16-10 win.
FURIARiot Squad| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
65 - 47 | +18 | 82.3 | 77.6% | 1.26 |
| Henrique 'HEN1' Teles |
63 - 51 | +12 | 78.2 | 80.0% | 1.18 |
| Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
57 - 57 | +0 | 80.5 | 69.4% | 1.08 |
| Andrei 'arT' Piovezan |
50 - 61 | -11 | 65.6 | 62.4% | 0.93 |
| Vinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo |
49 - 56 | -7 | 59.7 | 67.1% | 0.87 |
| Riot Squad |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Pujan 'FNS' Mehta |
66 - 62 | +4 | 87.4 | 72.9% | 1.15 |
 Peter 'ptr' Gurney |
59 - 55 | +4 | 75.5 | 69.4% | 1.08 |
| Mitch 'mitch' Semago |
45 - 47 | -2 | 60.4 | 71.8% | 0.98 |
| Austin 'crashies' Roberts |
49 - 54 | -5 | 63.2 | 74.1% | 0.96 |
| Jonathan 'Jonji' Carey |
53 - 67 | -14 | 79.0 | 63.5% | 0.94 |
Following a last-place exit in their group for ESL Pro League, Cloud9 were able to overcome INTZ 2-1 for a slot in the semifinals as Timothy "autimatic" Ta led the way in frags over the course of three maps.
A dominant performance from Cloud9 on Train gave way to a tense battle for Mirage, with Lucas "DeStiNy" Bullo bouncing back from a dismal first map performance to put up impressive numbers alongside Alexandre "xand" Zizi and Bruno "shz" Martinelli to help their side to a 25-23 victory. Nonetheless, a truly stunning performance from autimatic on Nuke proved too much to overcome as the player found 31 frags to help Cloud9 to a 16-11 win to close out the series.
INTZCloud9| INTZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bruno 'shz' Martinelli |
71 - 65 | +6 | 81.8 | 65.7% | 1.08 |
| Alexandre 'xand' Zizi |
70 - 68 | +2 | 73.2 | 67.7% | 1.05 |
| Lucas 'destiny' Bullo |
71 - 78 | -7 | 75.3 | 70.7% | 1.03 |
| Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedes |
55 - 73 | -18 | 71.5 | 65.7% | 0.92 |
| Gustavo 'yel' Knittel |
54 - 70 | -16 | 63.3 | 64.6% | 0.86 |
| Cloud9 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timothy 'autimatic' Ta |
95 - 62 | +33 | 100.3 | 78.8% | 1.42 |
| Kenneth 'koosta' Suen |
72 - 69 | +3 | 81.1 | 68.7% | 1.10 |
 Oscar 'mixwell' Cañellas |
70 - 69 | +1 | 71.2 | 73.7% | 1.04 |
| Damian 'daps' Steele |
62 - 63 | -1 | 72.1 | 68.7% | 1.01 |
| Tyson 'TenZ' Ngo |
54 - 59 | -5 | 62.9 | 70.7% | 0.93 |
Evil Geniuses made short work of the ex-Singularity mix in their own quarterfinal matchup, having previously played and defeated a trio of players on the lineup in week one. Although ex-Singularity kept things close in the opening half of Dust2 at 7-8, the side swap had Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte and company concede just two rounds to swiftly close things out 16-9. A crushing performance on Mirage saw Evil Geniuses offer no opportunity for a third map, dominating ex-Singularity 16-2 to take the series.
ex-SingularityEvil Geniuses| ex-Singularity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue |
29 - 35 | -6 | 77.0 | 69.8% | 1.07 |
| Ben 'ben1337' Smith |
23 - 32 | -9 | 63.5 | 55.8% | 0.75 |
| Brenden 'stellar' McGrath |
21 - 34 | -13 | 66.2 | 60.5% | 0.72 |
| Robert 'robby' Brown |
20 - 33 | -13 | 53.8 | 65.1% | 0.71 |
| Gage 'Infinite' Green |
22 - 37 | -15 | 61.5 | 58.1% | 0.65 |
| Evil Geniuses |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
45 - 24 | +21 | 96.0 | 79.1% | 1.56 |
 Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov |
36 - 25 | +11 | 85.2 | 79.1% | 1.34 |
| Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold |
29 - 20 | +9 | 84.6 | 83.7% | 1.31 |
| Tarik 'tarik' Celik |
32 - 21 | +11 | 78.3 | 79.1% | 1.26 |
| Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz |
28 - 25 | +3 | 71.2 | 74.4% | 1.11 |
After falling to Liquid in their ESL Pro League Season 10 opening matchup, ATK were looking to bounce back against Complexity. A 6-1 start put Ian "motm" Hardy's side in control of their opponent's map pick of Vertigo early on, but a battle back from Complexity saw the two teams within one round of each other at halftime. A pistol victory gave ATK another trio of rounds to extend their lead, but once Complexity were on rifles, they only gave up two additional rounds on the road to a 16-13 finish.
Complexity's good form continued into Dust2 as they opened the map with a 6-1 lead of their own, with ATK able to claw back five rounds towards the latter portions of the half for a 9-6 scoreline. A quartet of rounds following another pistol win allowed ATK to briefly steal the lead at 10-9, but Complexity remained resilient as they rallied back to eventually take the map 16-13.
ATKComplexity| ATK |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ian 'motm' Hardy |
46 - 46 | +0 | 92.0 | 70.7% | 1.15 |
 Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
36 - 39 | -3 | 70.1 | 63.8% | 0.93 |
| Ricky 'floppy' Kemery |
40 - 46 | -6 | 73.1 | 67.2% | 0.91 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
37 - 42 | -5 | 63.8 | 62.1% | 0.88 |
| Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
28 - 42 | -14 | 55.8 | 65.5% | 0.82 |
| Complexity |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owen 'oBo' Schlatter |
54 - 34 | +20 | 87.1 | 70.7% | 1.33 |
| Shahzeb 'ShahZaM' Khan |
50 - 38 | +12 | 98.5 | 75.9% | 1.31 |
 Benjamin 'blameF' Bremer |
43 - 37 | +6 | 78.4 | 77.6% | 1.22 |
| William 'RUSH' Wierzba |
33 - 37 | -4 | 64.6 | 74.1% | 0.97 |
 Rory 'dephh' Jackson |
33 - 43 | -10 | 65.0 | 60.3% | 0.81 |
The semifinal matches of ECS Season 8 Week 3 are as follows:
| October 15th | |||
| FURIA |
vs. | Cloud9 |
5 PM EDT |
| October 16th | |||
| Evil Geniuses |
vs. | Complexity |
5 PM EDT |
