SK outlast Gambit; headed for Boston
The first game where a returning Legend would be guaranteed to qualify for the Major playoffs saw the Brazilians of SK take on the reigning Major champions Gambit. The two sides took battle on Overpass.
SK began the game strong, taking the pistol round and the following anti-ecos. This started an extremely strong CT-side for the Brazilians, where Gambit were completely kept out of the match. With João "felps" Vasconcellos performing as if he never left the team, he secured multi-kill round after multi-kill round in a row.
Gambit finally secured a round after seeing eight fall away from them, before instantly seeing SK trade the following round. Gambit's second, and final, of the half followed up straight away after, but Marcelo "coldzera" David ensured his team kept on top, taking them to an essentially unassailable 13-2 lead.
The second half began with SK taking the pistol round, but lost the following round thanks to a Gambit forcebuy. After a dismal first half, Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev finally got into gear to try and helped stop the leak of rounds they were finding. Gambit started getting more comfortable on their CT-side, taking five rounds in a row whilst comfortably holding the bombsites.
Gambit continued this for one more round, with Bektiyar "fitch" Bahytov finally showing up by hiding in the B-site to speed up the retake. But SK secured match point, with coldzera performing some wonderful smoke play on B to secure the round. Gambit continued to press, taking three further rounds in a run for overtime.
But SK weren't letting anything else go, as coldzera took three kills of his own to stop the game there, with a 16-10 win.
GambitSK| Gambit |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Rustem 'mou' Telepov |
20 - 18 | +2 | 77.2 | 65.4% | 1.07 |
| Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov |
18 - 17 | +1 | 73.0 | 69.2% | 0.98 |
| Dauren 'AdreN' Kystaubayev |
13 - 19 | -6 | 64.0 | 69.2% | 0.89 |
 Mihail 'Dosia' Stolyarov |
12 - 16 | -4 | 65.2 | 73.1% | 0.85 |
| Bektiyar 'fitch' Bahytov |
8 - 19 | -11 | 39.8 | 53.8% | 0.66 |
| SK |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Marcelo 'coldzera' David |
23 - 11 | +12 | 84.5 | 80.8% | 1.47 |
| João 'felps' Vasconcellos |
23 - 14 | +9 | 90.7 | 80.8% | 1.41 |
| Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
17 - 12 | +5 | 82.5 | 76.9% | 1.23 |
| Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga |
15 - 17 | -2 | 62.7 | 69.2% | 0.90 |
| Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
11 - 17 | -6 | 51.7 | 61.5% | 0.69 |
This result sees SK qualify for the Major playoffs, becoming the first returning Legend side to do so. It sends Gambit into the 2-2 games for a final chance of qualifying. Next up at the Major will be the final round four match between fnatic and Natus Vincere.
