Cloud9 push past FURIA to lock-in playoffs
The Russian-Kazakh Cloud9 squad has locked in playoffs in ESL Pro League Season 16 following a 2-0 win over FURIA. The win came off the back of a one-sided win on Mirage to start things off before a labored match on Overpass sealed the deal.
Mirage began with Cloud9 in the driver's seat, as they won their opening CT-side pistol round before climbing up to a 5-1 scoreline. The half ended in Cloud9's favor thanks to a strong CT-side performance from Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov. After switching sides, Cloud9 won their second pistol round of the series and then went on to win the following three rounds to cement an impressive 14-5 lead. Mirage ultimately ended 16-8 in C9's favor thanks to the deadly duo of sh1ro and Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov.
After a relatively one-sided affair on Mirage, Overpass started off looking like more of the same, as Cloud9 claimed their third pistol round of the series. This pistol-round win snowballed into a dominant 8-2 start for the Russian squad. However, the Brazilians finally had something to say towards the end of the first half as they rebounded with the last five rounds to close the round difference to a single rounds. On their T-side, FURIA finally won a pistol round, but were unable to covert the following round, allowing Cloud9 to hold onto their lead.
This tight battle continued into the 27th round, where for the first time in the map, FURIA clinched a lead at 14-13. However, Andrei "arT" Piovezan's troops were unable to keep the battle going as Cloud9 ultimately prevailed in the 30th round. Round 30 notably saw Ax1Le hold the A-site with a 3k defense against a pistol rush from FURIA that looked set to at least get a bomb plant.
Cloud9FURIA| Cloud9 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov |
42 - 20 | +22 | 79.0 | 81.5% | 1.43 |
| Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov |
42 - 36 | +6 | 83.5 | 75.9% | 1.22 |
| Timofey 'interz' Yakushin |
31 - 23 | +8 | 65.0 | 83.3% | 1.13 |
| Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov |
39 - 35 | +4 | 83.2 | 72.2% | 1.12 |
 Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov |
33 - 35 | -2 | 72.0 | 59.3% | 1.00 |
| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
35 - 34 | +1 | 72.1 | 70.4% | 1.09 |
| Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
37 - 39 | -2 | 86.4 | 64.8% | 1.02 |
| André 'drop' Abreu |
31 - 36 | -5 | 67.0 | 61.1% | 0.92 |
| Andrei 'arT' Piovezan |
24 - 41 | -17 | 54.3 | 51.9% | 0.68 |
| Rafael 'saffee' Costa |
22 - 38 | -16 | 46.9 | 55.6% | 0.65 |
