StarSeries i-League quarter finals see OpTic, ENCE, Vega Squadron, NRG advance

The first day of the CS:GO playoffs at the StarSeries i-League Season 6 in Kiev, Ukraine, pitted the following matchups:

OpTic Gaming vs. Renegades
ENCE vs. BIG Clan
Vega Squadron vs. Fragsters
NRG vs. North

In-between easy wins, there were some overtimes as well as immensely close maps to be seen. Hopefully, we will witness more of the same gritty Counter-Strike action as the teams advance further in the bracket.

OpTic Gaming glides past Renegades

OpTic Gaming has secured the first spot in tomorrow’s semi-finals in Kiev, Ukraine. The Danes presented a very strong counter-terrorist side on Dust 2 and then went on to quite swiftly close things out on t-side. The first map finished 16-8, and the Danish squad secured Renegades’ map pick. The whole OpTic lineup looked impressive, with Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke leading the way in terms of rating.

On OpTic’s map pick, Inferno, we saw more of the same. Renegades failed to stand their ground on ct-side and were on track to a complete blowout, losing the half 11-4. Fortunately, the Australian formation followed up with a good start on t-side but failed to retain the momentum. OpTic recomposed and successfully closed out the map and match with a 16-10 win on Inferno and 2-0 in maps.

k0nfig was the most impressive player for OpTic.

Despite making it to the playoffs, Renegades had a very underwhelming performance. This may be caused by the quite drastic roster changes. Recently, Sean “Gratisfaction” Kaiwai and Jay “liazz” Tregillgas joined the Renegades team, replacing Noah “Nifty” Francis and Karlo “USTILO” Pivac. It may take a while before the new players on the roster get properly acclimated, hence the disappointing performance.

ENCE turns things around, beats BIG

After winning a double overtime on the very first map, Overpass, BIG Clan failed to snatch one win of the remaining two maps. Overpass finished with a 22-20 score in favor of BIG, after a streak of amazing individual performances, such as a Tizian “tiziaN” Feldbusch’s 1v4 clutch or Owen “smooya” Butterfield’s 1v3 upset.

Unfortunately, the German team failed to put up the same kind of fight on Nuke and then on Train. ENCE kicked off things swiftly on their t-sides on both maps. On Nuke, BIG had a lot of trouble stopping the onslaught of terrorists, and therefore the half-finished 10-5 for ENCE. The German side attempted to stir something up on their t-side but only found success on the first four rounds. After that, a mix of lack of creativity and a solid performance from Jere “sergej” Salo (and ENCE in general) helped the Finnish side close out the map 16-9.

CS || We clinch it 🤩💥

We beat @BIGCLANgg 2-1 in a nail biter of a series and move on to the semi-finals at #StarSeriesS6 👊👊👊#EZ4ENCE #esportsfi pic.twitter.com/bNwQY5PP1s

— ENCE (@ENCE) October 12, 2018

On Train, smooya attempted to take things into his own hands. The Brit stood out from among his German teammates. Unfortunately, that was not enough to win the map as the rest of BIG just couldn’t find their rhythm. Yet again, a good t-side performance followed by fantastic defense on ct-side lead to ENCE winning the map 16-10 and advancing to the semi-finals tomorrow.

Vega Squadron too much for Fragsters

The CIS team, Vega Squadron, advances to the semi-finals after defeating Fragsters 2-0. On Dust2, a map that Fragsters has had a relatively good run on, was dominated by Vega, a team that played the map once in the past three months and lost the matchup. Ismail “refrezh” Ali and co. would attempt to push aggressively through tunnels to B site, yet as much as that worked in the past against such teams as Gambit, this time around none of that did. Vega Squadron looked prepared for Dust2 against Fragsters on ct-side.

On t-side one of the most exploited strategies was for Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov to sneak past in mid doors. More often than not that would result in a split B take and it worked time and time again. Fragsters just could not find a way of stopping chopper. The young Danish squad would put up more of a fight on ct-side after losing a disappointing 11-4 half. However, that was not enough and the CIS team would close out the game 16-10, on a map that they have not played on for a long while.

chopper was by far the most impressive player on both maps.

Fortunately, Cache came much closer in the end. Both teams felt very comfortable on t-sides. Vega would win the half 10-5 before switching to the counter-terrorist side. Then Fragsters would mount a comeback all the way to 11-8 and then 15-14. However, chopper’s yet again fantastic performance helped his side to close out the final round and clinch a spot in tomorrow’s semi-finals of StarSeries.

NRG advance to the semis after beating North

The last quarter-final of the day saw the American NRG take on the Danish North. Immediately, a very tight game emerged on the very first map, Train. The half ended with an 8-7 score in favor of North after a very back-and-forth matchup. NRG would steal the first three and last three rounds along with one more amid an eight-round streak on ct-side by North. The second half brought more of the same. North would finally pull away with a healthy lead of 13-9, but a joint effort of Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte and Ethan “nahtE” Arnold would finally strengthen NRG’s ct-side. This led to the Americans snatching a win on the first map, Train, with a 16-14 score.

Unfortunately for the Danes, map two, Overpass, would also be taken away by NRG. Yet again, we saw a very tight matchup, similarly to that on Train. NRG went on to win the half 9-6 after a respectable performance on t-side. North, after half switch, would then find some hope as the Danes stringed together six rounds in a row and built a healthy lead of 12-9. However, it was again nahtE that would step up as NRG recomposed and fired back with six rounds in a row as well. North would grab one more round before NRG closed out the game 16:13.

CLEAN SWEEP as we take down @TheNorthIsHere 2-0!

We take on @VegaSquadron tomorrow in the semifinals! #StarSeriesS6 pic.twitter.com/YzZs610p7E

— NRG (@NRGgg) October 12, 2018