This article is part of our CS:GO Recap series.
And then there were four. With the second day of DreamHack Austin in the books, the semifinal teams are set. While the North American hopefuls fizzled out, G2 Esports and Heroic made it into the playoffs with heads full of steam.
Heroic's heroics in Group A
Opening the day was a matchup between Luminosity Gaming and Heroic, and it wasn't even close, even if things didn't start off that way. LG actually got off on the right foot on Mirage in Game 1 by winning the first three rounds to take a quick 3-0 lead. From then on, though, its strategy seemed to be a bit off, as Heroic proceeded to go on a 16-7 run during the rest of the match to take a 16-10 win.
Based on LG's performance in the second game on Nuke, the poor finish to Game 1 seemed to break its will. Heroic opened up Game 2 with a whopping 12 straight rounds won before LG finally got on the board. LG managed to win a few rounds in the remainder of the game, but it wasn't nearly enough to stop Heroic from taking a 16-5 win to move on to the Group A winner's match.
After being bested by Gambit in the Group A winner's match on Friday, HellRaisers was lying in wait for Heroic in the Group A decider match on Saturday evening. Heroic carried all its momentum from the earlier match to take a quick 8-0 lead to start off on Nuke. HellRaisers couldn't muster any defense at any point in the match, which ended up as a 16-2 win in favor of Heroic.
Switching to Inferno for Game 2, Heroic once again dominated the first half. HellRaisers seemed to take far too long to make any adjustments, which allowed Heroic to take a 11-4 lead into the half. HellRaisers made things a bit interesting in the second half with seven rounds won, but Heroic stabilized long enough to take the 16-11 win and move on to face Immortals in the semifinals.
G2 asserts its dominance on Group B
Group B play got underway with G2 Esports taking on Team Liquid. Starting off on Cobblestone for the first game, the first half was one of the most closely contested of the day, with the teams trading sets of wins back and forth throughout the entire game. Liquid took a narrow 8-7 lead into the break and then won the first three rounds of the second half for an 11-7 lead. It was at that point that G2 kicked it into high gear with a dominant showing to take the first map 16-13.
Moving over to Train for Game 2, fortunes were flipped as Liquid put together a thoroughly successful strategy on the CT-side to coast to an 11-4 lead at the half. The high level of play moved right into the second half where Liquid easily found the wins needed to take the game 16-5.
In a decisive third game, G2 and Liquid faced off on Nuke, where G2 regained the swagger seen in the first game. A 4-0 lead turned into an 11-4 rout that was boosted with a nice five-win run to end the first half. Liquid tried to make things interesting with five wins of its own in the second half, but G2 was simply too far ahead and wrapped up the 16-9 win to claim the series.
The final series of the day was a very tight one between Cloud9 and G2 in the Group B decider match. The series got underway on Cobblestone, with C9 owning a 4-1 lead early before going into the half with a 10-5 lead. The North American squad's CT-side left a lot to be desired, though, as G2 went 11-2 in the half to lock up the 16-12 Game 1 win.
Game 2 reversed that script. G2 took a 10-5 lead into the half with a dominating first-half performance before Cloud9 shut down the French squad in the second half. Round after round of flawless rotations and executes eventually led to a 16-12 win of its own behind Mike "shroud" Grzesiek's 25/19 KD (kills/deaths) to force Game 3.
With a playoff spot on the line, the teams were all set to face off on Cache for the final game. Despite winning the pistol round, G2 quickly found itself floundering and down 5-3 early on in the game. Not intimidated by C9's opening rounds, G2 picked up wins in six out of the next seven rounds to close the half with a 9-6 lead. The second half became more of the same as G2 went 7-4 in the final 11 rounds to lock up the 2-1 series win and secure its spot in the playoffs against Gambit Esports.
With the playoff teams set, all that's left is for the final four teams to duke it out for a share of the $100,000 prize pool. The final day of action kicked off Sunday morning at 11 a.m. ET with Immortals and Heroic facing off in the first semifinal match.
