This article is part of our CS:GO Recap series.
The second day of DreamHack Masters, taking place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, kicked off Thursday with SK Gaming, Astralis, Gambit and mousesports becoming the first four teams to advance into the playoffs. Here's how the rest of Day 2 played out.
The first elimination match of Day 2 saw North take on compLexity Gaming. North jumped the gun in the first half, taking a staggering 7-1 lead early, which it then parlayed into an incredible 14-1 lead at the end of the first half. CompLexity started the second half with a pistol round win and followed it up with two more rounds before the Danes closed out the match 16-4. North's Rene "cajunb" Borg led the charge with a 22/8 KD and 100.9 ADR. North will take on OpTic Gaming in the Group A decider match Friday.
On Nuke, where Astralis has been undefeated so far at the tournament, the ELeague Major champions stifled OpTic Gaming's chance at earning an early playoff bid. OpTic came out quick, earning a 3-0 lead before the Danes took control in the first half to finish with a 9-6 lead. Unfortunately for OpTic, the Green Wall was unable to hold off the offense of Astralis as it took the match 16-9. OpTic will now face elimination against North for the Group A decider match.
Fnatic and Misfits followed the action with a match that could send either team home empty-handed. The North Americans battled the Swedes on Mirage, a map that has favored Fnatic as of late. Fnatic started off strong in the first half, earning a quick 5-0 lead before Misfits managed to take away a couple of rounds of its own. However, Fnatic would take the momentum from there, at one point earning an 8-2 lead before ending the half up 11-4. Misfits appeared to rebound in the second half, winning five straight rounds before crashing back down to Earth. The Swedes closed out the series' win with five straight round wins of their own, eliminating Misfits on Day 2. Fnatic will now go on to face-off Virtus.pro in the Group B decider match.
SK Gaming took on Cloud9 in what amounted to a win-and-get-in playoff battle. SK took the early lead on Overpass, putting together a quick 4-0 lead. Cloud9 struggled to string together round wins, repeatedly getting shut down by SK, who eventually closed the half up 10-5. The second half was a straight forward march for the Brazilians who took the pistol round and never looked back. SK only allowed Cloud9 one round win in the second before taking the map 16-6 to advance to the playoffs. Cloud9 will now face Ninjas in Pyjamas once again for the Group C decider match.
Mouseports ended the day on a high note with a win against FaZe Clan, who struggled to keep up with the German-based team in the late game. FaZe Clan started the match off on the right foot by taking an early 6-2 lead. However, the mousesports rallied back late to end the half down just 8-7. Tomas "oskar" Stastny had a huge performance in the second half that propelled mouz to nine rounds and a 16-10 win over FaZe Clan, helping his team with an impressive 33/17 KD followed by a 110.5 ADR. FaZe Clan will now take on Natus Vincere for the Group D decider match.
North, Fnatic, Virtus.pro, Optic Gaming, Cloud9, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Natus Vincere and FaZe Clan will battle Friday for the final playoff spot or face elimination in the best-of-three group deciding matches. The action will continue Friday at 10:00 a.m. PST on Twitch.
