Day one of the Quarter finals started off with an incredible opening movie to get the crowd in the mood incorporating incredible plays from Majors in the past such as Coldzera's jumping AWP shot on Mirage at MLG Columbus , To Dev1ce's incredible pistol on Train at Starladder Berlin.
The crowd were electric for the first match a large portion of the crowd were from the Golden Hornets a Vitality support group, and the G2 army also had a large presence at the event, even though both their respective teams were knocked out at the Legends stage they certainly brought the atmosphere with them. Its a shame both teams were knocked out as it would have been incredible to see the atmosphere if they were playing.
We kicked the matches of with FaZe Clan Vs NIP an absolute banger of a game with FaZe picking Nuke as the first map and NIP picking Overpass as the second, leaving Inferno as the decider. FaZe got off to a rocky start on Nuke losing the first 5 rounds in a row however after securing a bomb plant and winning round 6 it started to look like FaZe were waking up NIP started the match well but it soon became obvious how good FaZe were on Nuke securing 6 rounds on T side to NIP's 9 on CT at the close of the Half. In the second half things took a turn for the worse for NIP, as they only managed to score 1 round on T side Nuke with FaZe dominating them not allowing them to even get a bomb plant the majority of the second half. In the end it was FaZe that took the map 16-10.
The Second map would be a little closer being NIP's pick we expected a better showing from them and that's what we got, NIP Secured 7 rounds on their T side a very good showing on Overpass to set them up nicely for their CT side, FaZe just couldn't get settled in on their CT side and NIP were just finding too many gaps in their defence the half ended at a 7-8 scoreline with FaZe just barely winning the half. The second half was a tad more NIP sided though. With NIP winning 9 rounds on their CT side while FaZe could only muster 5 rounds on their T side with NIP taking the map 16-13.
Now finally Inferno, If you ever want a masterclass on how to play inferno just watch Karrigan and FaZe clan during this match, after losing the pistol round and the next two rounds they didn't burst out of the gate on inferno but they persisted eventually winning 7 rounds on T side on Inferno, Broky had an insane clutch on the 6th round in an effective 1vs3 scenario Ropz was still alive but wasn't in a position to help. then NIP scored 5 rounds on the bounce of that clutch but then FaZe showed their class closing out the half with 4 rounds in a row. Now onto the second half FaZe were CT and NIP were T side, NIP just couldn't find an opening after losing the Pistol round things only got worse for NIP and lost several decisive rounds they should have picked up nit FaZe were too good not dropping a single round on CT side to end the series 2-1 with FaZe picking up Inferno 16-8.
Now moving to the second match of the day Spirit Vs Furia. Spirit once again coming into this match as the underdogs after some juicy smack talk at the start of the match from arT calling Spirit lucky, things got interesting.
Map 1 was Vertigo Furia's pick after losing the first two rounds Furia looked relatively solid on their CT side picking up three rounds in a row however Spirit were not done there picking up 5 rounds in a row giving them 7 rounds on T side with Furia closing the half with 5 rounds in a row of their own. The half ended 7-8 to Furia after winning their T side pistol things started to look a bit down for Furia, losing 4 rounds in a row but they bounced back and secured another 3 rounds, however Spirit came back and won the last 5 rounds in a row barely giving Furia a chance ending the map 16-12 to Spirit.
Map 2 was Ancient, now Spirit have been looking really good on Ancient a map where if you can have a good T side you're setup really well in the second half. Spirit opened up winning the pistol and the following round then Furia won the third, Spirit took the 4th round, then Furia took 5 rounds in a row looking like Spirit didn't have an answer for Furia's defence however Spirit then came back and won 4 in a row of their own, Furia closed out the half winning the last round but the damage had already been done with Spirit securing 8 rounds on T side Ancient Usually more than enough to win with Ancient being heavily CT sided. the Spirit dominance continued winning 4 in a row at the start of their CT side, Furia answered back in round 20 by detonating the bomb however unfortunately for Furia Spirit would go on to win the next 4 rounds in a row to secure them the map 16-8 and the series 2-0. Degster played absolutely insane in this series hitting some unbelievable shots you can defiantly see the practice Spirit are putting in is paying off.