XANTARES and Wicadia both showed up on-stage, giving BetBoom little to no chance.
After eight attempts at Majors, Aurora have finally made it to the top four. The entire team played excellently, continuing their strong form from the group stage.
Curiously, one of Aurora’s best runs has come at an uncertain time for the roster, rumored to have changes.
BetBoom on the other side lost their map pick convincingly after only their captain seemed to be fragging. They gave a fight on the second map, but mistakes cost them against a decisive Aurora.
woxic: “It’s our way to the final”
After another stellar performance, the Turkish AWP star stopped by the desk and said that he always felt in control against BetBoom.
We understood that [BetBoom] are not shooting that tough towards us, so we said this is gonna be our game. We said we need to focus the game like we did in the group stage.
He added that this playoffs felt different, compared to Aurora’s previous capitulations on-stage. But he said that comes with extra pressure
We know it’s our way to the final. We need to be more careful, we need to cover [each other’s] backs more.
Boombl4 vs the world on Nuke
On BetBoom’s pick of Nuke, things started well, getting the T-side pistol round after a great mid-round call from Kirill ‘Boombl4’ Mikhailov to finish on the A-site. They also won the conversion.
Things started to go south when Ali ‘Wicadia’ Haydar Yalçın won a 1v2 clutch with a Deagle double.
From there, Aurora seized control of the map. Ismailcan ‘XANTARES’ Dörtkardeş came alive, hitting shots only he can hit, feeling the map.
On the BetBoom side, they seemed cursed, as only Boombl4 seemed capable of putting frags on the table. He won two consecutive 1vs2 clutches to keep BetBoom with a chance, losing the half 5-7.
However, on the CT-side, their flaws started to show, as they couldn’t stop Aurora’s attack. None of the stars, not even Kirill ‘Magnojez’ Rodnov, seemed capable of deterring Aurora.
Aurora seized the chance against BetBoom’s shaky start and won the map 13-6.
Aurora closed it out on their home map
After defeating BetBoom on Anubis, Aurora’s captain showed his liking for the map.
I don’t know why, but we really like this map.
Aurora showed that, bagging another Anubis win, though it wasn’t as straightforward as Nuke.
The pistol round was extremely close, as it came down to Aurora’s newbie to the Majors, Caner ‘soulfly’ Kesici, winning a critical 1vs1 to prevent Magnojez from sealing an ace clutch.
While BetBoom answered back with the first gun round win, Aurora was never off their back as they replied, getting up to 3-1.
The story of the half was XANTARES vs d1ledez, as they battled for control of the series. The Turkish superstar was all over the place finding headshots giving Aurora a lead.
Once Aurora was up 6-3, d1ledez showed why he is on BetBoom with a streak of brilliant clutch rounds. In Round 11, he found a 4k to get a critical round that would allow BetBoom to get to 6-6.
However, it switched to Aurora’s T-side, arguably the best in the world on Anubis. They immediately won the pistol and the following two rounds, now up 9-6.
BetBoom showed fight before falling
Aurora then went onto win two more rounds, but then BetBoom started to show grit. Magnojez started to show his best form and Timur ‘FL4MUS’ Marev had good rounds, albeit too late.
After grinding out three close rounds, a comeback seemed possible, but constant misses from stand-in AWPer, Aleksandr ‘zorte’ Zagodyrenko, cost them. In round 21, he missed a sitter that finally gave Aurora the winning edge.
XANTARES, woxic and Wicadia sealed a banger of a series, getting 119 kills between them to knock BetBoom out cold.
Player of the match: XANTARES
While Wicadia and woxic were decidedly the players of the two maps, respectively, XANTARES was consistent throughout both and showed a level he never has before on-stage.
On Nuke, he went 7-0 in opening duels with the most multikills on his team (6). On Anubis, he had the highest damage per round (108) and the most multikills once again (8).
If XANTARES can continue this form, Aurora have a lot left in store this Major.
