Cloud9 and Astralis ready for Upper Final in Dallas Qualifier

In the Closed Qualifier for IEM Dallas, it was time for the two upper semi-finals to be decided this afternoon.

The former Danish powerhouse from Astralis was tasked with taking down the young Swedes from GODSENT after their impressive 2-0 win in the opening match against Team Spirit.

It started well for GODSENT, who won their own map pick of Inferno 16-13. But from here on it was all Astralis. It was especially the T-side from Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander and his teammates that drove Astralis to be in a commanding position on both Nuke and Ancient. 16-9 and 16-6 told the story of a Danish roster, that seems to have found some stability and firepower on certain maps.

In the upper-final Astralis will take on Cloud9. The CIS roster won for the second day in row 2-1 against Ninjas in Pyjamas. Yesterday it was at BLAST Spring Showdown, but the outcome was the same. The map veto was however a little different, as Inferno and Vertigo were picked first, while Overpass this time was the decider.

Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov started out strong with a 27-14 K-D score on Inferno, where the Russian sniper was the big difference between the two teams alongside his partner in crime Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov. With a win on NIP’s map pick, it looked like it was game over for the Swedes, but a superb performance on Vertigo changed everything.

Suddenly it was NIP who looked like the best team before the two teams entered Overpass. But unlike yesterday, Cloud9 managed to break through the defense of the Swedish Ninjas and won 11 T-rounds in the first half to set themselves up for a victory in the end.

Today's results:

Astralis - GODSENT: 2-1

Cloud9 - Ninjas in Pyjamas: 2-1

IEM Dallas schedule: (CEST)

Sunday:

12.00: OG – GODSENT (lower semi-final)
12.00: Fnatic – Ninjas in Pyjamas (lower semi-final)

Monday:

12.00: Astralis – Cloud9 (upper final)
12.00: OG/GODSENT – Fnatic/NIP (lower final)

16.00: Consolidation final