MOUZ book first ticket to Playoffs with spectacular win

In an exceptional display of dominance, MOUZ secured a spot in the Playoff Stage with a resounding 2-0 victory against MOUZ. The first half of Overpass, Complexity's map pick, ended with a staggering 11-1 score in favor of MOUZ. They continued their commanding performance by swiftly claiming the first two rounds on their T-side, solidifying their superiority. The subsequent map, Ancient, almost mirrored the first, with MOUZ once again taking a commanding lead of 11-1 before ultimately triumphing with a score of 13-2.

Having won three matches in the Elimination Stage, MOUZ stands as the first team to achieve this feat and can now focus on preparing for the Quarter-Finals next week. On the flip side, paiN Gaming and TheMongolz engaged in a closely contested battle to avoid elimination. Both teams secured victories on their respective map picks and continued to challenge each other fiercely on Inferno.

However, paiN Gaming stumbled in the closing moments of the match, faltering in two consecutive rounds where they had ample opportunities to secure victory but failed to neutralize the defuser. This lapse led to triple overtime, characterized by questionable gameplay from both sides, before paiN Gaming ultimately prevailed 22-19, finally overcoming TheMongolz as they should have done within regular time.

In the last match of the day, FURIA was handed a defeat against ECSTATIC. The Danes closed out the game on Ancient with a perfect T side winning all eight rounds to secure a 13-7 win on the decider map. FURIA could not repeat their reverse sweep run from the Opening Stage, where the Brazilians also went 0-2 down. This time, Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo and his men lost deservedly to ECSTATIC, who keeps the dream of the Royal Arena alive for one day longer.