NAVI overpower Falcons, BETBOOM run the gauntlet - IEM Beijing Day Three
Another carry performance from w0nderful got NAVI back into it against Falcons, as they stomped them on back-to-back maps to pull off the reverse sweep.
He went completely missing on Mirage, but he was absolutely astonishing on Inferno, dropping 25 in just 17 rounds after Falcons had won a hard-fought Ancient map. Mirage then saw NAVI go up 12-0, but fail to convert the 13-0 to everyone's chagrin.
It's yet another event for Falcons where they've missed out on playoffs, which has to be worrying even knowing that you have karrigan Major magic in the back. Not a single one of them looked good today; kyousuke had a decent first map, and m0NESY had flashes, but nothing like the levels we know they can hit.
The opposite was true for NAVI. b1t had a four round period on Mirage where he turned into the best player in the world, iM had a 4k in a 3v4 to make it 12 on Mirage, makazze had the quad for 13 - time and time again, their individuals skill-diffed the opposition.
Despite Falcons edging Ancient 13-11, this was a complete beatdown of a 2-1. They got just seven more rounds after the first map.
NAVI had started the day with a routine 2-0 over B8, who genuinely gave them more problems despite not winning a map. Falcons capitulated.
BETBOOM ran a bit of a gauntlet, as they knocked out both Aurora and Liquid en route to the quarter-finals.
Boombl4 had one of those games on map one, as he seemed to be at the forefront of everything good BETBOOM did. He just seemed to pop up in the right place for an opener, or a mid-round game-changer, or a multi-kill right when BB needed him. Magnojez was as good as ever, and you could point to anyone on the BB side and remember something good they did.
Map two was just as dominant; both maps were 8-4 at the half and 13-5 at the end. d1Ledez went bonkers, supported once more by the quietly excellent Magnojez, as BB just ran over a very lacklustre Aurora.
Magnojez then annihilated Liquid on Anubis, dropping 21 in 18 rounds, over 100 ADR and just five deaths. Absolutely insane. Their third 13-5 in a row.
Liquid pulled off a giant comeback on Nuke to pull back a three-round CT side start with double figures on the T side, leaving the game to go to Mirage and BB surely kicking themselves. Fortunately for them, Boombl4 had another top quality Mirage game in the locker, dragging BB to the playoffs against all odds. He put up over 100 ADR and just under a kill per round, including a triple to turn a 3v5 into a won round near the end of the map - a map they won in round 24.
The MongolZ toppled FURIA in an incredibly enjoyable series to bag a spot in the semis.
Techno's pistol round ace was bettered on the same map by a crazy molodoy ace, while 910 racked up kill after kill to power Asia's finest to the second day of playoffs automatically.
MOUZ steamrolled PARIVISION on Ancient and ambled over the line on Mirage to make it cleanly to the semi-finals.
Poor zweih had just one kill on map one, as Spinx obliterated their offence time and time again, with xelex getting them over the line on Mirage.
