This article is part of our CS:GO Recap series.
The group stage of the StarSeries Season 3 Finals are now in the books and the playoff teams are set for the weekend in Kiev, Ukraine. After G2 Esports and Natus Vincere locked up their spots on Thursday, North, HellRaisers, Astralis, FaZe Clan, Counter Logic Gaming and Fnatic rounded out the remaining playoff teams after hard fought games on Friday.
Opening up the top half of the round-robin's decider matches for the day was a closely contested match between North and FaZe Clan. North shot out to a quick 7-1 lead on Cache before FaZe Clan started to battle back behind the strong fragging of Nikola "NiKo" Kovač. With NiKo's teammates not providing much support, North had a perfect window to shut FaZe down. Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen came bursting through that window with a blistering quad kill to put North up 14-13, which ended up being enough to push for the 16-13 win to qualify for the playoffs.
Ninjas in Pyjamas and HellRaisers followed up this match with a thrilling match of their own. NiP, the defending StarSeries Season 2 champions, looked worse for wear early on in the game, with HellRaisers taking a strong 13-5 lead coming out the gate on Overpass. NiP's Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg led the counterattack for NiP, leading his team with a ridiculous 1-vs-2 clutch in Round 26 to tie the game. That would be it for the NiP magic, though, as HellRaisers won three straight rounds to take the map 16-13 and earn its spot in the playoffs.
SK and Astralis met in a match up two of the most decorated teams in all of Counter-Strike. SK struck first by rushing out to a a 10-5 lead at the end of the first half. Even with the big cushion on one of its favorite maps in Train, SK wasn't able to keep up with Astralis, who put on a dominating performance on the CT-side in the second half. With Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth proving to be an X-factor with his impressive 25/16 KD (kills/deaths), Astralis went 11-2 in that second half to take the map 16-12 and put itself in the playoffs this weekend.
The action then switched over to the final elimination matches to determine the final three teams to crack into the playoffs. First up was FaZe and SK in what ended up being a resounding whimper from the vaunted Brazilian squad. While SK had previously made history with 17 straight map wins on Train, it fell twice on the map in the span of a few hours to get bounced from the tournament. Its loss here to FaZe was particularly alarming since it gave up eight straight rounds in the second half to lose 16-7. FaZe will now move on to the playoffs while SK tries to solve its Train woes.
Next up was CLG taking on the other Brazilian hopefuls of Immortals. To even get to this point, Immortals took out MVP Project in a fairly swift 16-9 game on Inferno, while CLG narrowly edged out Gambit Esports by a score of 16-14 on Cobblestone. While the first half of this game was a bit close, with CLG holding a tenuous 8-7 lead on Cache, it broke things open in the second half with an 8-1 performance to take the map16-8 and continue a strong run into the playoffs that not many could have predicted.
Closing out the day was a match between Fnatic and NiP. Having just knocked the veteran Virtus.pro squad out of the tournament with a 16-2 trouncing earlier in the day on Inferno, Fnatic were ready to take on the world. Seemingly unafraid of NiP's defending champion status, the Swedish squad easily dispatched NiP in a quick 16-7 match on Train. After ending the first half up with a 13-2 lead, Freddy "KRiMZ" Johansson and his 25/12 KD helped easily push for the big win to round out the playoff field.
With the playoff teams now set, all that's left is for the teams to duke it out for a share of the $300,000 prize pool. The quarterfinals will commence Saturday morning at 3 a.m. ET, with G2 taking on FaZe in the first match of the day.
