BIG and Astralis are the two first CS:GO teams through to the Pinnacle Cup Championship playoffs following victories over Fnatic and Imperial, respectively, today.
Fnatic dominated on Nuke, the first map of the best-of-three series, and won by 16-7, forcing BIG to do a reverse-sweep to guarantee a spot in the upper bracket of the playoffs. The German side struck back on Overpass (16-11) to tie the match and breeze past Fnatic on Vertigo (16-10) thanks to an excellent T-side performance in the second half. Florian “syrsoN” Rische was the most impactful player for BIG, having finished with 58 kills and 49 deaths.
The match between Astralis and Imperial was a nail-biter from the get-go. The Danes scrapped a 16-14 victory on Nuke, fueled by Benjamin “blameF” Bremer’s incredible impact (35-20 K/D). Imperial had no trouble tying the series on Mirage (16-6) and once again made Astralis sweat for the victory, this time on Overpass. Astralis won the decider by 16-13 with blameF ending the series with a +31 K/D difference.
With these losses, Fnatic and Imperial will have to win one more match in Group A and B, respectively, to avoid elimination and advance to the playoffs. The Group A decider will be played first between Heroic and Fnatic at 9am CT, while Imperial will face Finest later at 1pm CT.
The Pinnacle Cup Championship Playoffs will kick off tomorrow with the lower bracket match, followed by the upper bracket match between BIG and Astralis.
