Gambit and Immortals won the first two spots in the DreamHack Austin Counter-Strike playoffs after an opening day filled with shocks.
Gambit’s journey to the playoffs was fairly straightforward, as the CIS roster took down Heroic, and HellRaisers in the group stage. That is not to say that the squad wasn’t challenged, however, as Heroic pushed the game to three consecutive rounds of overtime. Gambit were able to close the game out with a 25-23 scoreline.
While the action in Group A concluded, Group B saw the French super squad G2 Esports get convincingly defeated by Cloud9—a rather substantial upset given the recent struggles of the Cloud9 roster.
But immediately following Cloud9’s victory against one of the most individually stacked rosters in the world of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the North American team was defeated in an overwhelmingly one-sided series against the Brazilian Immortals roster. Immortals had defeated Team Liquid earlier in the group, meaning they became the first team from Group B to advance onto the playoffs.
There is now a very real possibility of no North American teams advancing past the group stage. Team Liquid, Cloud9, and G2 Esports will be fighting for just one spot in the playoffs today, with HellRaisers in the driving seat in Group A.
