【】

G2 came from behind to beat mousesports 2-1 and book passage to the StarSeries i-League Season 4 playoffs, while Astralis are one victory away from the knockout stages after defeating Gambit on two maps.

The battle for a playoff berth kicked off on Mirage, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it turned out to be a very quick game as MOUZ made light work of their opponents. With a quad kill in the pistol round, Miikka "⁠suNny⁠" Kemppi put mouz in the lead, to which the European mixture would hold on dearly.

G2 were continuously held off of any economic development and their force-buys simply did not work out, leaving them in complete disarray. Down 1-9, The Frenchmen came close to winning their second round of the game, but they let Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong clutch a 1v3 with the AWP.

Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon's men would only be able to break through the mousesports defence in the 13th round, courtesy of a trio of sg556 kills from Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt-, but the CTs quickly bounced back, winning the following two rounds to secure an impressive 13-2 lead.

MOUZ piled more misery on their opponents by taking the pistol round after being given way too much room to operate in the A site. G2 still tried to get back in the game with a third-round buy, only to be left frustrated once again.

G2 through to the playoffs after a close win

Next up was Inferno, where Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool opened up the action with four quick kills in A. G2 were able to respond in the third round on an extremely weak buy, and they kept the MOUZ roster in check for the next three rounds as well.

But the rest of the half was all about MOUZ' great defence, with the European mixture putting a double AWP setup to great use as they lost just one of the last nine rounds of the half. However, it could have been a very different story had the Frenchmen not botched a 4v1 situation against Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný in the 13th round.

The second half began with MOUZ taking the pistol off of three great kills from Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk, only to make a blunder in the following round as they allowed shox to clutch a 1v2. That round win gave G2 some breathing room, but they would falter once MOUZ had money to work with again, with a triple-kill from chrisJ putting his team back to winning ways.

MOUZ followed that up with two more rounds, bringing the scoreline to 14-8, but then they hit a brick wall. G2 set up a very strong defence, even after losing a shocking anti-eco round, and brought the game into overtime thanks to a 1v2 clutch from Alexandre "⁠bodyy⁠" Pianaro in the 30th round. After regulation, the Frenchmen simply ran riot as they won four rounds straight to take the series to Cobblestone.

mousesports could not close out the match on Inferno

The final map of the series saw MOUZ jump out to a massive 5-0 lead after running all over the G2 lineup during the early stages of the game. But the story of the rest of the half was all about G2's strong defence as the Frenchmen went on a fantastic run to take a 9-6 half-time lead.

G2 did not let their foot off the gas and further added to their lead by taking the pistol round and the subsequent anti-ecos. With oskar struggling to find frags, STYKO stepped up to the plate and helped MOUZ to find the equaliser with some great individual plays, including an ace in the 22nd round. But it was all for naught as a four-round winning streak from G2 earned them the map win and the ticket to the playoffs.

StarSeries i-League Season 4Best of 3 G2Matchpage 2 1 19th February 2018 MOUZ 2Mirage 16 19Inferno 15 16Cobblestone 12

G2	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Dan 'apEX' MadesclaireapEX	65 - 58	+7	93.1	1.25
Kenny 'kennyS' SchrubkennyS	55 - 55	0	66.8	1.03
Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittNBK-	52 - 63	-11	71.9	0.93
Alexandre 'bodyy' Pianarobodyy	43 - 53	-10	62.3	0.91
Richard 'shox' Papillonshox	47 - 56	-9	63.4	0.90

MOUZ	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Miikka 'suNny' KemppisuNny	59 - 55	+4	89.1	1.21
Robin 'ropz' Koolropz	63 - 55	+8	73.3	1.11
Martin 'STYKO' StykSTYKO	54 - 50	+4	76.3	1.08
Chris 'chrisJ' de JongchrisJ	54 - 53	+1	68.2	1.05
Tomáš 'oskar' Šťastnýoskar	55 - 50	+5	73.3	1.04

The opening map of the other series, Cache, started with a flawless pistol round from Astralis, who charged through the B site without trouble. After losing both eco rounds, Gambit then got their first round on the board after shutting down the B site, but Astralis replied immediately thanks to Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz finding four frags with the AWP.

That was the start of a great run from Astralis, with the scoreline blooming to an 8-1 advantage for the Danes. It was only then that Gambit were able to string rounds together, but Astralis still had plenty of money in the bank and quickly regained control of the game.

Down 12-3, Gambit came from the break with fire in their belly, and managed to bring the deficit to a minimum after shutting down any chances of their opponents stringing rounds together or building up an economy. With the game slipping away from them, Astralis finally managed to tighten up their defence, winning back-to-back rounds to lock down the map, 16-13.

Astralis are now 2-1 in Kiev

Carrying their momentum into the next map, Train, Astralis got out to an 8-2 lead after continuously trading back Gambit's round wins. The Kazakhstani team then found their footing in the game after stringing three rounds together, but Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's side would still walk into the second half up by five.

Gambit kept their hopes alive by winning the second pistol and the following anti-ecos, but then they collapsed massively, failing to win a single gun round as Astralis ran out 16-8 victors to pick up their second win in Kiev.

StarSeries i-League Season 4Best of 3 AstralisMatchpage 2 0 19th February 2018 Gambit 16Cache 13 16Train 8

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Nicolai 'device' Reedtzdevice	49 - 24	+25	72.5	1.40
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossandergla1ve	43 - 28	+15	91.5	1.37
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussendupreeh	42 - 35	+7	91.4	1.28
Emil 'Magisk' ReifMagisk	38 - 37	+1	79.3	1.03
Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x	26 - 32	-6	64.9	0.98

Gambit	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Mihail 'Dosia' StolyarovDosia	44 - 40	+4	86.7	1.12
Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevAdreN	29 - 39	-10	70.1	0.90
Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovHObbit	28 - 39	-11	64.6	0.87
Rustem 'mou' Telepovmou	32 - 39	-7	57.4	0.79
Denis 'seized' Kostinseized	22 - 42	-20	62.0	0.71

After these two matches, here is how the Swiss stage is currently looking:

Qualified
G2
2-0
Natus Vincere	FaZe
2-1
SK	HEROIC
Liquid	MOUZ
Astralis
1-2
Virtus.pro	Cloud9
Renegades	TYLOO
Gambit
0-2
HellRaisers	MVP PK
Eliminated
fnatic

Nathan 'NBK-' Schmitt Age: 23 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 1300 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.66 Gambit #11 Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevMihail 'Dosia' StolyarovRustem 'mou' TelepovDenis 'seized' KostinAbay 'HObbit' Khassenov Natus Vincere #10 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievDanylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoEgor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' Sharipov SK #2 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaRicardo 'boltz' PrassMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de Melo Richard 'shox' Papillon Age: 25 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 1234 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.66 FaZe #1 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenOlof 'olofmeister' KajbjerLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard Renegades #18 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadKarlo 'USTILO' PivacNoah 'Nifty' Francis MOUZ #8 Tomáš 'oskar' ŠťastnýChris 'chrisJ' de JongMiikka 'suNny' KemppiMartin 'STYKO' StykRobin 'ropz' Kool fnatic #5 Robin 'flusha' RönnquistJesper 'JW' WecksellFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonJonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonMaikil 'Golden' Selim Tomáš 'oskar' Šťastný Age: 26 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.16 Maps played: 666 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.66 Astralis #7 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif MVP PK #46 Keun-Chul 'solo' KangMin-Soo 'glow' KimMin-Seok 'zeff' ParkHyun-Pyo 'XigN' LeeHae-Sung 'HSK' Kim Miikka 'suNny' Kemppi Age: 23 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 766 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.69 HellRaisers #19 Kirill 'ANGE1' KarasiowVladyslav 'bondik' NechyporchukÖzgür 'woxic' EkerBence 'DeadFox' BöröczIssa 'ISSAA' Murad Nicolai 'device' Reedtz Age: 22 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.16 Maps played: 1029 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.63 Robin 'ropz' Kool Age: 18 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 259 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.64 G2 #4 Richard 'shox' PapillonKenny 'kennyS' SchrubNathan 'NBK-' SchmittDan 'apEX' MadesclaireAlexandre 'bodyy' Pianaro Chris 'chrisJ' de Jong Age: 27 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 1073 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.65 Liquid #9 Lucas 'steel' LopesNick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken TYLOO #30 Ke 'captainMo' LiuHui 'DD' WuHansel 'BnTeT' FerdinandHaoWen 'somebody' XuKevin 'xccurate' Susanto Cloud9 #3 Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamWilliam 'RUSH' WierzbaTarik 'tarik' CelikTimothy 'autimatic' TaJake 'Stewie2K' Yip HEROIC #12 Andreas 'MODDII' FridhMarco 'Snappi' PfeifferRuben 'RUBINO' VillarroelJakob 'JUGi' HansenNikolaj 'niko' Kristensen Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander Age: 22 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 872 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.67 Virtus.pro #17 Filip 'NEO' KubskiJarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskiJanusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiPaweł 'byali' BielińskiMichał 'MICHU' Müller Alexandre 'bodyy' Pianaro Age: 21 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 537 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.67 Martin 'STYKO' Styk Age: 21 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 717 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.67