BIG stun Cloud9, make it through to Roobet Cup grand final

As the smoke from Roobet Cup‘s first semi-final series between BIG and Cloud9 cleared, it was the Germans who came out on top after two strong maps. The win marks BIG‘s first over Vladislav “⁠nafany⁠” Gorshkov‘s side, and places them in the event’s grand final against either FaZe or Astralis.

As for Cloud9, they weren’t able to further build on their success at IEM Dallas with a win at another tournament, this time falling to a BIG lineup playing with Nils “⁠k1to⁠” Gruhne as a stand-in, ultimately having to settle for a 3-4th place finish in the $250,000 online competition.

Kicking off the series, Dust2 was host to an extremely dominant T side performance from BIG, whose strong attacks on either bomb site turned into all sorts of problems for Cloud9‘s defense, who gave up all but one round in the opening half to their German opponents. The nafany-led squad had a few missed opportunities in the first period, most notably in the 11th where Sergey “⁠Ax1Le⁠” Rykhtorov hit a Deagle triple-kill on an eco round, and were constantly unable to find their groove and put up any significant challenge to an otherwise one-sided affair.

Coming out of the break, Cloud9 looked like a completely different team, winning eight out of the first nine rounds of the half, breathing new life into a game that certainly looked like a walk in the park for BIG to close out. Before the game would get too close for comfort, however, tabseN‘s men were able to finish what they started in the first half and bring home a 16-9 victory behind Tizian “⁠tiziaN⁠” Feldbusch‘s server-high 25 kills.

Similar to the first map, BIG once again took an early lead, this time going 5-0 as the defending side. Cloud9 finally got themselves on the board in the sixth after converting a semi-eco, followed by a three-for-three exchange from both teams, highlighted by a Florian “⁠syrsoN⁠” Rische AWP quad-kill. After that, BIG maintained their four round lead, which eventually turned into a 10-5 score heading into the switch.

Despite the second half’s first two rounds going the way of the Germans, Cloud9 woke up at a crucial time, establishing solid site defense and taking six straight, narrowing their deficit to BIG to merely one. Facing the threat of a potentially Cloud9 comeback, tabseN drove his team to victory on Inferno, wrapping up both the game 16-12, and the series 2-0.