Online CS struck again on the third day of BLAST Bounty Season 2 as one of the top sides were eliminated and another was pushed all the way to the brink, Aurora exiting the competition at the hands of FOKUS whilst Spirit survived a significant challenge by OG.
The other two games delivered results much closer to expectations, FUT overcoming SINNERS in Yasin "xfl0ud" Koç's debut and paiN taking down a Gentle Mates squad featuring a stand-in.
There are four more matches left to be played in the first stage of the online portion of BLAST Bounty Season 2, with the follow games coming up tomorrow:
The biggest team in action on the third day of BLAST Bounty was Spirit, and the current top-ranked team in the global VRS were pushed all the way by a valiant OG squad.
Cache was an entirely one-sided affair in favour of Spirit but OG came roaring back on Dust2, taking advantage of a turgid offense by Spirit to head into halftime with a 7-5 lead.
Danil "donk" Kryshkovets began to activate on Spirit's defense to give his team more of a foothold in the map, but a combination of some poorly organized Spirit retakes and excellent calls by OG were enough to send the series to a decider.
It seemed normal service had been resumed on Ancient as Spirit raced out to a comfortable 9-3 lead off the back of their CT side, only for Adam "adamb" Ångström to come alive in spectacular fashion in the second half, an audacious push out of A the highlight of a stellar performance that helped push the game into OT.
OG kept the game alive into OT with well-coordinated mid-rounds and some vital multi-frags by Casper "cadiaN" Møller and adamb, but Andrey "tN1R" Tatarinovich's late-map revival and some improved offensive play by Spirit were just enough to keep the upset at bay.
The upset of the day came in the very first game as FOKUS took down Aurora to eliminate the new-look international roster.
FOKUS were sporting a revamped squad themselves, having recently brought in Paavo "podi" Heiskanen and Jacob "jocab" Nerheden, and they picked up a statement victory that included a crushing 13-4 win on the decider of Dust2.
FUT ensured a winning start to life with xfl0ud amongst their number by defeating SINNERS in 2-1 fashion, recovering from a loss on Dust2 by sweeping their opponents aside on Ancient and Mirage.
xfl0ud was the player of the game in his first outing for FUT, the Turkish rifler putting up an outrageous 2.24-rated performance on Ancient before also top-fragging on the decider of Mirage.
The performance of their new man will be pleasing for FUT and in particular coach András "coolio" Fercsák. coolio spoke on broadcast after the match and revealed that the decision to part ways with Laurențiu "lauNX" Țârlea was "50-50[...] it's not only [that] he wanted to leave." The 26-year-old stated that the team felt they "were missing a guy who was speaking in the middle of the map," and that xfl0ud was "able to communicate more."
paiN picked up the other victory of the day in Bounty, getting past a Gentle Mates squad sporting Joey "CRUC1AL" Steusel, but Spanish side Gentle Mates could have made the series closer had they capitalized on the impact of their stand-in on Inferno.
CRUC1AL picked up a pistol ace and further multi-kills early on in the second-half of the opening map, giving his team a chance to build some momentum, but they were unable to capitalize and eventually slipped to a meek series defeat on Nuke.
Andrey 'tN1R' Tatarinovich
Aurora
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş
Özgür 'woxic' Eker
Jimi 'Jimpphat' Salo
Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski
Ali 'Wicadia' Haydar Yalçın
Ashley 'ash' Battye
Jacob 'jocab' Nerheden
paiN
Vinicius 'vsm' Moreira
Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourt
Guilherme 'piriajr' Barbosa
Rafael 'saffee' Costa
João 'snow' Vinicius
Henrique 'rikz' Waku
FOKUS
Erik 'ztr' Gustafsson
Matias 'Banjo' Kivistö
Paavo 'podi' Heiskanen
Jacob 'jocab' Nerheden
Mateo 'Matheos' Prišlin
Jakub 'kuben' Gurczyński
OG
Casper 'cadiaN' Møller
Alexandre 'bodyy' Pianaro
Olle 'spooke' Grundström
Adam 'adamb' Ångström
Luca 'pr1metapz' Voigt
Lambert 'Lambert' Prigent
Adam 'adamb' Ångström
Spirit
Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov
Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev
Andrey 'tN1R' Tatarinovich
Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia
Danil 'donk' Kryshkovets
Sergey 'hally' Shavaev
Danil 'donk' Kryshkovets
Gentle Mates
Alejandro 'alex' Masanet
Alejandro 'mopoz' Fernández-Quejo Cano
Pere 'sausol' Solsona Saumell
David 'dav1g' Granado Bermudo
FUT
Yasin 'xfl0ud' Koç
Dmytro 'dem0n' Myroshnychenko
Aulon 'Krabeni' Fazlija
Nikita 'cmtry' Samolotov
Džiugas 'dziugss' Steponavičius
András 'coolio' Fercsák
Yasin 'xfl0ud' Koç
SINNERS
Sebastian 'beastik' Daňo
Max 'SHOCK' Kvapil
Mădălin-Andrei 'MoDo' Mirea
Kamil 'kisserek' Banak
Jordan 'stressarN' Manevski
Jakub 'Bfull' Kokoška
Paavo 'podi' Heiskanen
Laurențiu 'lauNX' Țârlea
András 'coolio' Fercsák
Joey 'CRUC1AL' Steusel
Casper 'cadiaN' Møller