100 Thieves are one game away from the Esports World Cup proper after eliminating BC.Game in Paris.
The hotly anticipated clash, between big spending orgs hoping to use EWC to propel themselves into relevance, drew solid viewership as Nicolai "device" Reedtz locked horns with Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev.
Those viewers caught a treat too, as each side hit highlights with overtime on map two and a map three that went the distance with a 13-11 win for 100 Thieves.
Inferno was smooth sailing for BC.Game, an utterly sublime performance by Ayush "mzinho" Batbold leading the way as BC.Game simply overpowered 100 Thieves with superior firepower.
100 Thieves came back into the series on Nuke, surviving a vintage s1mple CT-side performance in the first half to run things back to an 11-8 lead when they switched over to defense.
BC.Game eventually looked to have figured things out and started to string offensive rounds together, but a spectacular Jack "Gizmy" von Spreckelsen 1v3 clutch secured OT and reversed the momentum, leading to a clean sweep by 100 Thieves in the extra rounds.
Anubis saw BC.Game race out to a 4-1 lead off the back of a pistol victory, but 100 Thieves found solutions with a more proactive CT approach, granting them control of the half. BC.Game prevented a disaster T half with their star power shining in man-down scenarios, which continued into the second half pistol and put their noses in front.
Then a series of force-buy battles ensued 100 Thieves twice overwhelming the A bombsite with sheer manpower either side of a masterful s1mple 4K.
The game swinging moment came at 9-10, when 100 Thieves won out by pushing A with Tec-9s and put BCG on a double eco. Then Gizmy came up clutch yet again in round 23 with a 1v2, denying s1mple and mzinho a 2v4, before a Håvard "rain" Nygaard triple closed the series out in favor of 100 Thieves.
100T will now face the winner of Acend-1win to decide which team from a true group of death — this side of the bracket featured Liquid, OG, and FOKUS in addition to this final four – earns an invaluable main event invite to the EWC.
BCG's hard work doesn't pay off
EWC was a huge opportunity for BCG's new squad to get some real momentum, but despite a 1.34-rated series from s1mple they still end the event outside of the top 50 on VRS.
They became champions of Elisa Esports BreakOut Series 1 on debut, but this was always going to be the true test for the lineup.
In their vlog, they revealed just how hard the team was working, with mzinho clocking up 200 hours in the past two weeks. And, tough draw or not, defeat at this stage is a setback for head coach Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas.
"I feel like there is quite a lot to work on", TaZ told HLTV. "From the perspective of tactics, of communication, reactions, we need to just work on it and get better.
"We need to remember s1mple and electronic are coming from a different sort of CS, and also mzinho and Senzu are coming from a different one, so it's connecting freestyle with a very heavy-set game where there is not much space for creativity, and then you have guys who are full creativity. We will just work on it and get better."
More highlights:
Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas
BC.Game
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev
Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov
Emil 'Magisk' Reif
Azbayar 'Senzu' Munkhbold
Ayush 'mzinho' Batbold
Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas
Liquid
Keith 'NAF' Markovic
Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski
Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa
Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou
Georgi 'Jorko' Mitev
Viktor 'flashie' Tamás Bea
100 Thieves
Nicolai 'device' Reedtz
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
Jack 'Gizmy' von Spreckelsen
William 'sirah' Kjærsgaard
Alex 'poiii' Nyholm Sundgren
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander
Nicolai 'device' Reedtz
1win
Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov
Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov
Andrey 'BELCHONOKK' Yasinskiy
Petr 'fame' Bolyshev
Artem 'ArtFr0st' Kharitonov
Konstantin 'groove' Pikiner
Ayush 'mzinho' Batbold
Acend
Teodor 'SPELLAN' Nikolov
Hristiyan 'REDSTAR' Pironkov
Kalin 'KalubeR' Erenditsov
Deyvid 'h4rn' Benchev
Dimitar 'Skrimo' Yanulov
Milen 'milky' Iliev
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
Jack 'Gizmy' von Spreckelsen
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
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev