This article is part of our CS:GO Recap series.
The third day of CS Summit took place on Saturday, with SK Gaming dominating its competition yet again while OpTic Gaming continued its journey towards the grand final from the lower bracket.
Cloud9 and Ninjas in Pyjamas clashed in the first match of the second round in the lower bracket on Saturday, starting on Inferno. NiP bounced back from a pistol round loss with a few strong wins before Cloud9 ran away with the first half on the back of strong gun rounds for a 9-6 lead. Cloud9 took the second pistol round and just kept pushing past any opposition from NiP for a 16-10 win. Moving to Cache, C9 took another pistol round to go along with a respectable amount of wins on the offense for an 8-7 halftime lead. The second half was a better showing from NiP, starting off with a pistol round win along with a series of strong wins that brought the score to a 12-12 tie. C9 stabilized in the second half and narrowly edged out NiP 16-14 to eliminate the Swedes from the tournament.
OpTic Gaming and Liquid faced off in the next lower bracket match as the series started on Nuke. The first ten rounds of the first half were all OpTic, putting up a 9-1 score on the defense before going into the half up 12-3. There was a bit of intrigue in the second half with Liquid winning seven rounds, but OpTic woke back up and took the map 16-10. The tables turned a bit on the second map of Train, with Liquid jumping out to a 6-1 lead this time. OpTic managed very little opposition in the half that ended in favor of Liquid at 11-4. Liquid kept moving right along in the second half by putting OpTic on many eco rounds and picking up a 16-10 win to force a third map. On Mirage for the deciding map, the teams were fighting on a razor's edge in the first half, trading sets of rounds back and forth before going into the half with Liquid up 8-7 at the half. The second half was all OpTic, starting with a pistol round win and pushing along to a 16-10 win to move on further in the lower bracket.
SK Gaming took on Gambit Esports in the upper bracket final, and it wasn't even close. From the start, Gambit looked as though it ran into a buzzsaw, with none of its strategies working as the Brazilian juggernauts strong armed its way to an 11-4 halftime lead on Cobblestone in Game 1. SK then took all five rounds in the second half to take the map 16-4 for a 1-0 series lead. Gambit looked to show signs of life with a quick 3-0 lead in the early going of Game 2 once the teams switched over to Cache. That proved to be a short-lived sentiment, though, as SK quit toying with Gambit for another 11-4 halftime lead. Gambit tried to battle back a bit with three wins in the second half, but resistance was futile as SK easily took the map 16-7 to complete the sweep and move on to the grand finals.
The lower bracket semfinals ended up as a North American duel between Cloud9 and OpTic Gaming, with the teams ending up going the distance. C9 won the pistol round and took a 3-0 start before the Green Wall bounced back in a big way to take an 8-7 lead into the half. The teams began jockeying for position in the second half, with OpTic breaking a 12-12 tie and going up 15-12. From that point on, it was all C9, as it picked up the three rounds needed to force overtime and then dominated both overtime periods to eventually get a 22-20 win.
Train began with OpTic taking the pistol round and the first half with a huge 10-2 lead that gave way to an 11-4 halftime lead. Cloud9 had a huge leap in the second half winning the first five rounds before OpTic called a timeout. The timeout paid off, as OpTic went on a 5-2 run to close out the map 16-11 and move into a deciding Game 3. It all came down to Mirage where C9 got off to an early 3-0 lead. OpTic battled back a bit, but still went into the half down 8-7. OpTic opened with three wins in the second half to take a 10-8 lead before C9 shot back with five straight of its own. The Green Wall simply could not be denied, though, as OpTic outlasted C9 for a 16-14 win that pushed it into the lower bracket final.
The final day of competition will kick off Sunday at 12:30 p.m. ET, with OpTic Gaming and Gambit clashing while SK Gaming awaits its opponent in the grand final.
