This article is part of our CS:GO Recap series.
OpTic Gaming earned the final spot from Group D, thanks to a clean sweep over Fnatic in the final best-of-three series on Saturday.
Day 2 started out with Optic Gaming facing off against EnVyUs in a best-of-three series to determine who would play Fnatic to stay alive in Group D. After Optic took an early 6-0 lead on the Terrorist side of Overpass, EnVyUs earned some momentum of their own, winning two consecutive rounds. However, that momentum all but disappeared as the Grean Wall stood strong, steamrolling EnVyUs en route to a convincing 16-3 victory on the first map of the series.
Dust2, the second map of the series, went to EnVyUs as the two teams were neck-and-neck throughout much of the contest until a late momentum swing helped the club claim a 16-13 map win.
Staring at a series-deciding Game 3 on Cobblestone, OpTic came out on fire, putting together a 11-4 score early in the match. EnVyUs was able to cobble together a few round wins thereafter, but they never really appeared to threaten OpTic as the Green Wall was able to win the deciding match 16-8 to advance onto the Group D decider match, a Day 1 rematch against Fnatic.
In the deciding series, OpTic's Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz was a model of consistency, racking up an impressive 42/22 KD and 96.3 ADR in the game for Optic. Optic Gaming came out strong on their Cobblestone pick to open Game 1, jumping out to an 11-4 lead at the half thanks in large part to Óscar 'mixwell' Cañellas, who picked up three critical kills to close the half. In the second half, Optic only allowed one round to sneak by as they secured Map 1 with an impressive offensive side, earning a 16-5 victory.
Despite Fnatic opting to play on Dust2 to start the second game, it was OpTic who enjoyed all the success, jumping out to yet another 11-4 lead at halftime. This time, however, the second half was more contested. After OpTic took the second pistol round, Fnatic came back in the following round thanks to Simon 'twist' Eliasson's 1-vs-1 clutch to give his team some much-needed momentum. As a result, Fnatic managed to win seven out of the eight following rounds to nearly even out the series. Despite the massive comeback effort though, OpTic's Óscar 'mixwell' Cañellas had other plans, as he earned an impressive quad kill after winning a 1-vs-1 to close the series out on Dust2 with a 16-11 victory.
With OpTic's win, the teams for the ELEAGUE Season 2 playoffs have finally taken shape. Optic Gaming will now join SK Gaming, Astralis, Dignitas, Virtus.Pro, Ninjas in Pyjamas, mousesports and FaZe Clan with secured spots in the playoffs. The ELEAGUE Season 2 playoffs will begin November 30th with the quarterfinals at 2:00 PM ET and continuing Thursday, Dec. 1, at 2 PM ET. Semifinals will start Friday, Dec. 2, at 5 PM ET. The weekend will conclude with the ELEAGUE Season 2 Grand Final on Saturday, Dec. 3, at 4 PM ET.
