This article is part of our CS:GO Recap series.
And then there were six. After two days of competition, the playoff teams for IEM Oakland have been decided. While there were less overtime games on the second day, it still had its fair share of excitement. In a somewhat surprising result, FaZe Clan (5-0), SK Gaming (3-2) and Ninja in Pyjamas (3-2) emerge victorious in Group B.
Many experts didn't even see FaZe Clan making it out of groups, let alone going undefeated over the day. Its first game of the day was extremely close, with Cloud9 pushing things to overtime before ultimately falling to FaZe 19-17. From that point on, FaZe pretty much coasted to the playoffs. They won the next four games by an average margin of nine rounds. With their strong performance in groups, FaZe will now enjoy a lengthy break to see who will face them in the semifinals this Sunday in Oakland.
While many did think that SK would make it to the playoffs, it certainly didn't look like that was going to happen after its first game against Heroic. Playing on Cobblestone, SK looked completely out of sorts in the 16-13 loss to the up-and-coming Danish squad. It would look shaky once again later in the day against FaZe, but that was perhaps understandable considering the level that FaZe is playing at this week. SK stabilized themselves with nice wins over mousesports, Cloud9 and Ninjas in Pyjamas to make its way to the Round of 6 on Saturday.
Ninjas in Pyjamas has been a bit of an enigma of late. While it was once considered to be in the top-5 of Counter-Strike teams, the team has seemed to lose its way a bit. With performances like Friday's, though, it looks like they are slowly starting to regain form. Getting Jacob "pyth" Mourujärvi has certainly helped to push progress. It did take two losses to FaZe and SK, but it also enjoyed strong wins over mousesports, Cloud9 and Heroic. But the fact that it only got wins against the teams that failed to make the playoffs may be something to keep an eye on going into the playoffs.
Cloud9 coming up short in the group stages is probably going to be one of the bigger storylines coming out of this tournament. After shocking the world with a big upset win over SK in the ESL Pro League Season 4 Finals, it looked like Cloud9 was here to stay. Then they lost to Immortals in the grand finals of iBUYPOWER Masters 2016 -- the tournament that got both teams tickets to IEM Oakland -- and now they bowed out of the group stages with a whimper. They did win their final two games against mousesports and Heroic, but that was only after losing to FaZe Clan, SK and Ninjas in Pyjamas. Sure, it took both FaZe and NiP to at least 30 rounds, but that alone doesn't get wins. It's now back to the drawing board for the North American squad.
While Heroic didn't make it out of groups, it certainly has a bright future since they made their presence felt with a 3rd-4th finish at Northern Arena Montreal last weekend and got a strong win over SK here at IEM Oakland. Look for them to continue getting stronger as the weeks go on.
The teams will take the day off Friday to travel from the ESL Studios in Burbank up to the Oracle Arena in Oakland for the playoffs. The Round of 6 will kick off Saturday at 1:45 EST with G2 Esports taking on SK before Immortals and Ninjas in Pyjamas take the stage to close out the day.
