StarLadder CS:GO Major - New Challengers Stage Round 3 full recap

July 22, 2021

Telling tales of esports, one word at a time, six years and counting

Day 2 of the StarLadder Berlin Major continued to generate its fair share of drama and upsets as the first teams were sent home from the competition as best-of-three series were introduced. Massive comebacks, crazy overtimes and shocking upsets marked round 3 of the New Challengers Stage. Here's how it all went down:

Vitality are upset again as the world #2 are on the brink of elimination

Day 2 of the major began very much in the same fashion as the first as Vitality were once again upset by an underdog team after a suspect veto decision. The fact that this result was so much closer – a 14-16 loss on Inferno to DreamEaters instead of the 8-16 drubbing yesterday – doesn’t amount to much: now ZywOo and co. need to do it the hard way by winning two best-of-three series in a row. Special mention has to be made of kinque’s heroics on the CIS side as he pretty much carried his team to victory with a 29-14 K/D stat.

NRG restore normal order as they crush Syman

The North Americans’ victory was never in doubt here as they raced to a 13-2 lead on the T side of Inferno and quickly closed out the game from there. Again, Ethan and CeRq put in an impressive individual performance.

AVANGAR crush Hellraisers on Dust 2

The battle between the two CIS sides turned out to be a wholly one-sided affair as AdreN and Jame walked all over Hellraisers on Dust 2, shutting them down once they’ve swapped to the CT side.

FURIA stumble against forZe and fall into the 1-2 bracket

It’s not been a good day for Brazilian Counter-Strike: though a match between these two sides would have been treated as an interesting anomaly on the major stage, FURIA’s heightened stature means that a one-sided loss to forZe can only be considered a disappointment. Now they also have to do it the hard way via the 1-2 bracket and the fact that Vitality also ended up here surely has to be terrifying for them.

TYLOO the first to be eliminated from the major as Complexity survive

The first game in the 0-2 bracket saw Complexity overpower TYLOO as oBo finaly showcased his potential on the big stage. The North Americans barely won their opponents’ map pick in double overtime but went on to crush them on the second as they threw a Vertigo curveball in the pick/ban process.

mousesports make yet another comeback, move on to the New Legends Stage

Yet again, mouz made it difficult for themselves as G2 absolutely destroyed them on Train and looked to quickly close the series out as they raced to an 11-4 lead on Dust 2. However, karrigan’s men never looked back from then on as they decimated the Frenchmen on the T side and went on to comfortably take Vertigo with a scoreline of 16-7.

North prevail against CR4ZY in marathon series, secure 3-0 record

A 16-8 loss on Mirage and a shaky start on the second half of Inferno seemed to cement the fact that North has found a new bogey team for themselves in the form of CR4ZY. However, experience prevailed in the end as the series turned from sprint to marathon as the Danes won five in a row to take the map to overtime, which took four attempts to settle in their favor at 28-26. With this, the series went long into the evening as Train also required extra innings to settle, but North took the bull by the horns at that point and swiftly closed things out 19-15, no doubt relieved that they can finally go to sleep.

Grayhound survive to cap off a bad day for Brazilian CS

Ultimately, it was a comfortable win for the Aussies who were very close to closing it out in two but surprisingly fell short 14-16 on their own map pick after decimating INTZ 16-5 on theirs. However, Dust 2 was also a straightforward affair and the 16-7 win means that Grayhound stay alive to fight for another day while knGv-‘s last pre-MIBR showing ended in terrible fashion.