Less than a week after the “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” major in Rio, BIG and Sprout are back in Finland. At the Elisa Masters, both made the playoffs straight away.
“It’s been a long and fun day,” wrote BIG talent Elias “s1n” Stein on Twitter. “We can play much better than in the last game, we have to show that.”
The two German teams are among the favorites in Espoo, along with Ence, and they did their duty in the group stage. The German teams also met in a direct duel, which BIG was able to win, just like in the major. However, the game was Sprout’s only loss, taking the team to the top of the table and going straight to the semifinals.
In Group B, too, the favorites prevailed, with the Bulgarian Team 500 surprisingly making it into the playoffs alongside Fnatic. In the duel for the last ticket, Astralis, still without a returnee Nicolai “dev1ce” Reetz, narrowly prevailed in extra time against Complexity, the only American team in the competition.