The quarterfinals for ELeague opened with a decisive win and a close contest.
How the mighty have fallen. The world's former No. 1 team, Team EnVyUs, lost to the perennially dominant Fnatic in the first quarterfinal series with an 0-2 score. With only one map -- Cobblestone -- truly in contention, this series was over before it really began. Fnatic's two consistent riflers, Freddy "KRiMZ" Johansson and Dennis "dennis" Edman, anchored its lineup yet again.
There were fewer highlights from the Team EnVyUs side, with questionable plays and buys during crucial rounds.
In the second set, Cloud9 (C9) and Natus Vincere (NaVi) battled back and forth through all three maps in a demonstration of evenly matched skill.
The first map was a nail-biter. On C9's side, it was Mike "shroud" Grzesiek's show with highlight round after round, but Na'Vi's appropriately named Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács and his deadly AWP were ready to shut down North American hopes. C9 brought Na'Vi to the brink on Overpass (Na'Vi's map choice), but fell 19-15 in overtime.
On C9's map choice, Dust2, it absolutely outplayed its opponent. Na'Vi's strengths in aiming, especially Guardian's AWP play, made the map choice a risky one, but C9's positioning and aggressive maneuvers proved the bigger factor as it crushed Na'Vi 16-9.
The rubber match was on Cobblestone. Na'Vi dominated the first few games to take the lead in the second half, 14-10, behind the offensive ability of both Denis "seized" Kostin and Egor "flamie" Vasilyev. C9 kept its composure and did as much economic damage to Na'Vi as possible before finally winning an impossible eco round of its own. That led to a mini-run and a tie ballgame, 14-14.
C9 deviated from its successful strategy of hitting the B-site to rush A, and ultimately failed. After that, it was a textbook Na'Vi closeout.