India end Riyadh campaign with a win

After a horrible opening day, India made sure they weren't leaving Saudi Arabia without a win, as they pushed Iran all the way to take them down in the final game of Group A. The win saw India end their Asian Qualifier campaign with a win. While the dream to qualify didn't come true this team, the team made sure they didn't leave Riyadh empty-handed.

Team India

• f1redup

• N1kace

• SpawN

• Sk wow^

• clouda

Team Iran

• mn

• am1n

• RasHNess-

• Dant1k

• X1ron

The action kicked off on Anubis with India starting on the CT side. X1ron's 1v1 against f1redup gave Iran the opening pistol and they went 2-0 up before India put their first round on the board thanks to a SpawN multi-kill B hold. Multi-kills from clouda and f1redup saw India take the lead and then managed to string together three rounds to take an early 5-2 lead before Iran got their first gun round win thanks to an am1n double. Iran tied things up at 5-5 and then pulled back the half in their favour with a 9-6 lead.

Source: IESF

India won the second pistol off the back of a B hit and picked up the eco round to bring it to a one-round game. Iran bounced back and an am1n multi-kill saw Iran put up their 12th in the 20th round. Impactful rounds from N1kace and SpawN saw India put up double digits and bring it back to a two-round game.

Source: IESF

f1redup's double got India to 13-14 before India made sure the game would go all 30 as they tied up the game once again at 14-14. clouda's double put India on map point but Iran managed to take the game to overtime.

Iran took the opening round in overtime but India once again tied the game. N1kace's double saw India end the first half of overtime at 17-16. f1redup's aggresive AWPing put India on map point butam1n helped Iran put up their 17th thanks to an aggressive double. A solid hold from cloud and SK wow^ saw India secure the map at 19-17. It was f1redup leading from the front as the Indian captain ended with over 30 kills.

India saved the blushes with the win as they had lost all three of their games on the opening day.

The results of the first day were:

India 7 - 16 Uzbekistan
India 11 - 16 Saudi Arabia
India 13 - 16 Vietnam

With India taking down Iran, it was Vietnam, Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia who progressed to the next stage.