Cloud9 send fnatic home from Riyadh
The brutal single-elimination Gamers8 event got underway as Cloud9 took on fnatic in the opening best-of-three in a rematch of their recent IEM Cologne 2023 matchup.
First up was fnatic's pick of Vertigo with Cloud9 (C9) starting on the T side. dexter kicked things off with a perfect read of C9's B hit to pick up the pistol but C9 picked up the force buy and were up 7-1 in no time. It was a double afro opener at ramp which helped fnatic get their second round and made it two in a row after afro won a crucial round on the A site in a 1v2 by playing the time and staying alive on the site in the smoke in a late round brawl. fnatic picked up three in a row as they won another round on time. fnatic eventually pulled it back to a 6-9 half as afro ended the half with a couple of crucial multi-kill rounds.
C9 picked up the second pistol and the following against the eco before fnatic picked up the first gun round thanks to a KRIMZ 1v1 against Perfecto on the B site. fnatic made it five in a row to tie the game at 11-11. A roeJ and dexter opener on the A site saw fnatic take the lead of map for the first time since taking the opening pistol. A Perfecto and sh1ro triple in consecutive rounds saw C9 retake the lead at 13-12. fnatic traded rounds once again and were the first to pick up 14. Both teams kept trading rounds as a sh1ro triple put C9 on map point. C9 managed to hang on as it was a Perfecto and sh1ro double to close the map at 16-14. It was a strong start from Perfecto and sh1ro who topped the scoreboard with 25 and 24 kills respectively with both stepping up late on the CT side to help Cloud9 close the map.
The second map was C9's pick of Anubis with fnatic starting on the CT side. A mezii triple saw fnatic pick up the opening pistol and KRIMZ denied sh1ro a 1v3 to help fnatic pick up the second round against the force buy. Perfecto's 1v2 saw C9 pick up the third round to get on the board and sh1ro's 1v1 against KRIMZ saw C9 tie the game at 2-2. A frantic half saw both teams keep trading rounds before a Perfecto 1v2 on the B site saw C9 pick up their seventh and end the half with a 9-6 lead as sh1ro and HObbit turned around a 2v3 on a Tec-9 buy for C9.
A HObbit triple saw Cloud9 pick up the second pistol and a sh1ro and Ax1Le full house on the A site saw C9 go 11-6 up. Cloud9 started the second half with five rounds straight and a electroNic triple on the B site saw Cloud9 pick up match and series point. afro picked up a 1v1 against Ax1Le on the B site to pick up their first T round but Cloud9 wasted no time to close the map at 16-7 and sent fnatic home. It was Perfecto and sh1ro on top of the scorecard once again, just like on Vertigo, with both ending on 25 and 22 kills respectively.
Cloud9 now move on to the quarter-finals and will face the winner of the Liquid-ENCE game.
Cloud9fnatic| Cloud9 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ilya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy |
50 - 32 | +18 | 95.7 | 79.2% | 1.40 |
| Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov |
46 - 31 | +15 | 85.9 | 73.6% | 1.31 |
| Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov |
35 - 35 | +0 | 77.5 | 77.4% | 1.15 |
 Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov |
36 - 36 | +0 | 70.7 | 69.8% | 1.05 |
| Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov |
28 - 39 | -11 | 56.3 | 66.0% | 0.86 |
| fnatic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Fredrik 'roeJ' Jørgensen |
33 - 43 | -10 | 84.7 | 64.2% | 0.98 |
 Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson |
36 - 35 | +1 | 74.2 | 67.9% | 0.98 |
 William 'mezii' Merriman |
34 - 37 | -3 | 67.0 | 64.2% | 0.96 |
 Aurélien 'afro' Drapier |
37 - 39 | -2 | 66.5 | 64.2% | 0.95 |
 Christopher 'dexter' Nong |
32 - 41 | -9 | 69.1 | 75.5% | 0.87 |
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