The playoff stage of the BLAST Austin Major is here and with the conclusion of the quarter-finals today, we say goodbye to two teams that have battled it out to get here. Here at CS2 Grove we have another recap from the Major.

Spirit vs MOUZ

Spirit took on the side of MOUZ in their quarter-final game. MOUZ’s run in the Major had looked a bit shaky going 0-2 in the first day of Stage 3, then making a miraculous 3-2 qualification to playoffs. Spirit, on the other hand was able to fly through Stage 3, qualifying for playoffs 3-0.

In their first map of Mirage, the game went into quadruple overtime, with Spirit eventually being able to clinch victory from the jaws of MOUZ. Inevitably in the end, MOUZ was able to reverse sweep Spirit in the two remaining maps 13-9 and 13-10 to advance to the semi-finals.

“After Mirage, our energy was lost. When we started to play on the T side of Dust2, we didn’t have a lot of good communication, good decisions, and I want to say that MOUZ did a really good job during these five days. They made their Dust2 better than it was.” – Chopper to HLTV

FURIA vs paiN

The second quarter-final of the night was between the other 3-0 team, FURIA, and paiN, who also went 0-2 in the first day of Stage 3 but qualified 3-2 in the end. They battled it out in a head to head quarter-final to see who would be eliminated from the tournament. FURIA, who were favourites, won their first map pretty convincingly, however paiN came back in the remaining two maps with increased firepower and motivation, besting their Brazilian rival organisation and advancing to the semi-final!

After thier won ‘nqz’ had this to say to HLTV,

“I’m feeling speechless right now, really really happy. I’m really proud of everyone. As you said, I wasn’t myself on the first two maps so it was really good to pop off on Inferno. A team effort, I’m really proud of everyone.” – nqz to HLTV