FURIA defeated Movistar Riders in a two-map series, dominating Ancient (16-3) and closing out the series with a comeback from 7-13 on Nuke (16-13). Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato had a fantastic series, putting up a 1.73 rating and 52 kills.
FURIA now sit at the top of Group D with a 2-0 record alongside Cloud9, with their next game against Liquid coming on Friday at 19:30 . Meanwhile, this is the second loss of the group stage for Movistar Riders, with the Spaniards facing Cloud9 in the next round of play.
KSCERATO was the star of the show
The series began on Ancient, with Movistar Riders starting on the less-favored Terrorist side. The Spaniards had a very rough start, losing the pistol round and were simply outclassed in the opening exchanges, with FURIA winning all 15 rounds of the half. Movistar Riders achieved just one opening kill in the first half alongside just three bomb plants, with the team coming closest to getting themselves on the board in the penultimate round, where they were denied by André “drop” Abreu‘s 1vs2 clutch.
A pistol round win meant Movistar Riders at least avoided the 16-0 and were able to get three rounds, as the map finished with a dominant 16-3 win for the Brazilians.
Nuke proved to be a much closer affair, with Movistar Riders in control of the opening few rounds, bar a lost 3vs5 situation on the lower site. FURIA came back into the game after being 2-6 down, with KSCERATO finding impact in several rounds to set the halftime score at 8-7 in favor of the Spaniards.
Movistar Riders won the second pistol and looked like they were about to run away with the game, racing to a 13-7 lead. FURIA stabilized soon after that, with KSCERATO once again the difference maker. The 23-year-old got an incredibly important quad-kill in a 3vs5 situation with the scoreline at 13-9, with the Brazilians never looking back and closing out the game with a 16-13 win.
