Astralis have assured themselves of a playoff spot at IEM Sydney after easing past mousesports on two maps, while Cloud9 live to fight another round in the lower bracket after defeating ORDER 2-1.

The battle for a spot in the playoffs began on Inferno, where MOUZ came out the livelier of the two sides as they jumped out to a 4-1 lead on the defensive side of the map. Astralis responded with a four-round streak of their own to take the lead for the first time in the game.

The rest of the half was highly contested as teams took turns stringing rounds together without really getting control of the economy, with MOUZ taking a narrow 8-7 lead on the back of a sensational quad-kill from Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk.

The second half was a complete blowout. Astralis started to play with fire in their bellies and won seven rounds right off the bat to put MOUZ on the verge of meltdown. It was only then that the European mixture managed to break through the tight Astralis defence for the first time, but the Danish team rallied back immediately and eventually locked down the map thanks to a trio of kills from Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander.

device was in stunning form, especially on Nuke

With Dust2 left over as the third map, many hoped that MOUZ would take Nuke and level up the series to finally see the map coming into play. But Astralis had different plans. The Danes jumped out to a 4-1 lead on the CT side after picking up the pistol round and countering their opponents' gun round win to set up a 4-1 lead.

MOUZ then called a timeout in a bid to halt Astralis' momentum, only to get shut down by Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz in the following round. With the 22-year-old in stunning form and Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný struggling to get frags, Astralis just rolled over their opponents and closed out the half with a 12-3 lead.

The second half followed the same pattern as the first, with every round win from MOUZ being instantly countered by Astralis. In the end, there was nothing that mouz could do to prevent their opponents from running away with the game and moving on to the group's upper bracket final.

IEM Sydney 2018Best of 3 MOUZMatchpage 0 2 2nd May 2018 Astralis 9Inferno 16 5Nuke 16

MOUZ	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Robin 'ropz' Koolropz	29 - 33	-4	65.8	0.85
Martin 'STYKO' StykSTYKO	29 - 36	-7	71.8	0.85
Chris 'chrisJ' de JongchrisJ	25 - 38	-13	64.6	0.75
Miikka 'suNny' KemppisuNny	23 - 39	-16	73.2	0.70
Tomáš 'oskar' Šťastnýoskar	21 - 36	-15	55.2	0.59

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Nicolai 'device' Reedtzdevice	47 - 22	+25	106.6	1.71
Emil 'Magisk' ReifMagisk	36 - 28	+8	94.2	1.30
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossandergla1ve	34 - 30	+4	88.8	1.24
Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x	31 - 20	+11	61.3	1.19
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussendupreeh	33 - 28	+5	72.9	1.13

Meanwhile over on the secondary stream, Cloud9 and ORDER faced off in a close series that went to all three maps. The opening map, Cache, was Cloud9's pick, but the final score would have suggested otherwise.

The Australian team set up a tight defence on the map and cruised to an 8-3 lead after preventing their opponents from getting any economic development. Cloud9 then finally picked up the pace and brought the deficit to two at the start of the second half, but then they were handed a heavy blow as ORDER responded in a force-buy. That was the start of a great run from the Australians that ended with a triple kill from Jay "⁠Liazz⁠" Tregillgas to give the home side the map.

RUSH the hero as Cloud9 survive a close series

Next up was Train, which began at a frantic pace as rounds went back and forth without either side being able to get a grip on the game. But then the game turned into a complete one-sided affair as Cloud9 closed out the first half with a commanding 12-3 lead and then lost just one round before locking down the map to take the series to Inferno.

Cloud9 got off to a flying start on the final map and picked up a four-round lead early in the game. It looked like the North Americans had the game under control, but ORDER fought back valiantly with another lively display from Liazz, and were up by one round by the end of the half.

ORDER further added to their lead by winning the pistol round after denying William "⁠RUSH⁠" Wierzba the ace, and they followed that up with an anti-eco. Once they had money in the bank, Cloud9 took control of proceedings, but some messy rounds really cost them and allowed ORDER to hit match point at 15-13.

With no margin for error, RUSH single-handedly rescued Cloud9 with a massive 1v4 clutch on B, leaving ORDER's players without money in the bank to prevent overtime in the 30th round.

RUSH headlined the first overtime by pulling off another massive clutch, this time on the other bombsite, but Cloud9 could not close out the match as ORDER came back from two match points to force a second overtime - in which the North Americans would come out victorious with a quad-kill from Tyler "⁠Skadoodle⁠" Latham in the final round.

IEM Sydney 2018Best of 3 ORDERMatchpage 1 2 2nd May 2018 Cloud9 16Cache 7 4Train 16 19Inferno 22

ORDER	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Jay 'Liazz' TregillgasLiazz	79 - 52	+27	103.5	1.46
Jordan 'Hatz' BajicHatz	62 - 59	+3	86.3	1.15
Simon 'Sico' WilliamsSico	55 - 50	+5	64.1	1.02
Chris 'emagine' Rowlandsemagine	38 - 60	-22	59.9	0.80
Alistair 'aliStair' JohnstonaliStair	40 - 60	-20	49.2	0.74

Cloud9	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
William 'RUSH' WierzbaRUSH	75 - 51	+24	83.9	1.27
Tarik 'tarik' Celiktarik	69 - 59	+10	89.2	1.25
Timothy 'autimatic' Taautimatic	58 - 50	+8	73.4	1.10
Pujan 'FNS' MehtaFNS	43 - 58	-15	68.8	0.93
Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamSkadoodle	36 - 56	-20	52.7	0.79

Tyler 'Skadoodle' Latham Age: 24 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 950 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.58 Astralis #1 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander Age: 22 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 938 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.66 MOUZ #5 Tomáš 'oskar' ŠťastnýChris 'chrisJ' de JongMiikka 'suNny' KemppiMartin 'STYKO' StykRobin 'ropz' Kool ORDER #42 Chris 'emagine' RowlandsSimon 'Sico' WilliamsJay 'Liazz' TregillgasAlistair 'aliStair' JohnstonJordan 'Hatz' Bajic Nicolai 'device' Reedtz Age: 22 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.16 Maps played: 1095 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.63 Martin 'STYKO' Styk Age: 22 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 786 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.67 Jay 'Liazz' Tregillgas Age: 20 Team: ORDER Rating 1.0: 1.19 Maps played: 384 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.61 William 'RUSH' Wierzba Age: 23 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 796 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.66 Cloud9 #6 Pujan 'FNS' MehtaTyler 'Skadoodle' LathamWilliam 'RUSH' WierzbaTarik 'tarik' CelikTimothy 'autimatic' Ta Tomáš 'oskar' Šťastný Age: 26 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.15 Maps played: 737 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.66