Written by Vacant

Key Prematch odds: 

• To win this series: Mad Lions 41% vs Virtus.Pro 64%
• MadLions outright odds: 11/1
• Virtus.Pro outright odds: 4/1
• Check out our group stage review for more details on every team in the playoffs

A Close Shave for Virtus.Pro

MAD Lions gave Virtus.Pro a scare in the first bracket of the Flashpoint 2 Playoffs and it was all about the key men again for both teams as Rasmus “Sjuush” Beck and Dzhami “Jame” Ali dominated for their respective team’s opening map wins. After winning their own map pick Overpass 16-6, MAD Lions then fell to Virtus.Pro’s pick of Inferno 16-10, tying up the series as it went into the third and final map, Train.
On Train it was all to play for and it went all the way to the wire as both teams went back and forth in the fight to claim the first Upper Bracket Semi-Final spot. MAD Lions were defensively strong, as they had been throughout the series, picking up six CT rounds in a row to get to match point on 15-12, but just as it looked like they were going to clinch it, Virtus.Pro managed to drag the game into overtime and eventually came out on top to win the game 19-17 and the series 2-1.

Key Stats:

Map 1 (Overpass)

• Rasmus "Sjuush" Beck was the star player with 23 kills, a rating of 1.65
• However, Dzhami "Jame" Ali still had the most AWP kills on the server with 13 

Map 2 (Inferno)

• Jame took all the acclaim this time with 23 kills and a 1.41 rating
• He also dominated on the AWP with 15 kills

Map 3 (Train)

• sjuush was surprisingly the lowest rated player in this game with only 16 kills and a 0.85 rating
• Jame and Timur "Buster" Tulepov were instrumental in getting Virtus.Pro to the Semi-Final with 27 kills each (Incl. Overtime)

Vacant's Analysis:

• MAD Lions: Their strength was in their CT side. On Overpass they won 6 out of their 7 CT rounds in the 2nd half to win the map despite losing the CT pistol round. On Inferno they won 9 rounds on CT side, but only 1 on T side, which was their downfall. On Train, their CT side was dominant with 10 rounds won, but they failed to clinch that crucial match point. If they can become more penetrative on their T side and keep their composure in the clutch moments, they’ll certainly stand in a chance in making good progress in the lower bracket.
• Virtus.Pro: The dynamic duo of Jame and Buster can take Virtus.Pro all the way in this tournament. Jame was the MVP of the series with an average rating of 1.22 and the impact of his AWPing was crucial to their success - he managed 49 AWP kills over the entire series. The whole team showed real character to come from behind to win too after going a map down and needing overtime on Train which bodes well for the tough games they face in the upper bracket.

Virtus.Pro will face the winner of BIG vs Team Envy in the next round of the upper bracket, whilst MAD Lions will face the loser of that game in the lower bracket. Both games will take place on Wednesday 2nd December, so plenty of time to get your bets in on Midnite.com!