Cloud 9 defeated Evil Geniuses in a simple two-map match to get their ESL Premier League Season 17 group A campaign off to a solid start. The Russian team got the better of the North American team right away with a lopsided 16-5 victory on Inferno before finishing the game with 16-4 triumph on Mirage.
The two map beating gives Cloud9 the confidence they desperately needed after their underwhelming debut with Timur #buster Tulepov in the main roster. The Kazahk rifler was added as Timofey #interz Yakushin’s substitute, marking the team’s first squad change in three years.
On Evil Geniuses selection of Inferno, Cloud9 expoded to a 5-2 advantage on the CT-side thanks to a strong start from Dmitry #sh1ro Sokolov, who was leading the way with a 9-1 K/D difference. For the rest of the half, the Russians remained in a strong position in the server and added six more rounds to secure a convincing win. Evil Geniuses were uncompetitive in the face of a nafany company assault that resulted in an 11-4 halftime advantage for the Russians, despite managing to remain somewhat competitive with two sporadic rounds of their own.
Once on the offensive, Cloud9 spent little time in finishing the map, with sh1ro continuing to be a pain in the side of the North American roster. The Russian roster quickly stabilized and blocked any chance of an Evil Geniuses comeback, walking to a dominant 16-5 win in the series opener after Cloud9 failed with a clumsy assault of the B site in the 17th round.
Once they had their choice of Mirage, Cloud9 remained in the driver’s position. The North American team was forced to constantly battle their way out of 4v5 unfavorable circumstances as a result of a blitzing of Evil Geniuses’ defensive lines. The Russians took advantage of this situation and exploded to an unstoppable 5-0 lead on the T-side. Jerric #wiz Jiang and EG didn’t score until the eighth round, but this win didn’t do much to give the team any breathing room. Nafany led from the front (14 kills) to rip Evil Geniuses’ defenses apart and give his team a seven-round advantage going into the half as Cloud9 dominating T-side held strong.
Similar to Inferno, Cloud9 once more built a virtually impregnable CT-side to complete their control over the entire map. The team with a Russian majority did not allow Evil Geniuses to experience success once, winning five matches in a row to secure an incredibly dominating 16-4 victory and knock the North Americans out of the tournament in Malta.
