Aurora have secured a place in the Esports World Cup playoffs after a 2-0 win over JiJieHao in Paris, according to a match report from HLTV. The Turkish-majority roster took Mirage 13-6 and then controlled Anubis from the opening rounds, reaching the tournament's top-16 stage without a serious scare.
Mirage was JiJieHao's own map pick, and the underdogs took both pistol rounds on it. That was the extent of their resistance. HLTV reports that Aurora's superior firepower overwhelmed the side across the rest of the map, and the 13-6 scoreline understates how one-sided the middle of the map became.
Anubis followed the same pattern with less of a fight. JiJieHao were repeatedly caught out in mid-round situations during the first half and could not string rounds together on the T side, leaving them six rounds down at the interval. They then lost the second-half pistol round to a well-timed molotov and managed a single round on the CT side before Ismailcan "XANTARES" Dortkardes closed the series out with a quad-kill.
The end of JiJieHao's run
The defeat eliminates the side led by Dionis "sinnopsyy" Budeci, whose tournament peaked early. JiJieHao arrived through the last-chance qualifier and upset Spirit in a best-of-one, but by HLTV's count they averaged just five rounds per map across their subsequent series against GamerLegion and Aurora.
Coach Torbjorn "mithR" Nyborg was reflective after the match, telling HLTV the team had exceeded its own expectations before the collapse.
We came to Paris just hoping to make it through the LCQ. Making a good result at the LCQ would have been enough. Then we go to the main tournament, we get an upset against Spirit. We played so well in that game, everyone was trading each other. I don't know what happened exactly.
Nyborg added that the team needed to be proud of reaching the main tournament and that there were lessons to take from the exit, while conceding they were not yet ready for tier-one opposition. Aurora move on to the top-16 stage.
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