The quarter-final matchups for the BLAST Bounty Season 2 Finals were settled at a live draft show in Malta, where the four lower-seeded teams chose their opponents from the four high seeds. Liquid will open the offline stage against Spirit.
paiN drafted first and took Astralis. In-game leader Rodrigo "biguzera" Bittencourt said the pick came down to map pools, and to the VRS points at stake for a team that has slid to 29th in the Global Standings.
The first thing about Astralis is that their map pick is Ancient, and we don't play Ancient. It's a big point for us. We have a lot of maps in common that I would like to play, and the last time we faced, we beat them.
FaZe picked The MongolZ, pointing to the extra day of preparation the slot afforded and, again, to VRS points against a team ranked just above them. Niclas "enkay J" Krumhorn said the absence of Erdenedalai "maaRaa" Bayanbat was not a factor in the choice. The MongolZ' Sodbayar "Techno" Munkhbold suggested his team's newcomers might play with more freedom for having no pressure on them.
3DMAX, left to choose between MOUZ and tournament favourites Spirit, took MOUZ. Damien "wasiNk" Dufour said the map pool drove the decision and that the team had wanted the matchup since the first day of the event.
That left Liquid with Spirit by default, an outcome Viktor "flashie" Tamás Bea will have seen coming. Liquid reached Malta by beating Vitality and G2 in the online stage, a run made with Johnny "JT" Theodosiou newly installed as in-game leader and Georgi "Jorko" Mitev, an inexperienced AWPer, in the lineup.
HLTV described the draft itself as predictable, with each lower seed steering toward the map pool it preferred. Liquid against Spirit is the first game of the offline stage.
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