MIBR eliminated magic from StarLadder StarSeries Fall with a 2-1 lower-bracket win, taking Ancient 13-8 and Inferno 13-8 either side of an 11-13 loss on Mirage, HLTV reported. The result ended magic's tournament and kept MIBR's alive.
magic played the event short-handed. According to HLTV, the team attended StarSeries with its coach standing in for Andrey "AW" Anisimov, and MIBR were widely expected to win the series as a result. HLTV described magic's map win as the surprise of the matchup.
Map by map
Ancient went largely as expected. magic won the pistol round in both halves, which HLTV said produced a closer scoreline than the map perhaps deserved, but a strong performance from Felipe "insani" Yuji carried MIBR to a 13-8 win and a 1-0 series lead.
magic hit back on Mirage. Abdurakhim "mo0N" Issa led the fightback with 17 kills on the CT side, and magic held on for a narrow 13-11 win that levelled the series and forced a deciding map.
Inferno followed the pattern of the opener. magic again won both pistol rounds, but MIBR controlled the rest of the map and closed it out 13-8 to take the series.
Across the three maps MIBR won 37 rounds to magic's 29. magic took both pistol rounds on Ancient and both on Inferno, but converted neither map, and Mirage was the only map on which they finished ahead.
What the result meant
HLTV said the loss broke the momentum magic had been building and did a small amount of damage to the team's Valve Regional Standings (VRS) point total, though it judged magic to remain in a solid position to qualify for the PGL Singapore Major later this year.
For MIBR, the series extended what HLTV called the team's positive first steps with Tomas "tomaszin" Corna in the lineup. The win sent them to a lower-bracket semi-final against the loser of the Aurora vs. NRG match.
