The group stage of IEM Chicago ended late last night and the playoff picture is now set.
Six teams are advancing to the IEM Chicago championship bracket—FaZe Clan, Astralis, Team LDLC, Fnatic, Team Liquid, and Mousesports. FaZe upset as the underdog Astralis for a one-way ticket to the semifinals, while Fnatic did the same against Liquid. Astralis and Liquid were placed in the quarterfinals for finishing second in their group.
Related: Na’Vi and MIBR get eliminated in day two of IEM Chicago
Among last night’s matches, LDLC upsetting NRG Esports was the most surprising result, especially because NRG was fresh off a tournament win at cs_summit 3. After going the distance with the North American squad on Nuke, LDLC took Overpass and Train, to complete a rigorous losers’ bracket run.
Mouz, on the other hand, fought for their tournament lives in their own losers’ bracket matches vs. BIG and Luminosity Gaming. The mixed European superteam topped BIG with two 16-10 scorelines on Dust II and Train, before going up against LG, who defeated eUnited earlier in the day. The Brazilians then came up short on Cache vs. Mouz, and Mouz later used that forward momentum to crush them on Mirage 16-5
Group A
Winners’ Match
FaZe Clan vs. Astralis
- FaZe won Mirage 16-7
- FaZe won Inferno 19-15
Decider Match
Team LDLC vs. NRG Esports
- NRG won Nuke 19-17
- LDLC won Overpass 16-11
- LDLC won Train 16-8
Group B
Losers’ Matches
Luminosity vs. eUnited
- LG won Mirage 16-10
- LG won Train 16-9
Mousesports vs. BIG
- Mouz won Dust II 16-10
- Mouz won Train 16-10
Winners’ Match
Fnatic vs. Team Liquid
- Fnatic won Mirage 16-12
- Liquid won Inferno 16-12
- Fnatic won Overpass 16-7
Decider Match
Mousesports vs. Luminosity Gaming
- Mouz won Cache 16-13
- Mouz won Mirage 16-5
The playoffs of IEM Chicago begins tomorrow with the LDLC vs. Liquid quarterfinal at 1pm CT, followed by the Astralis vs. Mouz quarterfinal at 3:35pm CT.
