Virtus.pro beat 5POWER 2-0 at IEM Shanghai, 16-14 on Inferno and 19-15 on Cache, and will go on to play HellRaisers in the Group A decider match.

The first map of the series between Virtus.pro and 5POWER kicked off on Inferno, the Asian side’s pick, although it was the Poles who took the pistol round after stopping an A side push from the Terrorists.

Once again, Virtus.pro stopped an A push, but this time in the first gun round to take a 4-0 lead which was followed up with a clean anti-eco. 5POWER were then able to get on the board with two rounds in a row, but Virtus.pro won their last proper buy before having to go on eco to keep the economic game in their favor, making the scoreboard show 6-2.

From there on out it was all Virtus.pro, who time and time again were able to read 5POWER and stop their aggression allowing the Asian team to plant only 2 times on the whole side. The Poles won every round but the last one, making it a 12-3 half. Having won the pistol round with a play on A, Virtus.pro got ahead 13-3 with the economic advantage, but a CZ buy from 5POWER proved affected as they were able to stop the Poles from planting on the B site.

After losing four rounds, Virtus.pro were finally able to get one more, just two away from victory, and made it to match point the following round despite ZhiHai "⁠QKA⁠" Fu getting two opening frags. A big quad-kill by Gan-Erdene "⁠dobu⁠" Batbold and a crucial shot by QKA stopped Virtus.pro from taking the B site and the first map.

Bat-Enkh "⁠kabal⁠" Batbayar then got a quad-kill of his own, with three consecutive kills in arches to keep the match going, 15-9. The Chinese-Mongolian side ground their way back round after round all the way to 14-15, a last round in which Peng "⁠xiaosaGe⁠" Song got the three first kills of the round but a late quad-kill by Paweł "⁠byali⁠" Bieliński including two molotov kills got Virtus.pro through the finish line in-extremis.

5POWER won the first pistol round of the second map after successfully retaking the A site from the Virtus.pro, who had managed to plant, but it was the Poles who were able to get on the board on the following round with a successful B take on the forcebuy, tying it up 1-1.

The Chinese-Mongolian side then won a forcebuy of their own and followed it up, taking a 3-1 lead and putting the Poles on the back foot, economically. With money problems and 5POWER setting up a wall, things quickly went the way of the Chinese-Mongolian side who were able to take a large lead winning eight in a row to make it 9-1 before Virtus.pro were able to respond.

Despite giving up a couple rounds, 5POWER were able to regain control of the match to take a one-sided 12-3 into the half. Having won the second pistol round, Virtus.pro were able to start to bring it back after winning the forcebuy and first gun round. With 12-7 on the board, 5POWER were able to successfully take B and get one round closer to winning, prompting VP to take a timeout.

After that, Virtus.pro seemed reinvigorated and kept on the comeback trail all the way to a tie, 13-13. From there on out, Virtus.pro remained in control, but were unable to close out the match, which went to overtime. Starting on the CT side, Virtus.pro were able to maintain their dominance on the defending side, winning the three rounds of the half. Winning the first on the T side after a B execute, Virtus.pro were able to breathe knowing they will be in the Group A decider match.

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