While it may have been a shock to see Cloud9 in the Elimination Match of Group B, most were predicting an easy win for them here. Despite the history between compLexity and Cloud9, with the former taking a number of upsets over the last month, their form had been so shockingly awful against REUNITED that it seemed impossible. They looked to be on tilt and off their game, just at a time where they’d have to perform at maximum capacity.

If you’re looking to get more familiar with the teams and understand their storylines, take a look at the viewer’s guide written yesterday for this tournament. The four teams in each group played in a GSL-style format, running a mini double-elimination bracket. Teams with two losses would be eliminated, while those with two wins would qualify to the knockout bracket.

Elimination Match: compLexity vs. Cloud9

As with all of the second round matches, the teams started on Dorado, a map that favoured compLexity over their rivals. Cloud9 began on offense and were able to push up slope before Shake’s transcendence gave them an opportunity to reply. It was a costly ultimate use and C9 looked to make them pay by surging in on the repush with their own Zenyatta ultimate. Both teams popped off graviton surges, locking eight players in space, but Cloud9’s dps had been caught compared to the supports of compLexity and the former got their heads popped off by a Tork that appeared to be returning to form.

Cloud9 attempted a dry push and managed to take down Tork on McCree early on, but still weren’t able to solidify around the fountain and after another few messy engagements the former WoW pros found themselves 3 minutes in and with nothing to show for it. Surefour switched onto Tracer in an attempt to harass and open space from behind but again Tork, well protected by his team, was able to destroy anybody who dared show their face. Cloud9, with only ten seconds left, took some breathing space, rallied themselves, and pushed in; they’d given Harbleu all the time he needed to set up though and a graviton surge locked them on the slope. Easy pickings for compLexity as they shocked everyone by holding Cloud9 to only 72.78m, no further than the fountain.

It was an impossible task for Cloud9 to repeat. Harbleu and Tork had all the time in the world to build their ultimates and hit some hooks as they switched onto a triple tank offense. The Harb-hog was not performing at his best, missing a slew of hooks, but it didn’t matter for the team. With two minutes left compLexity overwhelmed, charged up to the fountain, and took map one in dominant fashion.

compLexity look to redeem themselves. Photo Credit: ESL

King’s Row was the loser’s pick from Cloud9, already one map away from being eliminated in last place from gamescom. Keeping everything classic, they defended well to start and held the first checkpoint for over three minutes, denying a multitude of pushes from compLexity. Once they’d been broken they found it hard to regain control in the streets however and were pushed all the way back to the second checkpoint immediately. The second checkpoint though, Cloud9 demanded, was far enough. They met them as the cart came ever closer and were promptly laughed back to spawn as the juggernaut offense stormed into the final area with five minutes gone.

Reaver switched over to Widowmaker for the final stretch but wasn’t hitting his shots well enough, and as the teams traded gravitons below him he could only watch as the vastly better close-range dps heroes from compLexity slaughtered his team. Dancing around to buy time, Cloud9 just squeeze out a defense from the spawners as the cart nears the final few metres. Seven minutes have been burned from the time, and as compLexity slowly grind out a win they are nearer eight minutes for their time on King’s Row.

Holding for eight minutes on King’s Row is a tough ask against the best teams in the world, but compLexity looked ready to face the challenge. Cloud9 had none of their earlier problems however and speed boosted straight into hotel, forcing their opponents to split up positions wildly across the point. KyKy and Surefour were able to pick them off one by one to capture the first point in under a minute, and then stomped through the streets in under three minutes overall. compLexity, battered at this point, would have had to hold for nearly five minutes to knock Cloud9 out of the tournament but they couldn’t do it. C9 replied with gusto, showing they deserved to be at gamescom with a time that still had minutes to spare.

Cloud9 fight back. Photo Credit: ESL

Watchpoint: Gibraltar was to be the final map of the series, and the final map for one of these teams at gamescom. It seemed a questionable pick from compLexity given how incredibly poor they had looked against REUNITED, but perhaps hinted that they had fully recovered from that psychological torture.

compLexity began on defense, with Harbleu on Roadhog, Jkw on Winston, and Nicolas on Tracer. It was the same setup they had run against REUNITED but with some crucial positioning changes to avoid being overwhelmed: Nicolas was holding from server room which, alongside a higher position for Jkw, stopped their opponents from being able to fully commit onto the high ground around checkpoint two. After two minutes of failed pushes, Cloud9 catch three in a graviton surge and take the point, wiping compLexity so late that they couldn’t get a position in hangar at all. Cloud9 made it to the home stretch having only expended four minutes and thirty seconds and, after some poking and traded kills, a nice drop play from Reaver that shoved hellfire shotguns into the mouth of Jkw created an opening. They finished the map in a respectable 6:24, and just had to hold on.

Cloud9 set up in the server room, ready and waiting for pushes to come in, but Tork on Genji immediately spotted the threat and called it out to his team. As they pushed the cart up to the peak of the slope, he slipped behind into hangar and caused DeBett to come vastly out of position. Harbleu could not believe his luck as a Reinhardt wandered into him in a confined 1v1 and with the main protection down for Cloud9 they were split apart and picked off.

Cloud9 scrambled to take control of hangar, realising that they had to hold for a significant time yet, and just get into position as compLexity burst through with their dps ultimates. After managing to mitigate most of the damage through their superior position, Cloud9 forced them away from the cart and set up a more rigid defense up high. Both sound barriers were dropped in the next fight from Joemeister and Grego and C9 dropped to the floor to engage, but a huge pulse bomb from Nicolas and perfect focus fire wiped them out almost instantly.

With one more checkpoint to go, compLexity still had three minutes to play with. Surefour surprised everyone with a Pharah pick, attempting to control the skies against a composition lacking long range hitscan, but compLexity just chose to rip through the rest of his team on the floor instead. Surefour could only watch in dismay from the skies as his team get pushed back further and further and he could not output enough damage to stop the inevitable.

Shockingly, Cloud9 joined Dignitas as joint last place at gamescom in a knockout by domestic rivals compLexity. The TJO bros had redeemed themselves from their awful performance in the first match of the tournament, and went to face Rogue in the Decider Match.