In the Brazilian derby set for the quarter-finals of the BLAST.tv Austin Major, the young guns of paiN outlasted a veteran-stacked FURIA side to reach the semi-finals. Clearly, the underdogs coming into the series, paiN has pulled off the second upset of the day, which was also the biggest win the history of the organization, and it was anything but smooth.
VETO
- paiN removed Train
- FURIA removed Ancient
- paiN picked Nuke
- FURIA picked Anubis
- FURIA removed Mirage
- paiN removed Dust2
- Inferno was left over
Map 1: Nuke; Pick: paiN; Winner: FURIA
Starting on the defense, FURIA had a solid start to Nuke as paiN found it too hard to break their defense, but did manage to rope in 4 rounds before ending the first half. Despite paiN trying their best, the FURIA offense was too sharp for a more inexperienced side as they steamrolled their way to victory. With little experience behind him, molodoy managed to top the charts with a 1.44 IR and 19 kills to his name as FURIA dominated paiN to open the series.
Map 2: Anubis; Pick: FURIA; Winner: paiN
Starting on the offense, paiN managed to pull off the impossible and secure 9 rounds, putting FURIA on the back foot before moving to the defense. Having a big lead of 9-3, paiN had room for error as FURIA found back leading to both teams trading rounds before paiN edged out a win with a 13-8 scoreline. As paiN had their backs against the wall, it was their captain in dav1deuS who led from the front with 19 kills and an IR of 1.54, making sure the series goes to the final map.
Map 3: Inferno; Pick: Decider: Winner: paiN
YEKINDAR’s powerful start to the first half took FURIA to an early lead, but paiN, despite taking a beating, managed to secure 5 rounds to make the game more competitive moving into the second half of the final map. Despite being behind, paiN were the first to reach the series point as FURIA found them needing a comeback, which they pulled off, thus taking the game to overtime. Despite choking 3 rounds in regulation, the inexperienced paiN side let a flawless overtime run to win all of the rounds and secure their place in the semi-finals.
Not only did paiN manage to win the Brazilian derby, but they did so by beating the biggest names of the region, FalleN and KSCERATO. Having secured the biggest win in the organization’s history, they have secured the highest placement in a CS2 Major by any Brazilian team. While one can argue they have had an easy path, waiting for them in the semi-finals will be the winner of FaZe vs. MongolZ, and that will be a challenge of a whole new level.