B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape moved onto their second big LAN in just under a week, as they took down Flash Gaming to move onto the IEM Sydney main event. Just 3 days earlier they had taken down Recca to qualify for the ESL Pro League Season 7 APAC finals.
Just like the Pro League qualifiers, d[S] were fighting from the lower bracket here as well, having been knocked down by the number 1 Asian team currently, TyLoo. In the lower bracket, they picked up a convincing 2-0 over Thai squad, Signature Gaming. For their last hurdle, it was Chinese team FLash Gaming, who stood in their way.
On d[S]’s map pick, Mirage, they started out on the T side, picking up the pistol round but got reset by Flash’s eco in the second round. Eventually, they mustered up the economy to buy into the rounds after having gone down 3-1 and fought their way back into the game. They strung together 4 consecutive rounds twice to take the half 10-5. A solid performance from benkai, who was clutch in the post plant situations clutching out 1v2’s and 1v3’s to give d[S] the lead.
Flash responded well in the second half, picking up 5 rounds on the trot themselves as they evened up the score. In d[S]’s second buy round, they carved out a win and set themselves up nicely to take the series. Flash Gaming were unable to take another round as d[S] cleaned them up including a 1v2 by Impression that broke Flash’s economy and sealed the game for d[S].
Flash’s map pick was Overpass, which in hindsight seems surprising given the fact that Flash neither had a convincing T side nor a convincing CT side on the map. They never managed to get going on the T side, having their backs broken by d[S] time and again, and their CT side was virtually nonexistent as they picked up a single round, compared to the 7 of d[S]. 16-7 was the final score when the dust settled and overall quite a comfortable series coming out from B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape.
I'll be honest, I wear my heart on my sleeve and I have to just say I'm really glad we qualified for the events, it feels amazing especially with the new addition of w1nt3r, so proud of my teammates and I wish only to go further with them for the remainder of the year.
— Anthony ImpressioN L (@ImpressioNCSGO) April 11, 2018
Elsewhere, MVP PK took down TyLoo 2-1 to move on as the first seed from Asia. All 3 teams have a long road ahead of them as they go up against the giants of Counter-Strike in Faze, Fnatic, Na’Vi, SK, Astralis, mousesports, Renegades and NRG Esports. 3 teams from the Oceanic Qualifier will also be joining them.
