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The ????? ?????? ????North Americans move on in Group B's upper bracket after posting a surprising victory.

Evil Geniuses are back. After months of struggle and frustration, the North Americans, languishing at No.38 in the world rankings, turned in an impressive display to move past world No.2 HEROIC and secure a place in the single-elimination playoffs. Whatever happens from now on, EG have made a success of their IEM Summer run and earned a much-needed lifeline. They will return to action on Sunday in the group's upper bracket final against either OG or Virtus.pro for a spot in the semi-finals.

The opening map of the series, Inferno, was a keenly-contested affair that was decided in overtime. Evil Geniuses were on the front foot from the start and reached map point at 15-11, but they were unable to deliver the finishing blow in regulation as HEROIC made a last-ditch rally. Ismail "?refrezh?" Ali had two crucial multi-kill rounds that kept the Danes in the game, but there was no stopping EG in the extra rounds.

EG defeated Heroic in three maps

The North American team carried that momentum into the following map, Nuke, as they stormed to a commanding 11-0 lead on the CT side. Things were starting to look bleak for HEROIC, but the Danish team managed to muster four rounds in the half with great individual plays to keep their comeback hopes alive. The whole shape of the game changed dramatically in the second half, with Casper "?cadiaN?" M?ller and René "?TeSeS?" Madsen combining for 33 frags as HEROIC secured the map in the final round of regulation to level the series.

Owen "?oBo?" Schlatter turned up the heat on Mirage, racking up 18 frags on the defence as Evil Geniuses secured a promising 10-5 lead. HEROIC showed their class after the break and kept trying to chip away at the deficit, but EG held on thanks to a crucial 1v3 clutch by Peter "?stanislaw?" Jarguz and put the series to bed just when overtime seemed inevitable.

Meanwhile, Complexity moved on in Group A's lower bracket following a 2-1 victory against FunPlus Phoenix. The former GODSENT team drew first blood in the series with an overtime victory on Inferno, where Pavle "?Maden?" Bo?kovi? produced another stellar display (1.61 rating, 38-19 KD-D), but then they lost their grip on Overpass halfway through the game and let a 12-7 lead slip. Complexity were in control on Nuke from the offset, limiting their opponents to five rounds in each half to run out victors in the series and set up a lower bracket final match against the winner of Gambit vs. Astralis.

IEM Summer 2021Best of 3 HEROIC

HEROIC

Matchpage 1 2 4th June 2021

Evil Geniuses 17Inferno 19 16Nuke 14 13Mirage 16

?HEROIC	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Casper 'cadiaN' M?llercadiaN	72 - 63	+9	82.0	1.17
René 'TeSeS' MadsenTeSeS	70 - 62	+8	79.2	1.13
Martin 'stavn' Lundstavn	56 - 63	-7	67.9	1.00
Rasmus 'sjuush' Becksjuush	59 - 65	-6	70.1	0.95
Ismail 'refrezh' Alirefrezh	59 - 62	-3	60.0	0.92

?Evil Geniuses	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Owen 'oBo' SchlatteroBo	75 - 67	+8	89.3	1.21
Tsvetelin 'CeRq' DimitrovCeRq	64 - 58	+6	72.1	1.13
Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguzstanislaw	60 - 60	0	67.2	0.96
Micha? 'MICHU' MüllerMICHU	60 - 64	-4	65.9	0.95
Vincent 'Brehze' CayonteBrehze	55 - 69	-14	65.6	0.89

IEM Summer 2021Best of 3

Complexity

Matchpage 2 1 4th June 2021

FunPlus Phoenix 15Inferno 19 16Overpass 13 16Nuke 10

?Complexity	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Justin 'jks' Savagejks	63 - 54	+9	81.0	1.19
Kristian 'k0nfig' Wieneckek0nfig	68 - 61	+7	84.9	1.08
Benjamin 'blameF' BremerblameF	53 - 55	-2	70.5	1.06
Valentin 'poizon' Vasilevpoizon	58 - 54	+4	69.1	1.05
William 'RUSH' WierzbaRUSH	56 - 60	-4	66.4	1.00

?FunPlus Phoenix	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Pavle 'Maden' Bo?kovi?Maden	80 - 59	+21	93.0	1.28
Martin 'STYKO' StykSTYKO	63 - 61	+2	77.2	1.10
Asger 'Farlig' JensenFarlig	54 - 58	-4	61.6	0.96
Luka 'emi' Vukovi?emi	44 - 60	-16	60.1	0.84
Jesse 'zehN' LinjalazehN	38 - 60	-22	53.4	0.74