by The first day of the CS:GO Asia Minor Championship saw Grayhound and TYLOO confirmed as the first two teams to reach the playoffs, which will begin on Friday, July 26.
Grayhound entered the Asia Minor as the favourites to go all the way and finish on top, and they did not need long to prove their worth. The Australian team topped Group A with a 16-7 win over Energy Esports in game one and followed it up with another strong performance against AVANT.
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The series against AVANT started on Overpass, where Grayhound took a 6-1 lead before their opponents produced some resistance to whittle the margin down to one round by half-time. The second half saw the teams go back-and-forth until Grayhound found their rhythm and took seven out of the last eight rounds to win the first map 16-12.
Unlike the opening game, Nuke was anything but close. The Aussies produced what can only be described as a perfect map, winning 16-0 to seal top spot in Group A and make a big statement in the process.
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While TYLOO were not as dominant as Grayhound, they did enough to get the job done in Group B. A 16-8 win over FFAmix on Mirage put them through to the winners’ match, where they faced ALPHA Red in a Bo3 battle.
TYLOO endured a slow start to that series. They underperformed in the first map (Overpass), giving A-Red a 9-6 advantage at half-time that stretched out to a 16-8 win for the Thai side.
On Mirage, TYLOO got out to a fast start and went 3-0 up before ALPHA responded and pulled the deficit back to only one point at half-time. This time the Chinese outfit woke up in the second half, claiming seven out of eight rounds to level the series with a 16-8 win.
The third map was Train, which played out in a similar fashion to the second map. TYLOO once again exited the first half with a slight lead (9-6), only to outperform their opponents in the second half (7-3) and secure the series with a 16-9 win.
Grayhound and TYLOO now await their semi-final opponents, who they will meet on July 26. TYLOO will face off against the second-placed team from Group A, while Grayhound will test their strength against second-placed team from Group B.
