The LAN tournament in Dubai is nearing the end of the group stage, and the first two teams to make it to the playoffs are MiBR Virtus.pro.
Virtus.pro continued to provide excellent games, and after "ruining" the debut of the new Astralis in the first round, they celebrated in the CIS derby against Spirit, which they won 2-0.
The two top Russian teams fought fiercely throughout the match, and both times VP was calmer in the end.
The duel opened on Spirit's Ancient pick, where this time Virtus was able to stop them and celebrate 16-13 after overtime thanks to the excellent output of David "n0rb3r7" Danielyan who did 29 frags and 108.5 damage per round. It was his frags that most often gave VP an advantage in important rounds and opened the door to victory.
Then came Overpass, where Virtus.pro defeated Spirit three times in a row, and although they triumphed this time too, Spirit put up a great resistance and succumbed only after 23 rounds.
In group A, MiBR managed to surprise the favored Russian teams BetBoom Team and Cloud9, and their victory against C9, which has been providing really top games lately, was especially exciting.
Cloud9 took a convincing 13-3 victory on Anubis, who happened to be the opponent's pick, after which they looked like they would routinely end the match in their favor. Instead, MiBR manages to stop them at the last moment on Inferno, win overtimes and settle the final score in them, and then take a convincing 13-6 victory over Mirage.
On the other hand, the debut of Astralis in the new line-up experienced a complete debacle, they ended their participation in the tournament without a victory, first they were defeated by Virtus.pro, and then by FURIA in the fight for survival.
In today's matches, the remaining two travelers to the playoffs will be decided. BetBoom and Cloud9 meet in Group A, and FURIA and Spirit fight in Group B.