IEM Sydney has reached the 3rd day, seeing 4 teams on the verge of elimination. The first 2 opening matches were Grayhound vs FaZe and Fnatic versus Chiefs. Grayhound managed a hard-fought win over FaZe from IEM Sydney in a nail-biting series over 3 maps with a close 2-1 victory, while Fnatic made a comeback after 1 map down from Chiefs to win the bo3 with the same score 2-1, with the two winning sides set to meet in Group B's lower bracket final.
The Australian side’s map pick is Inferno, which saw the team kick off well despite losing the pistol round, with some solid entry from Christopher "dexter" Nong and Erdenetsogt "erkaSt" Gantulga putting them in a 5-2 lead on the Terrorist side. FaZe was unfazed and responded with four straight rounds as the superstar Håvard "rain" Nygaard shined with three multikills before the two sides went back and forth to conclude the first half with 8-7 with the European side leading.
Getting 1 map down, FaZe continued the series looking determined to fight back in Dust2, wrapping first six rounds with just 1 match point down on the CT side. Grayhound found their way into bombsites in later rounds, couldn’t equalize the score in the first half, ending up with a deficit scoreline of 5-10 after a troublesome double-AWP setup from Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács and Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer.
Janko "YNk" Paunović and Co. quickly widened the gap to 8 rounds, reaching 13 after rain's insane performance with 4 kills in the second pistol round, and although Grayhound put up a good fight to narrow down the score gap, FaZe finally closed the map at 16-12.
The deciding Overpass started with Grayhound lost the piston round, but managed a tight defense in the next round, with DickStacy finding key openings to bring advantages to his companions and closed out the first half 9-6. Winning the second half pistol round, the Oceanic squad went up 11-6 looked set to close out the map only to see the two teams fight back and forth. There was still chance for FaZe to come back, bringing the match to 30 rounds to make it OT, but clutch play from erkaSt in the last round sealed the deal at 16-14, 2-1.
In the meantime, another Australian-European battle broked out. Fnatic kicked off the map with a better start on Dust2, leading 5-0 on the offense, but it was Chiefs who sealed the first half with the advantage to their hands by a strong run led by Chris "ofnu" Hanley.
The Swedes closed the gap with a second-round break on the defense, at one point holding a 13-11 lead, but they were unable to close it out despite the advantage, with Chiefs walking away with a 16-14 victory.
With upset potential looming up ahead like their European companions, Fnatic looked strong to tie out the series in Mirage with another early lead on the T side, only to see it slipping away from their hands once again, with Chiefs going doing from a 1-5 start to win the first half 8-7. However, the second half saw the European side’s defense impenetrable with a 16-9 win to JW and Co. to bring the bo3 to the third map.
When it came to Inferno, Fnatic were dominant in the CT side, ending the first half with an impressive 13-2 lead. A pistol round win was only saving grace as Jesper "JW" Wecksell's team closed out the map with Fnatic emerging victorious 16-4, winning 2-1.