After a tumultuous first split, the Americas playoffs kicked off with back to back knockout matches. G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #6 icy Jacob Lange trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf started the day by eliminating Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #9 Xeppaa Erick Bach runi Dylan Cade moose Kaleb Jayne vanity Anthony Malaspina OXY Francis Hoang , and 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #1 bang Sean Bezerra Cryocells Matthew Panganiban eeiu Daniel Vucenovic Boostio Kelden Pupello Asuna Peter Mazuryk followed up with an absolutely dominant curbstomping of LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #1 saadhak Matias Delipetro Less Felipe de Loyola tuyz Arthur Andrade cauanzin Cauan Pereira .

Despite going 5-1 throughout the cross-group games, Cloud9 still got stuck in a single elimination playoff match. All of their regular season victories were dashed in a single series that ended their hopes at their first international qualification since 2021.

After a top-four finish at Masters Madrid, LOUD will not even be attending Masters Shanghai. Despite their struggles at the start of the split, they looked like a world class team in their run to clinch a playoff berth. All that improvement vanished against a Cryocells masterclass.

G2 take down Cloud9

Initially, Cloud9 looked comfortable on Lotus. icy or leaf took a first death in each of the first five rounds as G2 struggled to break open the A site. Cloud9 traded each other out well to convert the first four advantages.

Cloud9's fifth advantage looked to be going the same way, but icy finally had something to say. He landed a 1v3 clutch which completely flipped the switch on the momentum. From then on, Cloud9 looked lifeless.

With their economy stabilizing, G2 put on a clinic, losing only two more rounds the rest of the way. An Oxy 4K became C9's last gasp of competitiveness throughout the stomp.

IGL valyn led the way for G2, putting up the most kills and fewest deaths in the server. Despite a cumulative 2-8 record in opening duels, icy and leaf still chipped in their fair share of kills.

Many teams have tried to modify the entrenched Ascent meta this year, but Skye has not been a significant part of that equation. Even before Skye got nerfed, she had next to no presence on Ascent. Cloud9 sacrificing mainstays like Sova and KAY/O for Skye and Viper gave them an agent composition with a lot of question marks.

Those question marks persisted throughout the start of their defense. They were completely unable to fend off G2 from either site. After cruising to multiple effortless postplants, G2 took a 6-1 lead. That one round came from a 1v2 clutch from Runi to deny trent an ace.

This time it was G2's turn to crumble. Cloud9 got a little more proactive around the map and started to find success in the earlier fights. G2 barely managed to secure the lead heading into halftime.

The momentum continued into the second half. Cloud9 overcame a nasty Classic barrage from leaf to take the pistol round, and snowballed to a 10-8 lead.

With another late collapse bearing down on them, G2 finally dug their heels in. They somewhat surprisingly burned a Lockdown in a 3v1 retake against vanity to tie the game, and immediately felt that absence in the following round which Cloud9 won. However, the back and forth battle for control still led to overtime.

Both teams continued to look weaker on defense. In two extra innings, the attackers got into clean postplant setups. It came down to whoever could pull off a retake first. In the end, G2 closed the map 15-13 to take the series.

Despite the close scoreline, G2 dominated the statsheet. The victors went +19 across the series, a stat that is typically indicative of a more comfortable victory. Although G2's new acquisition, icy, had struggled throughout the season, he stepped up in a big way in his first playoff experience. He notched a map-leading 26 kills and eight first bloods.

Although Cloud9 didn't get their way in the server, they did manage to score some points out of the server. Their five regular season wins carry over to the second split where they will have a head start on most of their competitors for stage 2 playoff qualification.

100T knock out LOUD

Using Breach, an unconventional choice on Bind, LOUD pushed the pace early on their attack. Their flash-heavy blitzing style netted them easy site executes to take the first three rounds. Having used up all their energy to burst out of the gate, LOUD promptly fell apart. 100T ripped off eight rounds in a row in completely dominant fashion.

The hero of the first half was undoubtedly Cryocells. He landed four triples and one quadrakill to reach 23 kills in just 12 rounds. For reference, more than half of all players in the Americas failed to reach 23 kills in a full map across the 70 maps played all regular season.

Winning both pistols gave LOUD a chance, but their inability to win a single full-buy doomed them. 100T ran away with a 13-6 victory that felt nowhere near as close as the final score suggested.

Asuna finished just two kills behind Cryocells' final kill total of 25 by the end; however, his 16 deaths doubled Cryo's tally.

Just in case LOUD thought the Cryocells nightmare had finally ended, the superstar showed up once again on Icebox. 100T dominated the first two rounds, then got Cryocells' Operator online.

Four LOUD players were bereft of kills through the first four rounds. For Less and Quick, that trend extended all the way through the seventh round. Nobody could stop the Cryocells rampage, and he finished the first half with five triple kills and a 19-4 scoreline.

A pistol win only delayed the inevitable, and 100T easily took the series with a 13-4 victory. Across both maps, LOUD only had nine rounds where they bought over 20,000 credits, and they lost all nine of them.

Cryocells finished the series with an absurd 1.78 rating and a significantly higher kill differential than any kill total from LOUD's players. He was 12-0 in duels against Less to keep LOUD's young superstar from finding a foothold.

Despite a world fourth place finish and Americas playoff qualification in stage 1, LOUD have a measly two circuit points to show for it, and will have an uphill battle to qualify to Champions since they will carry their 2-3 regular season record into the second split.

G2 will face KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #3 keznit Angelo Mori Klaus Nicolas Ferrari Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro heat Olavo Marcelo and 100T will face Leviatán Leviatán Latin America South Rank #1 tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena Mazino Roberto Rivas aspas Erick Santos C0M Corbin Lee in Masters qualification matches. Both matches take place on Thursday, May 9.