'Counter-Strike' semifinals highlights: Near misses, killing sprees and chaos

ATLANTA -- Four Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams battled at the ELeague Major semifinals Saturday, with Astralis taking on Fnatic and Virtus.pro going up against SK Gaming in two intense fights for coveted spots in the finals.

To kick off the semis, Astralis closed out the best-of-three match against Fnatic with a 2-0 victory, handling Fnatic with ease on the second map, Nuke. Virtus.pro beat SK Gaming 2-0 as well, securing a spot against Astralis in Sunday's finals.

Throughout the four games, all four legendary teams had some unbelievable plays. Check out the best of the best below, starting with Astralis vs. Fnatic.

Olofmeister clutches with a dangerous defuse

In game one on Cache, Astralis's Lukas "Gla1ve" Rossander and Nicolai "Dev1ce" Reedtz were up against Fnatic's Simon "Tw1st" Eliasson and Olof "Olofmeister" Kajbjer with a 15-14 lead, and Gla1ve cunningly snuck around the map to plant the bomb away from the action as Dev1ce took out Tw1st and Olof answered with a kill on Dev1ce.

Realizing the bomb was at the other site, Olof went on the hunt, finding the bomb before Gla1ve and going for a defuse in the smoke for one of the most intense 1v1 finishes of the Major. Gla1ve fired blindly but couldn't take out Olof, tying up the game 15-15.

Astralis and Fnatic play tug of war to close out Cache

It was all or nothing in the final round of overtime and Astralis only needed one more round to close out Cache. The two teams traded kills left and right, leaving Astralis's Markus Kjaerbye in a 1v2 against Fnatic. He leapt down from vents to stop the bomb plant and landed two perfect kills to put Astralis up 1-0 in the best-of-three match.

Astralis took the second map, Nuke, without too many issues, sending them into the finals and setting the stage for Virtus.pro vs. SK Gaming.

Taz nails three tricky headshots in four-kill spree

After SK Gaming took the first three rounds on the first map, Train, Virtus.pro's Wiktor "Taz" Wojtas was set up on bomb site B with SK Gaming closing in on both sides. He picked off the first attacker coming in and then went on a headshot spree, peaking left and right as SK attempted to overwhelm him, stopping the assault and turning the game in VP's favor.

Fox can't find Neo and pays the price

SK Gaming's Ricardo "Fox" Pacheco was posted up above bomb site A and Virtus.pro's Filip "Neo" Kubski was right below, just out of sight. Neo started moving toward bomb site A and Fox was unknowingly tailing him, barely missing him around multiple corners and eventually getting killed by Neo to end the round. If only he came down the ladder just a half second sooner, Fox could've won SK the round.

Neo defuses the bomb amid absolute chaos

In overtime on Train, SK Gaming crashed into bomb site A and planted the bomb quickly, covering the area with smoke and fire as they retreated back to avoid Virtus.pro's defense. VP pushed forward toward the bomb and Neo knew he had a chance of defusing the bomb with covering fire from his teammates. He was right, and even though SK killed all five members of Virtus.pro, Neo stole the round.

Fallen dismantles Virtus.pro's advantage

Virtus.pro was on a three-round roll on the second map, Cobblestone, and had a player advantage against SK as they aimed their assault toward bomb site A. SK's Gabriel "Fallen" Toledo had other plans, though, mowing down three VP players in a row, then picking up an AWP and picking off Taz to end the round and stop the Polish plow.

Virtus.pro dominates the final round

Despite SK's lead going into the second half, Virtus.pro dominated nearly every round on map two. With the score at 15-14 on match point for VP, the Polish squad took a man advantage and swept into bomb site B with perfect precision, taking out every SK player in an organized crossfire. Virtus.pro won Cobblestone 16-14 and secured its spot in the finals.

We're still in Atlanta as the tournament wraps up this weekend and will be reporting on final match results once they're in. 

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