Iberia take the derby, and the Premier race tightens anyway
A 2-1 win over Kolkhida on Nuke keeps Iberia top, but the gap behind them has closed to a single series.
Data Desk · 4 min read
Iberia beat Kolkhida 2-1 on Saturday night in the fixture the Season 5 split had been building toward, and the result leaves them top of the Premier table. It does not leave them comfortable.
Kolkhida took Mirage first, which almost nobody expected given Iberia's CT record on it this season. The second map went the other way in under forty minutes. The decider on Nuke ran to overtime, and Iberia closed it on the back of a retake that should not have worked.
The headline number belongs to Kolkhida: their AWPer finished the series with the highest rating on either side, in a loss. That has now happened three times this split, which is either a sign of a roster carrying one player too hard, or a sign that one player is very good. The broadcast desk has been arguing about it for a month.
With four weeks of the split left, four teams are within one series of the top. Iberia's remaining schedule is the hardest of any of them.