Photo Credit: HLTV
After an exciting weekend of games, only Cloud9 and Virtus.pro were left standing after taking down their opponents to reach the finals. Cloud9 topped their group by defeating FaZe Clan and FlipSid3 in convincing games while Virtus.pro won their group by defeating Gambit and Heroic.
Cloud’s Semifinals Match
Photo Credit: HLTV
Cloud9 played against EnVyUs in their semifinals match. The French team was originally created to be the best team from France, but has since dropped off into the tier-2 area. However, they have been playing better recently with DEVIL actually putting up decent numbers at Bucharest to silence his critics. The match kicked off with Cloud9 roaring ahead to a significant lead on EnVy’s map pick of Cache. From there, Cloud9 easily closed out the map to take a huge advantage in the series. However, EnVy answered back by on Cloud9’s map choice of Mirage and cruised to a 16-10 victory to tie up the series. The first half of the deciding map, Dust II, ended in a deadlock as EnVy won 8 rounds to Cloud9’s 7, but a solid CT side from Cloud9 allowed them to close the map out 16-10 and move on the the grand finals.
Virtus.pro’s Semifinals Match
Photo Credit: HLTV
The two semifinals matches proceeded in a similar fashion. Virtus.pro demolished dignitas on dignitas’ map pick of Mirage, holding the Danish team to a total of 4 rounds. It looked like VP would close out the series 2-0, when they grabbed a 10-5 lead on the second map, Cobblestone, but dignitas answered with an11-4 half to take a close 16-14 win and even up the series. The last map was Overpass, and the match was a closely contested affair as both teams fought hard for each round. It was at 15-13 for Virtus.pro that an unthinkable thing happened. Neo from VP was left in a 1 vs 5 situation as his teammates were caught by an unexpected push from the Danes. After grabbing the first 2 kills, he managed to plant the bomb and hold off all three enemies to clutch the map for his team.
The Finals
Photo Credit: HLTV
The finals was much more anticlimactic than the exciting semifinals matches and especially Neo’s 1 vs 5 clutch against dignitas. Map 1 was Train and Virtus.pro won the second round force buy after losing the pistol round. From there they roared ahead to a 12-3 half and closed out the match 16-9. Cobblestone started out 9-6 in favor of Cloud9, but a blistering Terrorist side from Virtus.pro saw them shutting out the Americans and winning the map 16-9 also to take home the grand prize of $50,000.