EPL #9 - Finals: Results of the second game day
Ihor MatusYesterday one of the most interesting matches was the battle between MIBR and Luminosity Gaming. The Brazilian derby proved that it is still interesting to observed such Counter Strike and teams from South America are able to surprise us as it has been done by, for example, MIBR at the yesterday's meeting.
The first map was Mirage picked by MIBR. There they won by the score of 16-9. The game was interesting, but not as interesting as on Dust 2 chosen by the players from Luminosity Gaming. The latter started really confidently and won the first half by the score of 11-4. Having passed to the attack side, all the players except TACO flowed the game down, while Epitacio de Melo took a clutch 1 in 4, motivating his teammates to make a comeback. We should mark that at that moment he had 2hp and all the frags were made by headshots.
If before this moment MIBR could think about quick end of the second map and passing to the third one, after this round the team gave themselves a new look and continued the series of winning rounds Another interesting moment was made by fer, when he managed to kill two opponents being in Molotov cocktail and burning there.
At the end at the second half MIBR gave only two rounds to their opponents and took twelve. They sent Luminosity Gaming to observe the tournament as spectators and moved further to the next round of the lower bracket where North are expecting them.
The match between the Team Liquid and TYLOO wasn't so remarkable. The players from Liquid lost 11 rounds in total on two maps and got an easy win over their Chinese opponents.
At the lower bracket in Group A also two knockout matches ended up, but at the second round and not the first as it happened in Group B. At one of these battles Fnatic and Heroic were fighting with each other. On the first map Nuke picked by Heroic, the Swedish couldn't win more than 7 rounds, performing poorly in both defense and attack. The second map was Mirage chosen by the players from Fnatic. The battle on the field wasn't easy, but the Swedish managed to win over the well-prepared Danish players. At the map veto stage, Fnatic had a choice: Dust 2 or Overpass. The Swedish roster decided to opt for Overpass, Wich was a huge mistake. Despite the fact that Heroic had great statistics on the map, the team with Friberg managed to surprise their opponents and spectators and as a result Fnatic were able to win only 7 rounds and left the competition.
The battle between G2 Esports and Heroic also was rather intense and both of the maps led to more than 27 rounds. In the end G2 defeated the Americans by the score of 16-12 and 16-13 and passed further.
By the results of yesterday's game day such teams asvTYLOO, Luminosity Gaming, Fnatic and Cloud9 finished participating in ESL Pro League Season 9 - Finals. The first two teams got the 13-16 position and got $14,000 as a money reward while Fnatic and Cloud9 took the 9-12 position in the tournament bracket and got a money reward of $15,000.
Matches history: ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals
ESL Pro League Season 9 - Finals is taking place from 18 till 23 June in Montpellier, France. The prize pool of the LAN final consists of $600,000, and the main money reward — $250,000. Only the best teams of their divisions are participating in the championship.