#ESPSpread - IEM Sydney
This past weekend saw the first ever major Counter-Strike:
Global Offensive tournament take place in Sydney. With some of the top teams
taking place including Astralis and SK Gaming, I thought it was the perfect
opportunity to see some top-level counter-strike live.
 |
| The crowd during the second semi final between Astralis and FaZe Clan |
Day 1 – The Semi-Finals
The second game on overpass continued where the first game
left off with SK continuing to dominate opening up a 10-1 lead before OpTic
were able to rally and have a small streak of success bringing the game back to
11-7 before SK showed why they are a two time major winners sealing the game by
winning the next five rounds to move onto the grand finals on Sunday.
The second match up saw the recent ELEAGUE Major winners
Astralis take on FaZe Clan in a rivalry which is quickly becoming one of the
most exciting match ups in all of Counter-Strike. Game one took place on the map
cobblestone where rain showed that he is one of the best players in the world
dominating with 28 frags by the end of the game. Allu was also able to get the
better of his AWP counterpart, dev1ce, completely shutting him down and
allowing FaZe to control the map. These two players lead FaZe to a 16-13 win.
Moving onto map 2 which took place on Nuke. Kjaerbye was an
unstoppable force during this game raking up 30 kills but it was Xyp9x who
stole the show with an insane 1 vs 4 clutch to take Astralis to match point and
ensure that the series would be going to a third map.
The third and final map was Train, a map where Astralis
needed dev1ce to dominate with his AWP but unfortunately, he fell a little
short. FaZe were able to open up a large lead quickly getting to 14 rounds and
keeping Astralis to 6, but then the Danes starting to come back which really
got the crowd going. FaZe were able to keep their nerve however to close out
the map and move onto the grand finals.
Day 2 – The Grand Final
The beginning of series saw SK Gaming pick where they had left off after their dominating semi final performance by completely shutting FaZe down during the first half of map one which took place on train. Going into the second half with a 12-3 lead, it seemed as though SK would quickly win but FaZe weren't done bringing the score back to 14-12 before FalleN showed his class with one of the best shots of the tournament to stop the bomb defuse and seal the win.
Cache is where the second game took place and there isn't really too much to say about this game, SK showed their dominance taking a quick 16-7 win. There were moments of brilliance from NiKo but allu was noticeably missing this game and it cost FaZe big time.
The third game on inferno saw a massive shift in momentum to FaZe where they were able to control the first half taking 10-5 lead mainly thanks to NiKo and rain. SK started the second half strong however which put FaZe fans on the edge of their seats until rain was able to clutch a 1 vs 2 retake to regain the momentum which lead to FaZe taking game 3.
The fourth game on overpass is one of the most intense games of counter-strike I have ever seen. A back and forth battle which saw 11 rounds in a row with alternating victors and neither team being able to get more than a three round lead until the very end. There were several moments in this game which brought the crowd to their feet notable the ninja defuse by karrigan, and the triple spray down by coldzera. In the end SK Gaming were able to win 16-11 crowning them the IEM Sydney champions and taking home $100,000.
Overall the tournament was a huge success. More than 7,000 fans turned up to watch some top level counter-strike and everyone from fans to casters to players couldn't stop talking about how much fun this event was. I hope that ESL decide to return to Australia in the near future for another big tournament.
Comments
Post a Comment