EPICENTER 2019 Day 2 Recap [CS:GO]

On Day 1, Team Vitality secured a spot in the semifinals after winning two series in a row. Heroic and EHOME will play for the chance to challenge Natus Vincere for a spot in the quarterfinals.

Vitality showed great performances in the first day of the event. They almost perfect-mapped EHOME on Nuke in their first series. In the winners’ match, Na’Vi demolished them on Dust 2, only to have the favor returned by the French squad twice in a row. Star AWPer Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut played phenomenally. He posted 20+ frags on multiple occasions, spearheading his team’s brilliant play.

• Read: EPICENTER 2019 Day 1 Recap [CS:GO]

On the other hand, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev played horribly against Vitality. He posted a 0.30 rating in their final map, easily the worst of his long, illustrious career. Expect him to carry a chip on his shoulder and recover from a disappointing Day 1.

Day 2 matches

forZe vs Evil Geniuses

Russian team forZe are fresh off two title runs at DreamHack Open Winter 2019 and ESEA S32 Global Challenge. Despite the supposed momentum they have coming into the match, they fell flat on their faces against Evil Geniuses.

The North American squad proved to be quite a mismatch for forZe. In the first map (Mirage), forZe managed to string together a few rounds thanks to a pistol round win. The advantage grew to a 9-6 score at the half. It even grew larger after the swap, reaching to a 14-8 score line in favor of forZe. However, they could not close out the win. Evil Geniuses won eight straight rounds to topple the Russians and go up 1-0.

In the second map (Nuke), the Americans stepped on the gas pedal and never looked back. They opened their CT side with a 14-1 lead going into the switch. They hit series point at the pistol round, but lost three straight before finally getting the win. Bulgarian AWPer Cvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov led Evil Geniuses in kills. He tallied 26 and 27 in each map, respectively.

Virtus.Pro vs mousesports

Quite possibly one of the most anticipated matches of the group stage, the matchup certainly did not disappoint. Virtus.Pro debuted their newly-acquired roster (formerly of AVANGAR) against surging mousesports. Both teams clashed head on and in the first map (Inferno), Virtus.Pro drew first blood. Dzhami “Jame” Ali showed mousesports why Jame Time is a thing, tallying 21 frags in the game.

The bloodshed did not end there. Turkish AWPer Özgür “woxic” Eker returned to the lineup after missing the last event due to visa issues. He earned 23 frags of his own this time (Mirage) and was instrumental in mousesports’ rebuttal against VP.

With that said, that wasn’t even the best part of the series. The final map (Dust 2) went to double overtime, with both teams refusing to play in an elimination game. Virtus.Pro shot off to an early 10-5 lead in the first half, but mousesports clung on to them like leeches and soon recovered. In the end, mousesports played too well for VP to handle. Slovakian entry man David “frozen” Čerňanský led the way for mousesports in the final map. He totaled 39 kills in the lengthy affair.

Winners’ match

With mousesports coming off a morale-boosting OT win, Evil Geniuses were no match for the hottest team in CS:GO. Woxic, frozen and Robin “ropz” Kool all played brilliantly to secure a semis spot for their team.

The first half went relatively even, but mousesports found their stride in the second half. They rode a six round streak on their CT side to win the first map (Train). On the following map (Inferno), things got out of hand quickly for the American squad. After winning the opening pistol round, mousesports won the next nine and they never looked back. EG would win just three more before mousesports hammered down the nail on the coffin, securing their spot in the semifinals.