EPICENTER 2019 Day 3 Recap [CS:GO]

In the previous day, mousesports secured an out-right semis berth after dispatching Virtus.Pro and Evil Geniuses. The VP match, in particular, was a cardiac game to say the least. The first two maps ended in identical 16-11 scores while the third went double OT. In the end, Finn “karrigan” Andersen’s band of misfits continued their hot 2019 streak.

For Day 3, the losing teams of the opening matches will play against each other. The losing team goes home and the winning team will play the loser of the winners’ match. The winner of the decider match will then play against their counterpart from the opposite group.

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

Elimination Matches

Group A

In Group A, Chinese team EHOME unsuccessfully tried to salvage their tournament hopes against Danish team Heroic. EHOME won a surprising upset popular Chinese team Tyloo in their region’s qualifiers. Martin “stavn” Lund led his team in the first map (Inferno) in kills with 22. The Danes, after falling behind early 4-2, equalized the score at 5 round apiece. From there, they won every round after, even after the switch. In the second map, it was IGL Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer’s turn to lead his team with 23 frags. Heroic won the first seven rounds before the Chinese could win a single round. Unfortunately, that would be their last winning round of the tournament, as they bowed out after losing the next nine straight.

Group B

In Group B, Virtus.Pro’s new roster couldn’t make good on their debut as they fell to surging Russian team forZe. The Russians shocked the Kazakhs in the first map (Train), allowing only three winning rounds to VP. Evgeniy “FL1T” Lebedev led the way for forZe with 22 kills. Fortunately, VP managed to come back in the second map. They fell behind in a deep hole early, losing the first 11 rounds and ending their CT side on Inferno at 12-3. However, they won 12 straight rounds on their T side to shock forZe into relinquishing the lead. They would lose just one more before forcing a deciding third map. Alexey “qikert” Golubev tallied 22 frags for VP in the second map.

For the final map (Vertigo), both teams battled furiously for their tournament lives. The first half ended in a tight 8-7 score line in favor of VP. However, forZe managed to string two long streaks together to win the final map. FL1T once again led his team in kills with 26. With this loss, Virtus.Pro lost the first event for their newly acquired team from AVANGAR.

• Read: EPICENTER 2019 Day 2 Recap [CS:GO]

Decider Matches

Group A

Natus Vincere took this opportunity to bounce back from their disappointing performance against Team Vitality in Day 1. However, Heroic didn’t just hand them anything for free. The Danes made a statement in the first map (Nuke), storming to a 10-5 lead in the first half before finishing at 16-9. AWPer Casper “cadiaN” Møller led Heroic’s charge on Nuke, tallying 23 kills (14 from the AWP). Na’Vi countered right back in game two off the back of superstar Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev’s 24 kills. He followed it up with a brilliant 21-kill performance in the third and final map (Inferno). Na’Vi blitzed ahead early on, winning the first 12 rounds. They ended the first half at 13-2. Heroic tried to answer back to stay alive, getting to within 14-8, but the margin for error was too slim at that point. With the win, Na’Vi moved on to the quarterfinals as the high seed.

Group B

In the Group B deciding match, forZe eliminated Evil Geniuses in a three-game series. In the first map (Nuke), EG won through a flawless T side game. The score was close at 9-6, but EG prevented forZe from winning a single round in the second half. Cvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov tallied 24 kills to lead EG. On the second map (Mirage), forZe returned the favor in a more brutal fashion. Both teams won one round each at 1-1 before forZe stormed through the rest of the game, winning 15 straight. Andrey “Jerry” Mekhryakov led led forZe with 22 kills. Then, on the final map, Jerry upped his game another notch by fragging a total of 26 times. The first half was quite similar to the first game, but this time, EG couldn’t string enough wins in the second half to win the game. The Russians eventually won after 26 rounds.

With this win, forZe will face against Heroic in the quarterfinals, while Evil Geniuses will match up against Natus Vincere.