Team SoloMid Wins PGL CCS Kick-Off Final Against Fnatic
After three days of nonstop CS:GO action, the winners of the PGL CCS Kick-Off Final have been crowned as Denmark-based Team SoloMid (TSM) wins against Fnatic, 3-1, at Dreamhack Bucharest. The Danes have a 1-0 upper bracket advantage as they have beaten Ninjas in Pyjamas in the winners’ bracket final.
During the map pick-ban phase, TSM vetoed Cobblestone aned Cache while Fnatic vetoed Nuke. The Swedes picked Mirage first, then the Danes picked Dust 2 and finally, Fnatic got Overpass. Inferno was left as the deciding map in case the series goes down to the wire.
Mirage: The Momentum War
Markus “pronax” Wallsten and co. are actually very notorious for their Mirage play and they were expected to have a very good performance as they started on the Terrorist side. They proved their point by winning six rounds in a row: In the first round, Robin “flusha” Rönnquist did not just get the bomb planted on the A site and get 3 kills, he did a 1v2 clutch as well. In the succeeding rounds, TSM did a lot of economic damage on the T side by getting kills left and right even though they could not get a round on the board. On the 7th round, TSM finally got one on the scoreboard. However, this was quickly reversed on the 8th as Fnatic just cleaned them up.
Still, TSM got the 9th round despite having to work with a forced buy and from then on, they got all the remaining rounds thanks to solid plays from Finn “karrigan” Andersen as well as the rest of the Danish squad, ending up with a 8-7 scoreline. However, many people still thought that the Swedes could get it back in their favor as they are playing right now on the CT side.
They were proven wrong.
Despite all of Fnatic’s best efforts, they could not stem the TSM human wave as they were executed, faked and picked apart until it all became 15-7.
Then, Fnatic fought bravely as they took four rounds in a row, but the Danes were able to close it in the 27th round to make it 16-11.
TSM is now in the lead with a 2-0 score.
Dust 2: The Lockdown Showdown
With TSM starting on what is arguably the better side as the Terrorists, Fnatic had only one objective: Lock down the sites.
They did just that as they got 12 rounds out of 15 on their tour of duty on the CT side.
The Danes could do nothing as Robin “flusha” Rönnquist and Jesper “JW” Wecksell went big with their insane individual plays and the only time that they were able to get rounds on the board was when the CT side went hyper aggressive or when TSM was able to execute their B split strategy.
Come second half and Fnatic get the first pistol round as the Terrorist side with a wild spray from flusha ensured that TSM was unable to retake the B site. Then, a strong eco play from TSM secured them a 4th round on the board, making it 13-4. However, technical problems forced a pause for both teams.
When the game went back again, TSM got one more round. However, Fnatic got together two rounds to make it 15-5, gaining nine match points in the process.
TSM showed that they were not done yet as they got six rounds in a row. However, a comeback was already impossible and the map ended at 16-11, making it 2-1 in favor of TSM.
Overpass: No Man’s Land
Even though this map was Fnatic’s choice, they haven’t played this map for a good amount of time. However, the same situation applies for the Danish side as both sides go into this map.
Fnatic takes the first round on the CT side, followed by a win for TSM on a force buy round. On the 3rd round, the Swedes take it again, forcing the Danes to eco and allowing Fnatic to take the 4th round as well. As for the 5th round, TSM takes it after a good execute on the A site. However, Fnatic takes the next round. Overall, it has turned out to be a back-and-forth affair between the two teams as TSM aims to take as many rounds as possible as the T side in order for them to have a comfortable cushion.
The Danish squad succeeded in getting their objective by getting a total of 9 rounds on the T side on the back of Andreas “xyp9x” Højsleth’s amazing support play as well as overall amazing executes on both A and B sites.
In the second half, TSM started off by getting the pistol round as well as the next two rounds, making it 12-6. However, on the the 1st Terrorist gun round, Fnatic was ripped apart as xyp9x picked off two of their players, thus making it an easy 19th round for TSM. The Swedes went for a force buy on the following round, however, the Danes held strong and made it 14-6. Throughout this half, Nicolai “device” Reedtz perfomed superbly as he made the crucial picks for TSM.
On the 21st round, Fnatic was able to make it into a 2v1. However, a crucial read by Rene “cajunb“ Borg allowed the Danish side to make it 15-6. Then, Fnatic took five rounds on the board with near-flawless plays. However, this was not enough as TSM finally closed it at 16-11 on a P250 buy!
With this, Team Solo Mid got their first ever important LAN title and beat the world’s number one CS:GO team in a LAN final, 3-1, gaining $40,000 in the process. Meanwhile, Fnatic get $20,000 for their heroic efforts.
Here are the final results:
1st place: Team Solo Mid = $40,000
2nd place: Fnatic = $20,000
3rd place: Ninjas In Pyjamas = $10,000
4th place: EnVyUs = $5,000
*Featured image taken from the official tournament website.
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