The same happened half a year ago when Alternate and n!faculty met in the first round of the ESL Pro Series Season XII finals with almost the same lineups. Back then it was only one map but this time the winner needed at least two maps as the ESL switched to Single Elimination for the first time.

Alternate started out well on the first map, de_nuke, with an ace from Manuel 'approx' Zeitz in the pistol round, but were not able to carry on. The team struggled against n!faculty in the early rounds, already giving away money control and therefore having to eco a lot on the more dominant Counter-Terrorist side.

The first half was still in favor of Alternate with 8-7 but this was not enough, as n!faculty once again embarrassed their opponent by winning an eco round by defusing through the ground from the lower bomb spot to the upper bomb spot. They already did this one season ago which you can see in the video below.

They then won the first map with 16-11 going to the second map being de_train. It didn't look good for Alternate at all, until they started a winning streak, winning round after round on the Terrorist side making it 10-5 when they switched sides. Alternate finished n!faculty off fairly easy with another 6-1 making it a total of 16-6 with a much stronger-looking Alternate.

The third and deciding map was de_tuscan which has been played for quite some time now in the German ESL Pro Series and is now also being played in the ESL Extreme Masters, the World Cyber Games, ESWC and the EPS Scandinavia. It was now n!faculty who was starting a great comeback, winning the first half with 11-4 and then also winning the pistol round in the second half, beating Alternate with 16-8 on de_tuscan and 2-1 overall.

Alternate will now only be able to finish 3rd or 4th facing Team Bavarian Heaven on Sunday at 14.15 CET. Faculty will face the champion, mousesports, later on Sunday at 16.00 CET.

Rumours have already been spread before the finals about Alternate doing a roster change with Martin 'fleks' Wehrmann retiring from gaming and their old mate Roman 'roman' Ausserdorfer returning to the team, although these are still only rumours for now.

n!faculty doing wall-defuse at EPS XIII finals



Also check out our event page for the ESL Pro Series Season XIII Finals.