Finland's finest Power Gaming faced off against the Russians from Virtus.Pro in their first group game on tuscan, a map notoriously difficult to predict for. The game saw the lead going back and forth between the teams until Power Gaming pulled out the victory on the last round. Roman 'ROMJkE' Makarov played well for Virtus but he couldn't match the raw skill display Max Oskari 'ruuit' Aspe and Samu 'plastE' Aalto put on over both halves.

Power Gaming 16:14 Virtus.Pro (tuscan - 9:6, 7:8)


First half

The first half saw Virtus.Pro take the early lead as they won the pistol round, an eco, a buy from Power Gaming and another eco to put them 4:0 up on the Finns. Power Gaming then got on the board for the event with a split on A via the sewer area (for those familiar with mill's terminology) which came down to a 1v2 plastE was able to win.

On the next round ruuit and plastE killed the entire Virtus team between them, ruuit taking 2 and plaste 3, to establish the pattern of big play which would drive Power's game in the match. Power took the next three rounds also to put them 5:4 and take their first lead. Virtus.Pro weren't about to be run over though and two round wins saw them retake the lead at 6:5, LeX saving a 4v2 for the Russians which had fallen apart by winning a clutch 1v2 against natu and plastE.

Power Gaming took over the half and won the last found rounds consecutively to finish up 9:6 going into their CT half, ruuit getting a 4 kill round to seal the half. Interesting was the second to last round which saw four Virtus players save their famas and then use it for the last round, suggesting Virtus' money situation was dire.


Second half

The Russians again refused to lie down and die and another pistol round victory for them and two eco wins saw the scoreline tied at 9:9. The next two rounds were traded with Virtus.Pro taking a round on a 1v1 where ROMJKE planted out in the open at A and tihOp spent too long walking and looking for him to have a chance to figuratively smoke him out. Power Gaming again settled in for a run, one which would last four rounds and put them up 13:9. During that run naSu's three kill round saw his score begin to add up and the 7th round of the half saw plastE and ruuit both killing 2.

Taking two round, with one being a massacre seeing only one Russian die, Virtus pulled the game to a tie again but then Power Gaming took two in a row to put themselves at map point. Those two rounds had naSu and natu getting two kills a piece in the first and ruuit aggressively pushing storage area 1 (again, mill terminology) for two early kills and plastE finishing the job with two of his own highlight style headshots in B.

Despite Power Gaming looking firmly in control at times the game would have an exciting ending as Virtus.Pro managed to get into the last round with a chance to tie it. They found themselves 4v2 heading into the A bombsite when ruuit flipped the switch and became the AK monster we have all known for the past three years. A four kill round from him sealed the victory and Virtus' fate in this first game.

Power Gaming's setups saw ruuit and naSu attacking the ramp/kitty area as terrorists and the Finns also would split via the sewer area often rather than the middle. As CT they had plastE playing B by himself and aggressively pushing the long area while naSu and ruuit continually took up aggressive holding positions at the left mid below the window area.

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