H2k Gaming may have come into ESWC with question marks over their heads due to having to replace a member of their successful DreamHack lineup, Niklas 'niko' Johansson for Danny 'pop' Oldenburg, but it was Frag eXecutors who left the first Group stage with the question marks following their loss to the Swedish side. A disappointing terrorist half was followed by a lacklustre CT half full of partial buys without enough money. FX moved on but in the second spot.

Frag eXecutors 9:16 H2k Gaming (inferno - 6:9, 5:10)

First half

H2k got right out of the gate with a solid four rounds as CT. They won the pistol rounds with two kills from pop and two from kHRYSTAL overall, winning a 2v1 against Loord with the bomb down in B. FX were well known in their LUq days as a team who were one of the great offensive sides, this was not to be one of those days. A three round spurt to make it 4:3 H2k was the closest FX would ever be to a lead.

H2k tore off the next three as the Poles tried unsuccessfully to hit A against a solid Swedish defense. In the last five FX took three and the half ended 9:6 to H2k. The round which gave FX a little hope was the 11th as kuben won a 1v3 at B. That was followed though by three kills from kHRYSTAL and two from pronax to take halt the momentum. The second to last round of the half saw a solid strategy from FX as they successfully faked B, went back to middle to kill the pushing pronax and then attacked B right afterwards.

Second half

FX got their CT pistol round as H2k struggled to kill a single player, the eco followed on and it was only a 9:8 lead for H2k. The third round bought an H2k buy of AKs and they won the round at A for their 10th round win. In the next FX responded, as H2k lost in a 1v2 at B. The lead never got any closer to being lost by the Swedes. All the rounds up to the 16th then went to H2k.

From the 22nd round at least FX had decided to gamble and buy all the way from there. This meant using famases and at most one colt most of the time, sometimes even deagles mixed in. This really proved ineffective as the rounds where they got the game down just wouldn't go their way against superior weaponry and a confident H2k side.


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