Anton 'Cooller' Singov overcame one of his main European rivals, Maciej 'av3k' Krzykowski, along with his tournament demons, to win the IEM European Championship. Though the score reads 3-0, it was a stunningly close encounter.

Each of the three maps could have gone either way, especially Blood Run which had four overtimes. Initially, av3k stormed out to a 6-0 lead in under three minutes, but Cooller slowly started picking up frags and reduced the gap to just one kill with 35 seconds left.

av3k hid, for the second time, down by the lower teleporter only for Cooller to find him again and pick up the kill with three seconds left, dragging the game into overtime. Four overtimes ensued, with nothing happening in the first three. av3k finally got a kill in the fourth, but Cooller tied it up again with 20 seconds left and then pushed for the winning kill, which he got.

Dismemberment was close straight from the off, with control continually swapping between the two for well over half of the game. Both players were doing the right things, and they took turns in hitting a barrage of fantastic shots as they fought for indefinite control.

Cooller pulled away with a one frag lead but that could have been washed away at any time. With two minutes left, av3k forced himself into a promising position but couldn't capitalize and with time against him, found himself two maps down.

Furious Heights opened up in av3k's favor, but a fight at mega saw Cooller pull back a frag which set up his run at taking the series. Again, both were on a hilariously high level of Quake, the second time for Cooller after his QuakeCon 2010 final with Cypher, and after he pulled out to a 5-2 lead, av3k called 'gg' with 1 minute 30 left on the clock.

After two years of trying, Cooller has finally picked up a tournament victory in Quake Live. The IEM European Finals this year were as stacked as ever, with Strenx securing his place in the ranks of Europe's - and perhaps the world's - best after some brilliant performances against Cooller and Cypher, perhaps making the win all the more better for the Russian legend.