SK Gaming

The final four teams will take center stage in the MGM Grand Arena one last time to conclude DreamHack Masters Las Vegas 2017 today. Sin City has seen some great Counter Strike and things will heat up once again in the desert of Nevada, when

Astralis Denmark will kick off the semi-finals against

Virtus.pro . Will the Danes punch in their ticket for another grand-final or will the Polish pride of Virtus.pro get revenge for the recent loss at the last Major against this opponent? After the first participant for the grand-final, which will also take place later today, is determined,

Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo and his teammates will take on

North to follow suit.

Yesterday, our players displayed moral in a thrilling triple overtime win on Mirage against

Natus Vincere . The next map Train was rather one-sided, as we closed out the quarter-final in a dominating fashion. The Brazilians will try to build on that success to have a shot at their first title of the year.

We will keep you updated about the latest developments of today’s action in this article.

If you are looking for more information regarding the competition, make sure to check out our viewer’s guide.

Results:

Semi-Finals:

2017-02-19 20:00 CET (3:00 PM EST) –

Virtus.pro >

Astralis Denmark
1st map Nuke: 16-3 (12:3; 4:0). Top fragger:

Paweł 'byali' Bieliński: 26/13
2nd map Overpass: 9-16 (5:10; 4:6). Top fragger:

Nicolai 'device' Reedtz: 26/11
3rd map Train: 16-4 (12:3; 4:1). Top fragger:

Paweł 'byali' Bieliński: 24/12
Virtus.pro get some payback for the loss at the Major in Atlanta and move on to the grand-final.

2017-02-19 23:30 CET (6:30 PM EST) –

North <

SK Gaming
1st map Cache: 14-16 (6:9; 8:7). Top fragger:

Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga: 33/16
2nd map Mirage: 9-16 (6:9; 3:7). Top fragger:

Marcelo 'coldzera' David: 23/10

Grand-final:

2017-02-20 03:15 CET (10:15 PM EST) –

Virtus.pro >

SK Gaming
1st map Cobblestone: 8-16 (5:10; 3:6). Top fragger:

Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga: 24/12
2nd map Train: 16-11 (9:6; 7:5). Top fragger:

Janusz 'Snax' Pogorzelski: 27/15
3rd map Mirage: 16-13 (7:8; 9:5]. Top fragger:

Marcelo 'coldzera' David: 30/21

SK Gaming at DreamHack Masters Las Vegas 2017:

SK Gaming vs.

North
Semi-final stage: Best of three match
16-14 (9:6; 7:8) on Cache
16-9 (9:6; 7:3) on Mirage
1st map Cache:
Both teams rarely play this map so it was no surprise that Cache was a nail biter. Our team surprised the opposing side in the ct-pistol round by boosting two players in mid and taking control of A-main. We took the pistol round and jumped out to a 3:0 lead. North was able to get the following round, because the Brazilians decided to keep UMPs against the opponent’s AKs. Each round was a hard fought battle and after expanding the lead to 5:1, our economy got broken after a two versus one clutch by

Kristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke. One more round was submitted, but we were able to get back on track by winning the next showdown with limited utility and build a solid 8:3 lead, before giving up two more points. Our men forced up again and

Epitácio 'TACO' de Melo Filho and

Marcelo 'coldzera' David turned the trend around by deciding a two versus four situation in our favor in an amazing fashion. The Danes won the final round of the half for the score of 9:6, which already indicated a close second half.

SK Gaming also won the second pistol round thanks to several beautiful long-distance one taps.

Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga repeated his great quarter-final performance and played lights out again on his way to a 33/16 KD. He took his team to a 12:6 lead before the Danes were able to cut the difference to 12:11. There were only seconds left on the clock too many times and we were not able to enter the bombsites in time. After taking a timeout, our team finally was able to take the B-site and get one more point in their column. The remaining rounds were closely contested and came down to one on one situations on many occassions. At the score of 13:14, we forced and won a critical round to tie up the game, break our opponent’s economy in the process and close out the first map for the final score of 16:14.

2nd map Mirage:
Our Counter Strike division started the second map on the terrorist side and denied a mid-push of the counter terrorists to win their third consecutive pistol round. On the heels of the pistol win, the lead quickly grew to 5:0, before diminishing to 5:4. Our team pulled things together with well-coordinated tactics and went into the halftime with a 9:6 lead.

Taco killed the bomb carrier in apartment in the first round of the second half, which led to the fourth pistol-win in a row. Just like in the matchup against NaVi on the previous day, our players got picks in mid by pop flashing this area of the playing field to gain map control on the ct-side. Individual highlights like three kills by Taco during an attempt of an A-take, complemented the harmonic team play and led to a 12:6 score. Both teams went back and forth and traded seven consecutive rounds, before we finally closed out the match for the final score of 16:9.

By shutting down North, we punched in our ticket to the grand-final to compete against Virtus.pro.

SK Gaming vs.

Virtus.pro
Grand-final stage: Best of three match
16-8 (10:5; 6:3) on Cobblestone
11-16 (6:9; 5:7) on Train
13-16 (8:7; 5:9) on Mirage
1st map Cobblestone:
Our pistol round series from the semi-final snapped on the terrorist-side on Cobblestone, as precise shots from the opposing side derailed our aspirations to start the match off the right way. Our newest addition

Joao 'felps' Vasconcellos quickly turned things around in the second round, where he survived a one-on-two situation with just one health point. After building on that foundation and gathering two more points, our team had difficulties to find cracks in the solid defense of the counter terrorists. The game stood tied at 3:3, when the teams started to exchange some rounds and submit a couple of rounds to force buys. Most of the rounds came down to mind games and details. Both teams know each other very well and displayed high-level Counter Strike. After breaking the opponent’s bank, our men were able to dissociate further and further to a 10:5 halftime lead. Felps seemed unfazed by his first grand-final participation, presented lightning fast reactions, great entries and led the scoreboard with a KD of 17/9 after the first fifteen rounds.

The Brazilians had a great read of the first round of the second half and shut down an attempted B-take easily to enlarge the advantage to 15:5 by showing in tune, dominating CS in the aftermath. Everything worked in our favor. Our team only submitted three more rounds and closed out the opposing side’s pick with the final score of 16:8.

2nd map Train:
Just like the previous map, both teams exchanged the first two rounds in nearly the same fashion. Virtus.pro started on the ct-side and picked up the pistol round. Our team forced the next round and Coldzera clutched a one on two situation with two smooth Desert Eagle kills. We picked up two more points, but could not stop the defuse of the bomb after the Poles could buy full equipment again. The next round was a different story, as the C4 exploded just two seconds before the counter terrorist could stop the detonation. However, Train is a rather ct-sided map and our opponent tied the game up with wins in three consecutive rounds. Fallen decided to change up the pace and his teammates executed a fast, aggressive A-take, which worked out and brought us a 6:5 lead. Unfortunately, it was the last round our players decided for themselves and the half ended with a score of 6:9.

The second half began with a successful ivy push by the Brazilians, which laid the foundation to tie up the game. Virtus.pro picked up the following two rounds, where crazy sequence marked the beginning of the end.

Janusz 'Snax' Pogorzelski defended the ticking bomb, which Fallen set on fire to eliminate him. He got the kill, but also burned the defusing Coldzera to death, which broke our economy and gave our opponent an opportunity to get two more points in their column, before our defense stopped them. We could not build up our bank, seemed confused at times and lost 11:16 in the end.

3rd map Mirage:
The last map of the tournament started with a bomb plant by our t-side, which unfortunately got defused because of a messed up post plant situation. Two counter terrorists arranged themselves as human Kevlar vests to prevent their defusing teammate from dying. Thanks to the bomb-plant in the first round, our men had enough money to buy AKs in the third. Coldzera put his weapon to good use, took things into his hands and mustered up four nice kills to give him and his teammates their first round. Our money was reset after our men lost the ensuing round and even after our aimstars could buy full utility, they could not stop the strong retakes of the Polish pride. After dropping to a 1:6 disadvantage, things got rolling. Mid control was repeatedly enforced and we eventually negated the deficit. Seven consecutive round wins and only one additional round loss led to the halftime score of 8:7.

The pistol round was of great importance and luckily got picked up by our superstars. The first clash with full weapons took place at the score of 11:8. Coldzera and Taco pushed apartment but lost control of the situation, which led to the loss of the round. We rebuilt the old advantage, before dropping one more point against a force buy, which destroyed our economy. Contrary to the ct-performances on Mirage in the quarter- and semi-final, mid control was not established and the tie was inevitable. The team learned from its mistakes in the next round and got the pick in mid with a smart boost from underpass. After gaining back the lead, the advantage was given away because of a sloppy retake. As a result of that, each team stood at thirteen rounds and the Brazilians could only afford some pistols and UMPs. This little equipment was not enough to fight off the dynamic offense of the terrorists and our players possessed almost no money at a score of 13:14. The turn-around of the game was too much of a task and we lost 13:16.

Three weeks before, Virtus.pro eliminated us out of ELEAGUE Major Atlanta 2017 on Cobblestone (14:16) and Train (17:19) and we barely missed the opportunity to get revenge. It was a hard fought grand-final, which came down to details. Felps displayed great potential during his first LAN with the team and brings a new dynamic into the mix. It will be interesting to see how the team will grow and develop with more time together. We thank you for your support and hope you will check back for IEM Katowice 2017 in two weeks.

DreamHack Masters Las Vegas 2017 Final Standings:

1.

Virtus.pro - $200,000
2.

SK Gaming - $100,000
3-4.

Astralis Denmark - $25,000
3-4.

North - $25,000
5-8.