

The games proved to have a repeating, albeit it peculiar, theme as both teams put up lengthy runs on the terrorist side and it became a battle of execution to decide who would take home the crown. fnatic were often the team to respond, taking mouz's terrorist wave and then coming back with their own. In the decider, forge, the Swedes finally got the chance to start as terrorists and promptly put up their own lead and never trailed for the rest of the game.


-10:16 nuke (T 9:6 CT 1:10)
-16:13 inferno (T 12:3 CT 4:10)
-11:16 forge (CT 6:9 T 5:7)
Map one -


The first map saw mouz take the pistol round thanks to an initial surprise boost off the mini roof onto the CT catwalk, resulting in a kill on the CT player above ladder, suggesting gob b had a good idea of how fnatic would attempt to defend. mouz ran the score up to 3:0 before fnatic came back with a gun round win. mouz were not to be denied though and seemed to be in full offensive flow as they pushed the game to 7:1 and later 9:2 scores.
Just when the half looked to be completely out of control for the Swedes they mounted their own comeback to bring the score to 6:9 at the end of the half, taking four rounds in a row. One key round proved to be captain cArn's three kill round to hold the lower bombsite from the players attacking down from the ramp. He followed that up with an aggressive flash push through the hut on the last round, killing two immediately.
Nine rounds as terrorist should be enough for the vast majority of teams in a normal game but this series proved to be anything but normal. If mouz had looked impressive across most of the first half fnatic looked undeniable on their terrorist turn. The pistol round, despite a roman double nade kill, and a 3:0 lead of their own tied the game up. mouz followed fnatic's pattern from the first half winning the first gun round, off of a roman 1v2 clutch at upper as the bomb ticked away, and fnatic responded likewise with their own mouz impression as they too ran the game up to 7:1 on their terrorist side.
The key difference was that where mouz had been stopped and given up rounds at the end of the half fnatic kept going and seemed incapable of losing any clutch round scenarios. A crucial win came on the 23rd round of the game as Xizt won a 1v1 at upper vs. karrigan to keep his team rolling. The Swedes didn't lose another round and closed out the map 16:10 on an emphatic 10:1 T half.
Map two -


Starting out as terrorists on inferno mouz put the nuke loss behind them and once more look to be a force on the offensive side. Four kills from roman won them the pistol round but their 2:0 lead was temporarily halted by fnatic in the third. That lead was then pushed to 4:1 though before Friis pulled out a number of kills with his AWP, as the only fnatic member with a gun, to snatch one back for the Swedish team. mouz rolled on to a 9:2 lead, varying up attacks from A early on to B later.
On the 12th round Friis again clawed a round back for fnatic, this time sneaking into the A site on a 1v3 and after killing one player successfully defusing the bomb due to the other two mouz players having moved out to hunt for him. These fnatic rounds looked like mere speedbumps along the way though and mouz continued on to a dominant 12:3 first half score.
fnatic again came back with their own display of terrorist prowess. Friis won a 1v2 in B to give them the pistol round and from there they ran off four more rounds to make the score 12:8 for mouz overall. Three karrigan kills gave mouz a round win but then fnatic snapped five straight rounds off, even with a mouz timeout in-between, to make the game 13:13 overall and put mouz's feet to the flames, their huge lead having disappeared.
In an interesting side-note mouz again and again managed to stack the site which fnatic ended up heading to on eco rounds, showing excellent reading ability and prediction from gob b, but was never able to win any of those rounds.
After fnatic finally eliminated mouz's lead on the overall score they found themselves on the wrong end of the closing stanza of the half. mouz took all three rounds to knot the series at a map a piece and head into forge for all the marbles. On the 27ths round a 2v2 went the Germans' way after two zonixx kills. The 28th round was a flawless victory and the 29th sealed the deal after a 3v3 turned into three mouz players left standing and the server switching maps.
Map three -


mouz took their third pistol round of the series as they held B. That turned into a 4:0 lead on the CT side but then fnatic got completely rolling. Nine straight fnatic rounds had mouz in very hot water in a deciding map which looked to be headed out of their hands. The Swedes were able to find success in both sites and even the Germans snatching back the final two rounds still put the mouz lineup in a pressure-packed situation.
Winning their fourth pistol round alleviated a little of that pressure, temporarily, and the team ran off two more to get the score evened at 9:9. karrigan kill two but could not kill the third in a 1v3 and fnatic took the lead again. mouz took the next two and at 11:10 a timeout was called, presumably by fnatic. When they came back to the game the Swedes won all the remaining rounds and the IEM VI Guangzhou title. The 24th round was crucial as two kills from cArn in a 2v2 prevented mouz from tying the game, and forced them to eco on the next round.
Man of the match was likely Friis from fnatic, the Dane making himself stand out from his team-mates with numerous round wins and even solid kills on fnatic's losing inferno effort. Gux seemed to be headed towards the MVP for the event in the group stage but he blended into the background of the final. For mouz their own Dane, karrigan, provided a lot of the highlight plays of the game. In particular his AWP battle with Friis as the former was T and the latter CT helped to spur mouz back into the series.
1st

2nd

3rd

4th

(Photograph copyright of ESL)

Thorin
@Thooorin on twitter.
http://www.facebook.com/Thooorin
Esports journalism
Professional:
2001-2002 Pro-cybernews (Editor-in-Chief)
2002-2003 Gamers.nu (Lead Editor)
2004-2005 ESportsEA (Editor-in-Chief, Consultant)
2006-2008 ESportsEA (Editor, Community feature host)
2008 TAO-CS volume 1 (Co-author)
2008 TAO-fRoD (Co-author)
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2009-2012 SK Gaming (Editor-in-Chief)
2012-2013 Team Acer (Editor-in-Chief)
2013-2014 OnGamers (Senior eSports Content Creator)
Pro bono publico:
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2012-2013 fragbite (Blogger)
2013-XXXX [POD]Cast (Co-host)
CS movies:
2005 Down with the s1ckn3ss
2006 T01_natu
2009 fRoD Quick and nasty (part 1)
Events attended for coverage purposes:
2001 CPL London (Pro-cybernews)
2001 WCG Qualifier (Pro-cybernews)
2002 CPL Summer (Gamers.nu)
2002 WCG Qualifier (Gamers.nu)
2002 CPL Oslo (Gamers.nu)
2002 CPL Winter (Gamers.nu)
2003 CPL Cannes (Gamers.nu)
2003 Clikarena (Gamers.nu)
2004 CPL Winter (ESportsEA)
2009 WEM (SK Gaming)
2010 IEM IV European Championship (SK Gaming)
2010 IEM IV World Championship (SK Gaming)
2010 Arbalet Best of Four (SK Gaming)
2010 Arbalet Cup Europe (SK Gaming)
2010 e-Stars Seoul (SK Gaming)
2010 WCG (SK Gaming)
2010 WEM (SK Gaming)
2011 IEM V European Championship (SK Gaming)
2011 Assembly Winter (SK Gaming)
2011 IEM V World Championship (SK Gaming)
2011 Copenhagen Games (SK Gaming)
2011 Dreamhack Summer (SK Gaming)
2011 SK vs. FX showmatch (SK Gaming)
2011 e-Stars Seoul (SK Gaming)
2011 ESWC (SK Gaming)
2012 IEM VI Kiev (SK Gaming)
2012 IEM VI World Championship (SK Gaming)
2012 WCS Europe (Team Acer)
2012 Dreamhack Open Valencia (Team Acer)
2012 Dreamhack Winter (Team Acer)
2012 IPL5 (Team Acer)
2012 HomeStory Cup VI (Team Acer)
2013 IEM VII World Championship (Team Acer)
2013 MLG Winter Championship (Team Acer)
2013 LCS Europe Spring Week 10 (Team Acer)
2013 WCS EU S1 Ro16 (Team Acer)
2013 LCS Europe Summer Week 9 (Team Acer)
2013 WCS EU S2 final / LCS Europe Summer playoffs (Team Acer)
2013 Riot S3 World Championship (Team Acer)
2013 Battle of the Atlantic (OnGamers)
2013 Battle of the Atlantic (OnGamers)
2014 LCS Europe Spring Week 5 (OnGamers)
Esports commentary/analysis
Professional:
2010 IEM IV European Championship (ESL-TV)
2010 IEM IV Asian Finals (ESL-TV)
2010 IEM IV World Championship (ESL-TV)
2010 IEM V Shanghai (ESL-TV)
2011 ESEA-invite S8 (WinOut)
2011 GameGune (WinOut)
2011 SEC (WinOut)
2013 Dreamhack SteelSeries CS:GO Championship (DH-TV)
2014 Dreamhack Steelseries CS:GO Invitational (DH-TV)
2014 Dreamhack Summer (DH-TV)
2014 Gfinity G3
2014 Dreamhack Stockholm CS:GO Invitational (DH-TV)
Pro bono publico:
2010 ESWC (lvl^)
2010 Arbalet Cup Dallas (lvl^)
2010 GameGune (lvl^)
2010 fnatic PLAY (lvl^)
2010 WCG Nordic (SK Gaming)
2011 Dreamhack Winter BEAT IT (whisenhunt)
2011 EPS Winter (whisenhunt/ESL-TV)
2011 WCG (whisenhunt)
2011 IEM VI Kiev EU qualifier (SK Gaming)
2013 FACEIT Sunday Cup April 28th (FACEIT)
2013 Prague Challenge (District)
2013 FACEIT Sunday Cup September 8th (FACEIT)
2013 FACEIT Monday Cup September 9th (FACEIT)
2014 ESEA Invite S15 LAN finals (NiPTV)
Miscellaneous:
* Winner of the Heaven Media 'E-sports Journalist of the year' awards for 2012 and 2013.


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