IEM VI Kyiv: fnatic and M5 advance
The first match of the group was between Moscow Five and
Mousesports which saw both teams exchange rounds, with no obvious winner from the start.
M5 started as the terrorists on nuke, which saw them pick up a respectable 9 rounds first half. As the two teams went into second half, it was unclear who would take the pistol round, with mouz just about managing to pick it up thanks to
Fatih ‘gob b’ Dayik picking up a headshot on
Eduard ‘ed1k’ Ivanov in the 1v1 situation, making the situation look slightly better for the Germans. It didn’t take long for
mouz to get back to even rounds having won the pistol, which then saw both teams fighting it out exchanging rounds until the map finished 15-15.
The draw for Mousesports made their match against
fnatic slightly more important for them to advance, however the German side saw the full force of
fnatic, largely due to great play from
Michael ‘Friis’ Jørgensen who barely missed a shot and managed a number of momentous rounds with his AWP. The first half ended 12-3 in favour of the Swedes, with
mouz managing to take the second half pistol and the first three rounds. These would be the only rounds taken for them however, as
fnatic managed to get back in their stride to end inferno 16-6.
The decider for who placed first in the group came down to a faceoff between fnatic and
Moscow Five on train. M5 managed to pick up the knife round and decided to start the generally easier CT side. The pistol round went to fnatic, which saw them start promisingly as the favourites to win the match as they picked up the first few rounds, and it didn’t take them long to go 5-1 up. Eventually M5 decided to wake up and fight back taking the score to 7-6, but this wasn’t enough as they weren’t able to pick up the final rounds of the first half as fnatic took the lead 9-6. Second half saw M5 switch to terrorist as they appeared to finally find their momentum, winning the pistol and the next six rounds in a row making it look as if M5 may actually take the map. After going 6-0 up, things suddenly turned bad for the Russians as fnatic finally fought back, dominating them round after round until they gained the seven rounds needed consecutively to take de_train, placing them first in the group with M5 second.
Group B Results
fnatic 16:6
Mousesports
fnatic 16:12
WinFakt
fnatic 16:12
Moscow Five
Moscow Five 16:8
WinFakt
Moscow Five 15:15
Mousesports
WinFakt 16:4
Mousesports
Semi-final matches fnatic vs.
Natus Vincere
Moscow Five vs.
SK Gaming
The semi-finals are scheduled to start tomorrow, and will see fnatic, M5, SK and Na`Vi all compete for part of the $40,000 prize purse.