Virtus.pro win EPS Poland S8

The ESL Pro Series Poland Season 8 finals, hosted in the M1 Shopping Center in Kraków, saw the top four teams from the group stage vying for a piece of the 10,000 PLN pot.

Though Virtus.pro, the defending champions, were the clear favourites, their results in recent tournaments had some doubting their ability to retain the title.

The semi-finals went some way to assuaging those doubts, however, as Virtus defeated RedWinged 2-0, with a win on their favoured map de_mirage (16-11), and an almost-flawless victory on de_inferno (16-1).

ESC's road to the final was less straightforward. Despite an impressive first map (16-1 on de_train), ALSEN quickly turned the tables, winning 4-16 on de_dust2. ESC persevered, though, winning the deciding map, de_mirage, 16-9 to secure their place in the finals.

In the finals, Virtus were the clear favourites to win, but that didn’t stop ESC from putting up a decent fight. On each map, rounds were traded back and forth (and at one point on de_mirage, ESC even managed to build a lead), but ultimately Virtus.pro proved too strong, pulling away in the last few rounds of both maps to take the series in a clean sweep.

Virtus.pro	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating1.0
Paweł 'byali' Bielińskibyali	62 - 32	+30	-	-	1.66
Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskipashaBiceps	42 - 41	+1	-	-	1.05
Filip 'NEO' KubskiNEO	41 - 34	+7	-	-	1.00
Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasTaZ	35 - 36	-1	-	-	0.96
Janusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiSnax	33 - 32	+1	-	-	0.93

ESC	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating1.0
Michał 'MICHU' MüllerMICHU	46 - 46	0	-	-	1.02
Jacek 'MINISE' JeziakMINISE	38 - 45	-7	-	-	0.85
Grzegorz 'SZPERO' DziamałekSZPERO	32 - 41	-9	-	-	0.81
Paweł 'innocent' Mocekinnocent	33 - 43	-10	-	-	0.81
Mikołaj 'mouz' Karolewskimouz	24 - 38	-14	-	-	0.67

The battle for third place saw ALSEN persevere against RedWinged with a final score of 2-0 (16-14 on de_mirage, 16-12 on de_inferno) to win 1500 PLN (€360).

EPS Poland Season 8 final standings:

Virtus.pro – 5,000 PLN (€1,200)
ESC Gaming – 2,500 PLN (€600)
ALSEN – 1,500 PLN (€360)
RedWinged – 1000 PLN (€240)

If you want to see more of Virtus.pro or ESC Gaming, be sure to follow their progress in SLTV StarSeries season X, where they'll be competing with the fourteen other teams for a share of the $30,000 prize pool, with all of it being covered right here on HLTV.org.