ESEA Invite Season 17 Global FinalsVirtus.pro survive OT battle vs iBP
Virtus.pro survive the de_inferno overtime battle against iBUYPOWER and go through to the upper bracket semi-finals after three maps (4-16 de_cache, 16-10 de_train, 25-22 de_inferno).
Virtus.pro and iBUYPOWER started off on the latter's pick, Cache, as the former chose the highly-favored Counter-Terrorist side. That did little to their success though, as the North American team picked up the pistol and the first gunround, after Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski missed the timing on Eric "adreN" Hoag in a one-on-one.
Filip "NEO" Kubski was able to clutch the second full-buy round in a one-on-two when iBUYPOWER ran a similar smoke-off strategy towards the A bombsite, but Virtus.pro's economy was shredded to pieces once again when iBUYPOWER changed things up with a quick middle takeover.
When the defending champions kept capitalizing on Virtus.pro's mistakes in early stages of the rounds, not even heroics of Paweł "byali" Bieliński and NEO in two of the remaining six rounds were much of help for the Poles mostly thanks to Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham's one-on-two and Nick "nitr0" Cannella's triple at the end of the half.
Going over with a 12-3 lead, iBUYPOWER put up a solid defence on the A bombsite in the second pistol with Keven "AZK" Lariviere's CZ-75 getting two entries, and he even extended to three more kills right afterwards map point.
Virtus.pro managed to hang on for a little bit, as they barely survived AZK's one-on-two, but thanks to adreN's money situation and him picking up an AWP in a save round, iBUYPOWER closed map one out at 16-4.
Switching over to Train, it was iBUYPOWER starting off as Counter-Terrorists, as it was interestingly enough Virtus.pro's pick, kicking the map off with a clean pistol round.
AZK stepped up when it was most needed
Virtus.pro managed to plant the bomb in both of the initial two rounds though, which helped them get back on track thanks to Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski's triple on upper with only Skadoodle remaining, saving an AWP.
He didn't hold onto it for too long, Virtus.pro continued to mow down iBUYPOWER's defences for three more rounds before AZK replied with a triple of his own. That on its own managed to put VP on an eco before adreN and AZK combined for four kills to tie the map at 5-5.
Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas's smart play in the following eco didn't pay off, but the bomb plant was enough for them to buy guns, that eventually had no success whatsoever on the lower bombsite.
iBUYPOWER kept racking up rounds thanks to the double-AWP setup and nitr0's one-on-two, up until the very last one in the half, when byali's last-second kill on the defuser gave Virtus.pro the sixth round.
With a won pistol, that was enough for them to tie it up again at 9-9, when it was once again byali putting up great performances, getting five kills in the following two gunrounds for 11-9.
Despite VP's mistake on lower, when they played agressively in an anti-eco, the team was still able to rack up more and more rounds on the defence with an AWP-autosniper setup. That worked up until map point, which was when NEO was left alone in a one-on-two, but he managed to carry his team to map three, Inferno.
There it was Virtus.pro who got off on the right foot with a quick 2-0 lead before adreN saved the day with an AK-47 that he stole from the previous round. Rounds kept going back and forth from there on until it was 6-4, when Virtus.pro abused iBUYPOWER's low defence on the B bombsite.
byali carried his team to victory
iBUYPOWER managed to hold on for the rest of the rounds though, as they got over to the other side with a 10-5 lead. Snax and pashaBiceps then combined for five in the last pistol of the series, but iBUYPOWER fought back right in the following eco. The defending champions then witnessed a scary eco from the Polish side, but still managed to come out on top at 13-6.
byali's triple from pit then saved VP once, and iBUYPOWER's attack in the last 20 seconds on B meant that byali and company were able to stop the plant. Virtus.pro were slowly getting back into the match round by round, even though they lost one in the process.
At 14-11, iBUYPOWER were forced on an eco, but their CZ-75 ensured that they'd still have a shot, which Braxton "swag" Pierce used to full potential and helped his team get to match point.
Virtus.pro didn't let themselves go at that point and continued to do what they were doing before, which iBUYPOWER couldn't find an answer to and the match went into overtime, thanks to TaZ's miraculous one-on-two towards the end of the half.
As if one overtime wasn't enough, when both teams got to two rounds as Counter-Terrorists and then failed to deliver in the last, we got two more before the winner was decided.
Even though AZK was very close to winning it all despite having only two health points in a one-on-four, Virtus.pro managed to pull through in the end as once they got to match point themselves, they didn't wait for anything and closed the series at 25-22.
Virtus.proK - D
+/-
ADR
KAST
Rating
73 - 66
+7
-
-
1.12
70 - 65
+5
-
-
1.04
62 - 68
-6
-
-
0.91
54 - 65
-11
-
-
0.83
41 - 69
-28
-
-
0.65
iBUYPOWERK - D
+/-
ADR
KAST
Rating
73 - 65
+8
-
-
1.09
66 - 62
+4
-
-
1.04
61 - 56
+5
-
-
1.01
66 - 59
+7
-
-
1.01
65 - 61
+4
-
-
0.98
Cloud9 up against mousesports will follow after this, while eLevate have already started their match against fnatic.
Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' Jarząbkowski
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