dignitas, Virtus secure CEVO wins

The second pair of matches at the CEVO Finals began with a mouth-watering clash between North American hopefuls Team Liquid, who are looking to bounce back after their group stage exit at the Cluj major, and Danish side dignitas, who are still adjusting to life with Jesper "⁠TENZKI⁠" Plougmann.

A flying start from dignitas on the CT side of de_train saw them take the opening nine rounds of the game as Liquid struggled to break through the Danes' defense. The home side still attempted a response, but all they accomplished was just two rounds, leaving them with the uphill task of overcoming a massive deficit. In the second half, Liquid came out the better of the two sides, but dignitas regained control of the game in gun rounds and picked up a 16-8 victory.

dignitas advance to the group's Upper Bracket final

Next up was de_cobblestone, a map where the opening stages were highly contested as neither side could stamp their authority on the game. However, Liquid dominated the late game, which allowed them to take a convincing 10-5 lead into the second half.

After the restart, dignitas pulled back by winning the pistol round, only to see Liquid respond in the following eco. However, Spencer "⁠Hiko⁠" Martin's men were unable to build on that round win, which really hurt their economy. Powered by a great display from Jacob "⁠Pimp⁠" Winneche, the Danish team would win nine of the next 11 rounds to seal a 16-13 success and a 2-0 overall victory.

Meanwhile, Virtus.pro, who are keen to get back to winning ways following a top-eight finish in Cluj-Napoca, were pitted against Team Conquest, who are attending their first event with Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz as their new fifth player. Starting off on the CT side of de_train, Virtus.pro carved out a significant 9-6 lead as they were able to keep Conquest at bay for most of the half. The second half started with Virtus.pro enlarging their lead by winning the opening pistol rounds, and even though the first gun run would go Conquest's way, the North American team never had any real chance to overcome the huge deficit they had.

Virtus.pro survived a hard-fought game against Conquest 

The following map was de_inferno, where Conquest got off to a fantastic start, taking a 9-2 lead. Virtus.pro would be able to bring the scoreline to 6-9 at the end of the half, but Conquest looked really strong during the early stages of the second half and built a significant 15-9 lead. The map looked like it was all but over, but Virtus.pro crawled back into the game and forced an overtime, in which they outplayed their opponents.